The Christological Structure of Spiritual Growth In the Thought of St. Bernard
Fr. Roch Kereszty, O. Cist.Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a summer webinar series on Monastic Wisdom.
The development of spiritual life is caused and modeled by the stages in the history of Jesus: the converting soul first develops an emotional love for Jesus in the flesh: This love is moody and lacks judgment in discerning right and wrong (amor carnalis). Next, Jesus the teacher instructs the soul in the moral virtues (amor rationalis) but the soul lacks the joy of love and virtue. In the final stage of spiritual growth the soul is able to know and love the glorified risen Christ (amor spiritualis) who dwells in the soul as wisdom, the taste of good.
Wisdom from the Heart of the Cistercian Tradition
Join us once per month, June through September, for four Sunday evening sessions featuring monks from Our Lady of Dallas Monastery who will lead us through a series of reflections examining the contours of the monastic intellectual tradition. At the foundations of the Cistercian order is the reform movement of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. In faithfulness to their founder, these webinars invite participants to see how the monastic approach to Scripture, theology, and the common life might reform our own understanding and endeavors in the labors of daily Christianity.
This series is co-presented with Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey, and co-sponsored by the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Nova Forum, the Saint Benedict Institute, and Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture at the University of Dallas.
Previous events in this series:
June 27, 2021:
The Song of Songs in Monastic Interpretation
Fr. Joseph Van House, O. Cist.
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July 25, 2021:
A School for the Lord’s Service”: A Meditation on the Rule of St. Benedict
Fr. Abbot Peter Verhalen, O. Cist.
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August 22, 2021:
The Monastics before the Scholastics: An Introduction to Medieval Monastic Theology
Fr. John Bayer, O. Cist.
Fr. Roch Kereszty was born in Hungary in 1933 and he entered the Cistercian Order in 1951 at the Monastery of Zirc. On September 18, 1960 he made his solemn profession in Lilienfeld, Austria and was ordained to the priesthood on October 2, 1960 in the private chapel of the Bishop of Sankt Pölten, Austria. Before retiring from the school in 2013, he taught courses in theology, including Christianity and World Religions, Christian Marriage and Priesthood. At the University of Dallas he taught Christology, Ecclesiology, and Sacraments until 2019. He is the author of numerous books and articles, most recently The Church of God in Jesus Christ: A Catholic Ecclesiology (CUA Press) and Rekindle the Gift of God: A New Handbook for Priests (Ignatius Press).
