Cistercian Documents
The following is a list of documents that may be of general interest to Conversi members. For documents directly related to Conversi, see the Conversi Community Documents page.
Cistercian Foundational Documents
Study programs on the history of the Order
- Michael Casey’s Exordium: Program of Reflection and Study on the Values of the Cistercian Reform is now available on its own page on our website.
- A History of Monastic Spirituality (Luc Brésard, of the abbey of Citeaux)
- A History of the Order (Sr. Kathleen O’Neil)
Other documents
- Twelve Steps of Humility in Contemporary Language – Columba Stewart, OSB
- A New Christian Consciousness – Thomas Merton – Feb 1967
- Lectio Divina – 1993 OCSO Circular Letter – Dom Bernardo Olivera
- Reflections on Cistercian Identity – 2008 OCSO Circular Letter – Dom Bernardo Olivera
Reflections on the Lay Movement by monastics
- The Challenge of the Lay Movement – Dom Bernardo Olivera – 1995
- Lay Participation in the Cistercian Family – Armand Vielleux – 1998
- Letter to Lay Groups – OCSO abbot general and MGM – 2002
- A Letter to the Lay Associates of Assumption Abbey in Ava – Abbot Mark Scott – 2002
- Apologia de Barbis: Understanding of the Laybrothers’ vocation in the Cistercian Order – Dom Armand Vielleux – 1991 (distributed to lay communities about 2002)
- Beyond Our Borders: Reflection on the lay Cistercian vocation – Dom Bernardo Olivera, homily for 2nd international meeting, Conyers, GA, 2002
Reflections on the Lay Cistercian Vocation/Movement by lay people
- A Theology of Commitment – Linda Harrington. Published in Cistercian Studies Quarterly 46.4 (Nov 2011)
- The Role of Lay Cistercian Communities in the Mission of the Church 2018 – Peter Alan Stuart – 2018 (modified for Conversi context)
- The Quietly Erupting Lay Associate Movement in Post-Conciliar Religious Life: Two Iowa Communities Compared. – Susanna Cantu-Gregory. Published in God Has Begun a Great Work in Us, the annual publication of the College Theology Society, volume 60 (2014). This essay is based on interviews that Susanna did with members of AIC as part of her doctoral dissertation research.
Mystics and Contemplatives, Cistercian and otherwise
- On Loving God, St. Bernard
- Some Letters of St. Bernard
- An Apology, St. Bernard
- William of St. Thierry on Lectio Divina (from the Golden Epistle)
- Theologia Germanica (Anonymous)
- The Cloud of Unknowing (Anonymous)
- Mystical Theology, Dionysius the Areopagite
- Meister Eckhart’s Sermons
- Ascent of Mount Carmel, Saint John of the Cross
- Dark Night of the Soul, Saint John of the Cross
- Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich
- The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence