These are so great! Thank you, Br. Steven. 

Sr. Madeleine Sophie 

On Sat, Aug 17, 2024 at 7:10 PM Steven Olderr <olderr@ameritech.net> wrote:

Dear Abbess, Brothers & Sisters,

Got a family gathering tomorrow and don't think I'll be able to make the discussion, much as I would like to.  At rate, here are the Conversatio Morum quotations I unearthed for my unpublished Subject Guide to Monastic Quotations.  I hope it may be of some help to somebody.

Br. Steven

Conversatio Morum

UF Monastic Lifestyle

BT Benedictine Vows; Rule of Benedict

RT Conversion

Because Christian monasticism is based on Christ’s own way of life, monastic practices serve as coupling devices between the Savior and the monk or nun.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

Benedictine and Cistercian spirituality, unlike some non-Christian monastic traditions, puts the emphasis on the monk’s general way of life more than on detailed bodily or mental disciplines.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

By the vow of conversatio morum or fidelity to monastic life a brother who, in the simplicity of his heart, seeks God by the following of the Gospel, binds himself to the practice of Cistercian discipline.  He retains nothing at all for himself, not even authority over his own body.  He renounces the capacity of acquiring and possessing goods for himself.  For the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, he makes profession of perfect continence and celibacy.  Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (Trappists); Constitution and Statutes of the Monks

 

Conversatio means manner of life, habitual way of acting, conduct, but conversatio morum suorum is either clumsy or meaningless—the manner of life of one’s morals!  No wonder it was changed to conversion of manners.  But in 1959 Dom Basil Steidle of Beuron gave a satisfactory solution to the problem: the puzzling term was a low Latin idiom of St. Benedict’s time, a “genitive of identity,” and it meant “his manner of life and moral conduct, or his manner of life, that is, his moral conduct.” Dom Wulstan Mork, OSB; Benedictine Way

 

Conversatio morum does not mean only the interior, spiritual, or moral life of each member of the community.  It means a life of service and refers more directly to the external life of monastic discipline.  Better still, it is the life of monastic discipline in its true spiritual dimension, that is the observances of one’s own monastery used as a precious instrument to encounter God, serve him, purify the heart and grow into the likeness of Christ.  This is the service to which St. Benedict refers when he states, “We intend to establish a school for the Lord’s service.” It is the imitation of Christ, “who did not come to be served but to serve.”  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

Conversatio morum is inseparable from stability.  While some Benedictines still translate this Latin phrase as “conversion,” most of us prefer to keep the Latin words, since there is no satisfactory simple English equivalent.  Conversion—especially religious conversion—suggests a major change in direction, even a reversal.  Conversatio morum promises fidelity to a way of life and behavior in a community that is on the move.  Sr. Verna Holyhead, SGS; Gifts from St. Benedict; www.benedictineoblates.com

 

Conversatio morum means that we promise to work through self-renunciation toward the fullness of the love of Christ.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

Conversatio morum refers to the way of life which corresponds to the monastic calling.  It is a dynamic reality, in which both personal conversion and community observances play their part. The result is monastic behavior: a joyful, obedient, persevering fidelity to the monastic way of life in the community that lives in this monastery.  Taken in this sense, “fidelity to monastic life” seems to express more clearly than many other possible rendering the rich interplay of the two poles of reference which are involved in monastic existence, namely, the human person consecrated in Baptism and the objective observances of the monastery as expressions of the following of Christ. Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

Each monastic observance: fasting, silence, reading, labor, etc., has as its function to purify the heart of vices and self-love, to free it from passion and raise us to the perfection of charity.  Fr. Thomas Merton, OCSO (1915-1968); Cassian and the Fathers

 

Every day we monks live important spiritual practices, such as stability, attentiveness or mindfulness, meditation, silence, prayer, obedience, purity of heart, simplicity, openness and many others. But lectio divina is the center of our monastic life. Monastic practices are not simply something to do. They are dimensions of the Spirit. Fr. Alessandro Barban, O. Cam.; "Lectio Divina and monastic theology in Camaldolese Life,” in The Privilege of Love

 

Faithfulness to the monastic way of life or conversatio morum suorum is also translated as conversion of life. This is a commitment to follow monastic observances into a transformation of inner and outer self with a goal of purity of heart. Sr. Laura Swan, OSB; The Benedictine Tradition

