WHAT IS A CHARISM?

The following items I found in a book by the late Father Anthony Delisi, OCSO, a monk of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit.  He writes in this book about Cistercian charisms, What makes a Cistercian Monk? His book is taken from a series of weekly Chapter meetings he presented to monks from 2003-2004. He offers these refections to Lay Cistercians to help them define what it means to seek God in the world and not in a monastery.

What is a charism? He defines a charism as that something that makes a monk. The following areas of formation, leading to transformation, are charisms that monks try to have in themselves. Some of them are:

Foundations of the Cistercian Monastery

• Nothing is to be preferred to the work of God
• Faith in the rule of St. Benedict
• Respect and Love for one another
• The Stability of the Rule
• Respect your Elders, Love the Young

Charisms of the Strict Order Observance Cistercians (OCSO)

• Early Rising
• Encountering the Presence of God Especially at Divine Office
• The Psalms as Song and Prayer of the Monks
• Lectio Divina
• Contemplative Prayer
• Silence in Contemplative Prayer
• Why do we need solitude?
• Treasuring Cistercian simplicity
• Living by the work of our hands
• Embracing the torch of obedience
• Stability and Community
• The gift of celibacy
• Living in Community
• Amore Christi–the love of Christ
• Conversion of manners (life)
• Humility
• Patience
• Balance

Not all of these charisms are appropriate for Lay Cistercians, but many of them are.  We use five: silence, solitude, pray, work, and community as cornerstones and try to implement the rest of them as we can.

See: https://thecenterforcontemplativepractice.org for my blog on contemplative practice.

See www.trappist.net to see the Monastery of the Holy Spirit and look under Lay Cistercians.

UIODG