HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BE A LAY CISTERCIAN?

The world has seduced us into thinking that everything is measured by how much some things cost. I ran into a similar situation when I had the affrontery to suggest that science is a closed system. The words we use to describe what is around us carry different weights for each person. Each person hears the word, “God” with the totality of who they are during their life journey. Words like “Faith” “belief system,” and scientific thought, all are based on what that experience has been for them. You know you have an opponent when their response is more cussing than discussion. It probably means they have no answer for it or don’t know what you mean but are too proud to say they don’t know.

Everything we do, every action, even each thought, has consequences. That is what I mean by the idea of cost. Here are some of my ideas.

• How much does it cost to be Catholic? You have to die to yourself and make a commitment to love others as Christ loved you.
• How much does it cost to be a Lay Cistercian? You must believe that you are a sinner and throw yourself on God’s mercy by placing yourself in the presence of Christ through Cistercian practices and charisms.
• This is the meaning of the Widow’s Mite in Scripture. Money is not the measuring stick.
• Heaven is God’s playground and if you want to play in his sandbox, you have to say, “Please.”
• Only the rich get to heaven; you must take God’s riches there and not your own.

uiodg