 

Fidelity to the monastic way of life is closely related to zeal for the Kingdom of God and for the salvation of the whole human race.  Monks bear this apostolic concern in their hearts.  It is the contemplative life itself that is their way of participating in the mission of Christ and his Church and of being part of the local church.  This is why they cannot be called upon to render assistance in the various pastoral ministries or in any external activity, no matter how urgent the needs of the active apostolate.  Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (Trappists); Constitution and Statutes of the Monks

 

For Benedict, stability, fidelity to the monastic lifestyle and obedience were really just parts of one intention: to be a good monk. . . .  We make our promises before God, and it is he whom we offend if we do not hold fast to them.  Fr. Terrence Kardong, OSB; Day by Day with St. Benedict

 

For St. Benedict in particular, the whole life which he outlines and for which he legislates in his Rule is the monk’s conversatio, his chosen way of growth in the following of Christ.  By it, the monk hopes to purify his heart in dependence on the Master and thus “deserve to share in his kingdom.”  This way of life, modeled above all on the first Christian community, is so important for St. Benedict that he makes it the object of the monk’s principal commitment at the time of profession.  By his solemn promise of conversatio [morum], each brother pledges fidelity to the apostolic life described in the Rule and in monastic tradition as a whole.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

If the body or framework of monastic life consists in its essential practices—solitude, silence, lectio divina, divine worship, austerity, common life, work, and the like—its soul is found in Christian humility, that is, in the humble Christ.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

In monastic formation . . . one begins with exterior practices which form an atmosphere in which the interior practice can grow.  Fr. Thomas Merton, OCSO (1915-1968); Cassian and the Fathers

In the past, this problematic Latin phrase [conversatio morum] has been translated as “conversion of life” (RB 58:17).  A more accurate translation is “fidelity to the monastic life.”  Abbot Andrew Marr, OSB; Tools for Peace

 

Inner transformation is implied in making our own the Easter mystery and letting it purify our heart.  That is why the monk’s conversatio, his way of life, is ultimately subordinated to his conversio, his personal conversion to Christ.  The monastic vocation is a call to sound the depths of Christian conversion.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

It is important to realize the conversatio morum implies an internalization not only of a way of life, but of Christ himself.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

It is proper for us to practice those things which follow after such as fasts, vigils, solitude, and meditation on the Scriptures, for the sake of the main goal, purity of heart, which is charity and not disturb this main virtue on their account.  So long as this is whole in us, and endures unhurt, it will do no harm if some of these secondary practices should be omitted out of necessity.  Abba Abraham (fl. 5^th Cent.); In Cassian and the Fathers, by Thomas Merton

 

Just as the human soul does not emerge mechanically from the body, but comes spiritually from outside by a special creation of God, so also the observances merely form a favorable environment in which the spirit of God tends to have fewer obstacles in transforming the human heart.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

Monastic observance promotes trust in the certainty of the Father’s kingdom, which expands through lectio into increasing sensitivity to the divine Word and bears fruit through humility in deeper dependence on the action of the Holy Spirit.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

Monastic observances integrate the monk’s body into Christ’s way of life.  Lectio divina integrates human intellectual activity into the prayer of Christ in order to have the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16).  Humility of heart conforms the human spirit to the “meek and humble” heart of the savior (Mt 11:29) and disposes the whole person for becoming “one spirit with him” (1 Cor 6:17).  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

Monastic spirituality is especially traditional and depends much on return to sources—Scripture, liturgy, Fathers of the Church.  More than other religious, the monk is a man who is nourished at the early sources.  A return to tradition does not mean trying to revive, in all its details, the life lived by the early monks, or trying to do all the things that they did.  But it means living in our times and solving the problems of our time in the way and with the spirit in which they lived in a different time and solved different problems.  Fr. Thomas Merton, OCSO (1915-1968); Cassian and the Fathers

Monasticism is primarily a lifestyle, not a philosophy.  Fr. Terrence Kardong, OSB; Day by Day with St. Benedict

 

Since the basic monastic observances flow from the following of Christ and imitate the most interpersonal aspects of his inner experience, they are faith in action, the visible face of the Christian experience.  This helps to explain why the faith of many lay Christians and priest is strengthened by their contact with a monastic community.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

