Around the Abbey

Back to the Ordinary

It’s Ordinary Time again. But… is that OK, to be ordinary?

“The organization of the monastery is directed to bringing the nuns into close union with
Christ, since it is only through the experience of personal love for the Lord Jesus that the
specific gifts of the Cistercian vocation can flower. Only if the sisters prefer nothing whatever
to Christ will they be happy to persevere in a life that is ordinary, obscure and laborious. And
may he lead them all together into eternal life.”

Constitutions of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance 3.5

From chopping apples for another pot of sauce, to practicing organ for another round of liturgy, to receiving another smile from a sister in the cloister, we think yes.

Yes it’s OK to be as obscure as midwinter moss, as laborious as living with illness, as ordinary as everyday-unto-eternity grace.