Here I stand on the threshing floor remains of Cluny, at one time the largest freestanding building in Europe. The Cistercian reformation was (in part) a reaction to the Cluniacs. I don’t have a PhD in Cluniac reform, so I won’t pretend I’ve spent years studying old Latin, but the Cistercians did return to a strict observance of the Rule of St. Benedict, and added some new documentation clarifying some things.

I like that Pope Benedict XVI has a TV website. I wonder what Bernard would have done with such technology from his abbey in the forest of central France. It’s encouraging to read Benedict’s words of late on Bernard and the Cluniac Reform; for me the timing is spot on.

Today, as I was researching the Cluniacs and Cistercians, I came across IHOP’s history of 24/7 prayer, which skips over 400 years of history, passing right over the entire history of the Cistercians. IHOP’s last line on Cluny reads, “However, even before these great building projects, it is interesting to note that the decline in spirituality led to the ultimate demise of Cluny’s influence.”

Maybe, it was Cluny’s demise which led to the rise of the vibrant spirituality (ora et labora) of the Cistercians.

I grapple with the full humanity of history. I like how Dostoevsky eventually put it, “As a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naive and simple-hearted than we suppose. And we ourselves are, too.”

I appreciate how the character Rory put it in the movie The Devil’s Own, “Don’t look for a happy ending. It’s not an American story. It’s an Irish one.”

Ars longa, vita brevis