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Glen,

Thank you for this thoughtful piece. Like you I was intrigued by the Trappists and made trial of the life back in the day, in 1965. Unfortunately, I entered only 15 mos after a major reversion from atheism and a bad life. So, as a spiritual weakling I found myself thrown among the Marines of the Church. While I lasted, however, it was a beautiful life.

As you may know, the Trappists were a reform movement of the Cistercian order, a reform that began with Abbot Armand-Jean de Rancé at Our Lady of La Trappe in France around 1660. Every monastery of the Strict Observance in the world today traces to that monastery and that man. A reform was necessary for there was a falling off of Cistercian fervor over the centuries.

By this point, however, early 2022, the same sort of dynamic has long been in play. Even in 1965 I heard nothing of de Rancé and was given to understand that the order was casting off the Trappist, heavily penitential model in order to revert to what was presented as primitive, contemplative, Cistercian life. This naturally involved innumerable mitigations to the point where as Cistercian as the order may believe itself to be, it is surely no longer Trappist. At least in my opinion the blessing of God is off the order for that reason, for while the life continues to be penitential to a degree, it has been softened considerably. To have newspapers and magazines in the scriptorium would have been unthinkable, but is alright now. Want to pop down to the local library? Or fly across the country to preside at your niece’s wedding? Fine. Are these things evil? Of course not, but they neither are they Trappist or Cistercian.

As I said, I heard nothing of de Rancé in the novitiate, so when I stumbled across his two volume On the Sanctity and Duties of the Monastic State for sale on the internet, I scooped them up. They came very beat-up with a copyright of 1830 and markings from Gethsemane Abbey, which had evidently thrown them out, probably a long time ago.

There was no way I was not going to re-publish this treasure, and it is available now on Amazon in two volumes under the title Back to Asceticism: The Trappist Option. In conjunction with this I also re-published Ailbe Luddy’s The Real de Rancé.

Financially, this has definitely not been worthwhile, but the great hope is that some fervent soul will discover these gems and use them as a template for his own efforts. Yes, may the Lord fan into flame the Cistercian/ Trappist tradition once again!

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Lee, I find your comment most interesting. I do not know that history but only of the origins of the order in the late 11th century at Citeaux and then, of course, the story of St. Bernard. In Brian Patrick McGuire's biography of St. Bernard, there is a map of all the monasteries founded during his life with La Trappe far away from the centre of things. I wondered how La Trappe played into the development of the order, and you have explained that. The Trappists are called the Cistercians of the Strict Observance which indicates that they are a reform movement within the broader Cistercian community. But I knew nothing of that history and have never previously heard of Abbot de Rance. As for myself, I don't know if I was ever serious about joining the order, but I was curious. I do remember the newspapers in the scriptorium. I was also shocked that the monks knew who I was. I had spent four years as editor of the Western Catholic Reporter in Edmonton, a position to which I returned after moving back to Edmonton from Winnipeg.

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