May 3, 2025 — 200th Anniversary of Spencer's Founding
Brothers and sisters,
The history of this community made me read Thomas Merton's book again with its beautiful and meaningful title: 'The Waters of Siloe'. In this book, published in 1949, Merton shows the reader how much the world needs contemplative monasteries, particularly Trappist ones. These are like the Waters of Siloe from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The waters 'that flows in silence' which flow softly and quietly, bringing peace to a restless world. 'These are the waters which the world does not know, because it prefers the water of bitterness and contradiction.'
One of those streams that gently flows through this world is this community of St. Joseph's Abbey, which started at Petit Clairvaux, went further to Rhode Island and now here on this site. Your 200-year history has shown how this water stream sometimes flows gently forward, but sometimes it was also the overwhelming noise of turbulent water. At the beginning of your history stands a man about whom Merton testifies: "Monks do not easily give up their ideals, once they have a good grip on them, and one of the most tenacious Trappists that ever lived was Father Vincent de Paul Merle."
With perseverance, Father Vincent de Paul Merle searched until he could tap into the silent waters of Siloe and let them flow out in his community of Petit Clairvaux. Two hundred years later, these waters still flow quietly here in this place. This perseverance in the ideal, through the everyday reality with its highs and lows, colors your community to this day. You show that Cistercian life is not about ideal and reality as two separate elements but about an ideal lived in reality and a reality lived in the ideal.
In addition to this tenacious perseverance, the life of your founder and all the monks after him can be well summarized in the opening sentence of the second reading: 'Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another,... All these monks have put on the new man, Christ Jesus Himself. These qualities have become the foundation of your community. You could probably name each monk from that long list who had the gift of heartfelt compassion or the gift of kindness, etc. These monks have built your community on the cornerstone that is Christ Jesus himself. The aim of every Cistercian monk or nun, every community is to let shine all these characteristics of Christ into this world. Like a flame of hope! A song to God.
When you read the Rule of St. Benedict, it sometimes seems that the only sound coming from the community is grumbling, murmuring. St. Benedict is so allergic to this false sound because he, like St. Paul, expects only 'psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs' to come from the mouth of the community, 'giving thanks to God the Father through Him.' Why does Paul mention three different kinds of spiritual songs here? Is this not a beautiful, implicit reference to the fact that every bird sings its own song, in other words, the principle of unity in diversity.
A community is not only built in the past with different character traits all referring to Jesus Christ. A community is also called today to sing the one song of praise in unity and diversity, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. This is the only way in which the future will open itself in the present reality of today.
When St. Bernard described the community of Clairvaux, he saw a brother weeping for his sins here and a brother rejoicing in the praise of God there, another easing the needs of all and another teaching the others. Here someone is praying, another is reading. Here someone is inflamed with love and there another brave in humility. Here a brother works very hard while there another finds peace in the practice of contemplation. All with the same goal: giving thanks to God the Father through Him. So that God may be glorified in everything. St. Bernard could not help but exclaim after seeing that unity in diversity: 'This is truly a paradise, a place strengthened by the fortress of discipline. It is a glorious thing that people live together in the same house, following the same way of life. How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. (Div. 42,4)
Dear Dom Vincent and brothers of this community, for two hundred years you have tried to shape this one yet diverse song of praise to God. You have tried to be the burning flame of hope. A testimony of unity in diversity that our world today misses so much. Pope Francis once said to young people in Tokyo, (he did not refer to the Trappists!) : 'the future is not black and white, but if we are brave, we can see in it all the variety and diversity of what each individual has to offer. Our human family has much to learn about living together in harmony and peace without us all having to be the same.' Not uniformity but the gift of unity in diversity. That is the water of Siloe that still flows quietly here after two hundred years, silent water, making you and the world fruitful. Water that you may help flow thanks to that one commandment of the Lord: love one another.