Dear interested boys from Sri Lanka!

Here you find some short information about a very very exciting poject: We want to found am cistercian monastery in your homeland, in the beautiful island of Sri Lanka. This project needs still a lot of grace, a lot of prayer and sacrifice! And it needs the best vocations and the most idealistic young men you can imagine!

The almighty God, for whom nothing is impossible, may bless this project. Our beloved Mother, the Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Sri Lanka and of the Cistercian Order, may bless you all and open your hearts for HIS powerful vocation to consecrated life!

Contact and information:

Father Wolfgang Buchmueller OCist in Heiligenkreuz /  Austria:
p.wolfgang(at)stift-heiligenkreuz.at

This project – to establish a monastery in Sri Lanka with the Cistercian spirituality – started 21 years ago, when in the year 1985 the director of the Pontifical Mission Society of Austria, the late Bishop Kuntner visited Sri Lanka. On that occasion he met the director of the Pontifical Mission Society of Sri Lanka, Father Malcolm Ranjith – now Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome – and also the Rector of the Intermediate Seminary, Father Anselm de Croos. Bishop Kuntner was informed that it would be a good idea to have Christian monks in a country in which Buddhist monks are everywhere visible. So Bishop Kuntner directed Father Anselm de Croos, who resigned his posts as the Rector and Vicar General, to the Abbey of Heiligenkreuz in Austria, where he spent about one year.

At the same time Heiligenkreuz was working on the project of a foundation in Germany – Stiepel – therefore it was not possible to take over another project to establish a monastery in Sri Lanka. Approximately 2 years later a Sri Lankan, named Ronald Abeynaike from Colombo, contacted Father Anselm de Croos and went off to Austria and entered the community of Heiligenkreuz to become Pater Robert.

As in the year 1999 the newly elected abbot of Heiligenkreuz, Abbot Gregory, had been the director of Pontifical Mission work in Austria and for a short time even secretary of the Papal congregation of St. Peter, which is in charge of helping the seminaries of the mission countries, he also is a promoter of this idea. As Abbot Gregory believes it would not be good just to import a group of European Cistercian monks to Sri Lanka where they would be inevitable be foreigners to the people and as the community of Heiligenkreuz was not that large, the idea is to invite a certain number of Sri Lankans to Austria for a time of formation. Later on they should start a community in Sri Lanka by themselves being under the direction of a local Bishop, but with the assistance and help of the Cistercian community of Heiligenkreuz.

In July 2001 a group of three Sri Lankans made the journey to Austria at the behest of the Bishop. And the project took on greater solidity as a future “founding group” was constituted as the “Community of St. Bernard for the Cistercian Life in Sri Lanka”. On June 13, 2004 the Bishop of Ratnapura, His Lordship Harold Anthony Perera, sealed a solemn charter for the new community, thus giving it juridical structure. According to the statutes, the bishop takes over the position of a responsible superior and sends the selected candidates to Heiligenkreuz, to undergo a period of formation and experience a monastic life. At the moment the Community of St. Bernard for the Cistercian Life in Sri Lanka – as it is officially called – numbers five members. After the period of formation they will be sent to establish a monastery with the Cistercian spirituality in Sri Lanka, but with the assistance and guidance of the Abbey of Heiligenkreuz.

Fr. Bernard Prabath Inbarajan

The calling to be a monk is a particular grace of God. It is a gift of God, who calls his apostles to be with him. A monk is one who seeks Christ in order to be with him. Therefore a person who wants to become a monk must be a true seeker of God; a person of prayer. Therefore, to recognize & develop this great gift of vocation, one needs proper guidance.

A person who feels a monastic vocation must have spiritual guidance through a priest, so he may be certain of his future vocation.

A candidate need not be a saint before he enters the monastery, but he must have a true desire to lead a good life, and a desire for sanctifying his life.
A candidate, who applies for the monastic foundation in Sri Lanka, must be above 18 and must have a fair knowledge of English. A candidate is also expected to have a minimum education of Advanced Level. He must be a physically and psychologically well-balanced and healthy male.

It is important for the candidate to have the recommendation of his parish priest.

Rev. Fr. Anselm Croos of St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, is ready to give further information and guidance on the monastery project to the prospective candidates.

Rev. Fr. Wolfgang Buchmüller O.Cist. From the Abbey of Heiligenkreuz in Austria will annually visit Sri Lanka to meet the possible candidates. He conducts the weekend retreats regarding the Cistercian monastic life. Participation in these retreats is a must for the candidates. Fr. Wolfgang will be accompanied by a few Sri Lankan brothers from whom the candidates can get more information about the project and its future.

