Hope

We are the Body of Christ. We live in hope and are saved in hope. Our exaltation – what lifts us up – is this gift of hope, “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul…” By hope we are called, urged, and enabled to follow where our Head has gone.

This gift of hope is a key to our vocation as Trappist monks. Our call is to follow Christ in our longing and desire; to reach in behind the veil where Our Lord is seated at the Father’s side; to keep alive the longing for heaven among the People of God. And we have guides to strengthen our hope: all the words of our holy father St. Benedict and the example of our Fathers of Citeaux. We also have St. Paul’s admonitions as a stimulus to hope: to live “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace…”

Our vocation calls us to be signs of hope like Our Lady. As Lumen Gentium puts it: Mary shines forth “…as a sign of sure hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God…” 

Excerpts from Father Vincent's homily for Ascension Thursday.