Among the abbots who
ratified the Charter of Charity was the
thirty-three-year-old abbot of Clairvaux, Bernard–a man whose
reputation for holiness and wisdom was rapidly growing. His ability
as a preacher and writer was also being recognized. It was Bernard,
along with his disciples, William of Saint Thierry, Guerric of Igny
and Aelred of Rievaulx and other early abbots, who gradually
articulated a rich theological basis for the spirituality of the
Cistercians. Perhaps nowhere is it expressed so succinctly and
beautifully as in Bernard's letter to the monks of the abbey of
Saint John in the Alps:
"Our vocation is to take the lowest place, it is
the way of humility, voluntary poverty, obedience and joy in the
Holy Spirit. Our vocation is to be under a master, under an abbot,
under a rule, under discipline. Our vocation is to cultivate
silence, to exert ourselves in fasts, vigils, prayers, manual
labour and above all to keep to that more excellent way which is
the way of love, to advance day by day in these things and
persevere in them until the last day".