After the candidates are selected for the project by the bishop and vocation team they will be guided through the following steps.

Joseph Swaris, candidate

We come to Heiligenkreuz to receive a formation in the monastic life. This takes place in three steps: candidacy (postulancy), novitiate, and temporary vows.

Candidacy: For one year we are candidates. This means that we are not yet monks, but we live in the community and take part in its life in order to test our vocations. In order to test ones vocation it is important that one tries to take this year of postulancy seriously and really takes part in the life of the community; attending the liturgy of the hours and sharing in the other duties of the monks. In this year we also learn the German language, because the rest of our formation, the Novice lessons and study of Philosophy and Theology, will be given in this language. The German lessons are with Mrs. Veronica Huttora a very kind and motherly lady from nearby the Monastery.

Novitiate: The novitiate is one year of intense formation in the monastic life. When we begin the novitiate we receive a white habit and a new name as sign of a new beginning. As novices we withdraw somewhat from contact with the world outside the monastery in order to help us by giving us the necessary peace and quiet to form ourselves in monastic life and spirituality. As novices we have lessons every day from the novice master and other monks on the rule of St. Benedict, the Psalms, the fathers of the order, the history and spirituality of the order, and other topics important for our monastic life. In the novitiate we try to discern if we really have a vocation to the monastic life. We are not bound by vows in the novitiate—that is we are still free to leave the community at any time if we discern that this is not our vocation. At the end of the novitiate if we want to continue in this path the Bishop responsible for the foundation in Sri Lanka (and the novice master) decide whether to allow us to take temporary vows.

Temporary Vows and Study of Theology: Temporary vows are a promise to live by the evangelical counsels and the rule of St. Benedict and to be obedient to the bishop responsible for the foundation in Sri Lanka for one year. At the end of the year we can either renew our temporary vows, or decide to leave the community if we discern that it is not our vocation. While we are in temporary vows at Heiligenkreuz we try to deepen our monastic life, we also study philosophy and theology at the Heiligenkreuz Academy.

Fr. Antonius Jeewantha Fernando

A Cistercian monastery is a school of love, a school of service of the Lord, where one learns to love vertically as well as horizontally, to love God as well as people.

A Cistercian monastery is a community gathered around the Lord. It contains priests and brothers and has an abbot as the head of the community. The abbot of the community represents Christ, the Good Shepherd. To the community he is the merciful father in the parable of the prodigal son. Through his fatherly care he directs them to the real Truth, the Christ.

In baptism, we all are called to holiness. In a Cistercian monastery, we try to make this call a reality in an alternative way of life. According to the Rule of St. Benedict, in a coenobitic community life, in the vocation of monks we try to come to this fullness, that is holiness. In the community, we share the faith, hope and charity as well as sufferings and tears.

All communities have their origin and exemplar in the Holy Trinity. In a community life, one is called to overcome one’s self love and to live in sharing, as the apostles in the Acts. In a Cistercian monastery one’s calling is primarily to be a monk; the holy vows we take help us to be true to this calling. Being a priest is a further calling. One who becomes a monk need not be a saint beforehand, but it is true that one has to confront the reality of one’s life until death. However, it is our calling, our aim and our goal to sanctify our life. Many Cistercian saints who lived throughout history prove that it is possible.

The life in a Cistercian monastery based on three pillars; Prayer, Lectio Divina( the meditative reading) and work. It helps one to live in its fullness, in the reality of one’s spirit- body combination.

The Marian devotion has been always a signal part of the Cistercian life. Honouring Mary as the great patroness of our order and dedicating all our monastery churches to her name we show our special love to her.

In a monastery with all the aspects of our life, we serve and praise the Lord. We are in the heart of the world, but our hearts are not in the world. We direct our hearts to the Lord through the Liturgy and through the divine office, which we do seven times a day. In our renouncing of worldly pleasures and our sacrifices, we glorify the Lord. The Eucharist is the spring of strength, the centre and the climax of the daily life in a Cistercian monastery.

Since the foundation in 1098 in Citeaux, France, the Cistercian monasteries have been the pioneers of culture, spirituality, intellectuality and the technology. Hundreds of Cistercian monasteries all around Europe are good evidence for it. Protecting the ancient treasures of culture, Liturgy and spirituality, the monasteries adapted themselves to the present reality of the world. That’s how the Cistercian monasteries, the houses of the white monks, have become light houses of Faith and the power houses of prayer.

Fr. Laurentius Edirisinghe