Br. Justin, I remember hearing that in your early years you were adept at music and art and would have liked to pursue these studies; but you were also good at math and science. In the end you were urged to focus on math and science as a better career path. But your artistic, intuitive side did not go away. In fact, it comes out in your gardening work and in what we might call your imaginative way of looking at issues and supporting your brothers and friends.

In any case, there is a place in the Cistercian life for people who can “see visions, and dream dreams.” as we read in the Prophet Joel, “‘It will come to pass in the last days,’ God says,‘ that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.’”

This passage from Joel seems fitting today because of its mention of prophecy. For monks are meant to be prophetic, and they share along with all the people of God in the prophetic office of Christ. Our charism has its own special elements of prophecy: we live a cenobitic life—a sign to the world that it is possible for celibate men to live in harmony; we live under a Rule and an Abbot – a witness that the submission of one’s will to a God-given Rule and to the God-given authority of the Abbot is life-giving and not a constraint; and, finally, we live in an environment of silent vigils and fraternal charity – forgoing the endless words of the world and social media in order to turn to the one Word necessary, that is, to God’s Word which alone gives life. All these are part of the prophetic charism we have received.

Now, having said all that, Br. Justin, I would like to propose to you a soul-mate to accompany you in the days ahead. It is our Cistercian brother, Blessed Marie-Joseph Cassant. He entered the former Trappist Abbey of Sainte-Marie du Desert at 16 years of age. Zealous, delicate in constitution, not particularly intelligent but fully given to fulfilling the duties of his monastic life – this young monk died at the age of 25 of tuberculosis. But his purity of heart and simplicity of spirit, combined with his love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist, have been recognized by the Church as a prophetic sign of God’s love for the humble and obedient of this world.

Do not let anyone tell you that our Cistercian life is useless or alien to God’s Spirit. Our charism is like the Sacred Heart of Jesus: absolutely human like the beating heart of Jesus, and yet absolutely united with God in the remembrance of the mystery of divine love. The Sacred Heart of Jesus and its presence in the Holy Eucharist are the anchor of our souls in the ordinary, concrete reality of our daily life and work. At the same time, they lift us up with Our Lady in the “assumpta est” of her Assumption. Blessed Marie-Joseph witnesses to this. He is a sign of hope that God has chosen the weak of this world and made them strong in obedience and love.

Dom Bernardus confirmed this recently when he wrote to the Order in the 3^rdNewsletter in preparation for the General Chapter: “I am writing this column shortly after a pilgrimage to the tomb of Blessed Marie-Joseph Cassant…Standing at his grave, I entrusted the General Chapter to his intercession. Especially the final preparatory stages, which are now so difficult to organize well. Would Blessed Marie-Joseph ever have worried about the General Chapter? Probably not! Marie-Joseph Cassant was a man who was great in small things, ordinary in the extraordinary, a true pilgrim of hope. As I stood at his grave, the words of his novice master Père André came back to me: ‘Have confidence! I will help you to love Jesus.’ Those same words now ring out for us on the eve of the General Chapter. May this chapter help us to love Jesus. That is my hope!”

Br. Justin you begin your journey as a novice in this jubilee year of hope and at an important turning point in the life of our Order. May our Lady of Citeaux and Blessed Marie-Joseph Cassant help you to abide in that hope and be a prophetic sign to the world of the Sacred Heart that reveals both the human and the mystical of our vocation.

Remarks by Abbot Vincent.