Spiritual life practices as such have to be seen as a mere means to the end of union with God.  Still, it has to be insisted that monasticism is very much a set of practices—and not a set of ideas.  There is something inherently concrete about monasticism; it must be done, not merely talked about.  Furthermore, even though monastic practices have symbolic value, it is almost impossible to disentangle the letter from the spirit.  We can also note that in many cases, the practice must come before the understanding.  That is, before one has practiced something like silence, one does not know what it is.  Only when we have done it can we know what it means.  Fr. Terrence Kardong, OSB; Day by Day with St. Benedict

 

Thanks to the promise of fidelity (conversatio morum), the main purpose, in fact the only purpose, of the monk’s state of life is made explicit.  It is to enter fully into the life of Christ and to let the power of the spirit of Christ govern human existence.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

The monastic life for St. Benedict and Cassian consists in a life of constant struggle against the habits of the world, the vices, the passions, everything that can draw us away from God, a life of continual effort to acquire virtues.  Dom P. Schmitz; Histoire de l’Ordre de Saint Benoît

The monastic style of life that evolved in the West after the Desert Fathers and St. Benedict is supported by a triple base. Sacred reading, manual work, and liturgical prayer constitutes a threefold footing of our daily life. The personal stability of each monk or nun in the monastic vocation depends in part on this triadic foundation. Fr. Charles Cummings, OCSO; Monastic Practices

 

The monk chooses a life that is gently but firmly ordered by a rule so that he can expect day to follow upon day with the steady, simple, yet awesome rhythm of a monastic cloister.  His home, its garden enclosed, its cloister walks, its church of austere beauty, its modest cells—all seek to leave his life uncluttered, free, supported in singleness of direction—designed to leave all the doors to the Divine wide open so that the deifying light may enter unhindered.  Fr. M. Basil Pennington, OCSO (1931-2005); Monastic Way

 

The vow conversatio morum means the monastic life according to the Rule of St. Benedict.  The reason why I present it in the original Latin is that for almost twelve hundred years Benedictines have been professing something else – conversio morum – which means the conversion of one’s morals and manners.  St. Benedict says the monk who is making his profession promises stability, conversatione morum suorum, and obedience.  Some two hundred years after St. Benedict it was difficult to understand just what he meant by this expression, so copyists changed it to conversione morum suorum.  In recent times critical editions of the Rule have restored the original to the text, beginning with that of Abbot Butler in 1912, and scholars have debated its meaning ever since.  Dom Wulstan Mork, OSB; Benedictine Way

 

The vow of fidelity to monastic life is ordered to a real inner transformation in Christ through love. . . .  The life of Jesus, crucified and glorified, which is the center of your soul through faith and baptism, gives you this new force of inner unity, far stronger than any merely psychological technique.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

Understand that the monk’s solemn promise of conversatio morum refers to St. Benedict’s version apostolic life, that is, to the Christian cenobitic life described in his Rule.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

What matters most in fidelity to monastic life is purity of heart: the love of Christ with its correlative, the renouncement of myself, and both of these realities blossoming into a spontaneous compassion for my neighbor, especially for those with whom I live.  This is the purpose of all that we do.  We can renounce everything in the world and follow the monastic observances with precision, but it will profit us nothing without the renouncement of ourselves.  In fact, the observances will do us much harm, rooting in us the most dangerous form of pride, namely, religious pride.  Fr. Augustine Roberts, OCSO; Centered on Christ: A Guide to Monastic Profession

 

On Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 05:08:43 PM CDT, suly robinson <sulyrobinson@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Abbess, Sisters and Brothers,

Just a friendly reminder that we will have our Summer Study Discussion Session tomorrow on Conversatio Morum Suorum. Again we will have two times from which you can choose. 

4 p.m. Central Time, (5 ET, 3 MT, 2 PT, 6 Brazil) 

or

4 p.m. Pacific Time (5 MT, 6 CT, 7 ET, 8 Brazil)

We will meet in the CSL's Vespers Zoom Room.

Room Number: 301 283 7078

Passcode: 332929

I will not be able to attend the 4 p.m. CT session, because of a family obligation. Thank you, Br. William Marion, for facilitating that session. 

Blessings!

Sr. Genevieve Lynn

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