The Spirit of Simplicity
Overview
Few people have ever seen or heard of The Spirit of Simplicity: it has been hidden for almost seventy years after quietly being published by the Abbey of Gethsemani in 1948. Anonymously translated and annotated by a young monk named Thomas Merton, the book’s author—who also is not mentioned by name in the original edition—is Jean-Baptiste Chautard, the famous French Cistercian whose only other book, The Soul of the Apostolate, has been a favorite of modern saints and popes, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
Every generation struggles with the question of simplicity. In the history of our faith, there have been no more eloquent voices calling us back to simplicity than the monks of the Cistercian Order, from Bernard of Clairvaux to Chautard to Merton—all of whom contribute to this powerful book.
Merton surrounds Chautard’s text with his own remarks on simplicity, translations of classic texts by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and commentary that allows readers to pursue the themes of simplicity in their own lives.
“Only a very inadequate idea of exterior simplicity can be arrived at if we do not trace it back to its true source: interior simplicity. Without this, our resolution to practice exterior simplicity would be without light, without love...,” Chautard wrote at the beginning of the book. He is writing to his fellow Cistercians, but he might as well be speaking to twenty-first century Christians. He goes on to lay out the best disciplines that a monk—or anyone—might practice to find the elusive simplicity, with quotations from St. Benedict, St. Bernard, and other pillars of monastic life and spirituality. A dozen photographs of Cistercian architecture illustrate how principles of simplicity are incorporated into Cistercian daily life.
In Part 2, Merton opens up the teachings of St. Bernard, a great mystic and doctor of the Church, offering excerpts from St. Bernard’s writings on the original simplicity in the Garden of Eden, the difficulty of intellectual simplicity, the simplicity of the will (obedience), and other kindred topics. Merton also offers personal reflections from the perspective of one who had recently exchanged an active life in pursuit of worldly things for the solitude of a monk.
Key Features
- Presents a helpful introduction to Cistercian spirituality
- Explores the Cistercian doctrine of simplicity
- Addresses related topics of poverty, fasting, enclosure, and silence
Contents
The Spirit of Simplicity: Characteristic of the Cistercian Order by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O
- Interior Simplicity
- Being True to Our Ideals
- Simplicity in the Little Exordium
- Anxiety to Preserve Simplicity
- Let Us Die in Our Simplicity
St. Bernard of Clairvaux on Interior Simplicity: Texts with Commentary by Thomas Merton
- Our Original Simplicity
- Intellectual Simplicity: Humility Is Truth
- Simplification of the Will: Obedience
- Simplification of the Will: Our Own Judgement
- Perfect Simplicity: Unity of Spirit with God
Top Highlights
“Mental prayer and the Divine Office are combined in a manner most harmonious to the great benefit of both body and soul, and the result is a unification and simplification of the entire life of the monk to produce in him the habit of breathing God in deep and continuous draughts in all simplicity, and with the dispositions of a child.” (Pages 22–23)
“The whole tragedy of fallen man, from the point of view of his own spiritual condition, and the proximate cause of all unhappiness is the constant self-contradiction generated within him by the confronting of the essential image of God in his soul with the lost likeness that has been unutterably disfigured by sin.” (Page 72)
“If you cut off the stream from its source, it will dry up, says St. Cyprian.1” (Page 12)
“We imitate Christ’s aversion from the spirit of the world, and his union with his Father, as manifested by his thirst for the solitude and silence that would enable him to spend hours at prayer. We imitate Christ in his spirit of humility and renunciation, inspired by the privations and destitution of his whole life. St. Benedict’s entire doctrine is nothing but the imitation of the Savior’s simplicity of outlook, by which he was led to discard everything that did not lead to his Father. This is indeed the ideal that St. Benedict brought before the world when he wrote his Rule, and that Rule is a miracle of discretion because it is a masterpiece of simplicity.” (Page 21)
“The soul was created in God’s image and likeness. St. Bernard’s whole treatment of the Fall can be summed up in this: that man lost his likeness to his Creator and Exemplar, but retained the image, ingrained in and inseparable from the very essence of his soul.” (Page 71)
Praise for the Print Edition
We need simplicity now more than ever. This lost classic of Trappist spirituality unites the voices of two of the great Catholic writers of the Twentieth century. It reveals how simplicity is an essential quality of a holy life. While written for monks, it is—like The Rule of Saint Benedict—filled with wisdom for all. Read it slowly and prayerfully.
—Carl McColman, author of Befriending Silence
This is a treasure of monastic spirituality that brings together the hearts, minds, and insights of two of the greatest Trappist authors of the modern era: Jean-Baptiste Chautard and Thomas Merton.
—Rev. Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., author of The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton
Jean-Baptiste Chautard and a young Thomas Merton flesh out the implications for a contemplative life centered on attending to the grace of simply recognizing the ‘gaze of God’ within all one’s experiences. Abbot Elias Dietz places these classic essays in their context and provides contemporary resources for further study and practical application.
—Jonathan Montaldo General editor of the Fons Vitae Thomas Merton Series
Product Details
- Title: The Spirit of Simplicity
- Author: Jean-Baptiste Chautard
- Translator: Thomas Merton
- Publisher: Ave Maria Press
- Publication Date: 2017
- Pages: 160
- Christian Group: Catholic
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Spirituality
About Jean-Baptiste Chautard
Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O. One of the leading Catholic figures at the turn of the twentieth century, Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O. (1858–1935), was a French Trappist abbot and religious writer. He was integral in the expansion of his Cistercian Order, even achieving the purchase of Cîteaux Abbey in France, where Cistercianism began around 1100. Chautard was later responsible for new foundations in Belgium and Latin America. He is best known for his book, The Soul of the Apostolate, which has been translated into many languages. Several popes have recommended Chautard’s work, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who cited it during his visit to Lourdes in 2008.
Sample Pages from the Print Edition
Reviews
2 ratings
David Kim
2/18/2021
Ryan Brady
7/2/2020
