Community Service Plants Trees

February 8, 2021 | Media

On Saturday, February 6, Fr. John and the Community Service Council went to the Condominiums on Royal Lane to join Cistercian alumnus Grady McGahan (’00), Director of RETREET with Keep America Beautiful. Together they planted ten trees in an area that suffered a lot of destruction in the 2019 tornados.

We are still hoping to celebrate our annual MLK Day of Service sometime this spring (it was postponed because of covid). When we do, we will plant many more trees in areas of Dallas touched by the tornados!

Hawk Happenings

Serving in Costa Rica

Twelve of our rising seniors spent a week serving in Pejibaye, Costa Rica with the Diocese of Dallas. Accompanied by Fr. Augustine (their Form Master) and Fr. Raphael, our young men poured concrete, laid foundations, painted, and helped construct chapels alongside the...

Summer Programs 2025

Summer Programs have started at Cistercian! Sports Camps, Rec Camps, Academic Classes, and much more are designed to support the boys’ development as a whole person during the summer vacation.

Summer Programs at Cistercian

Summer Programs at Cistercian are more than books and sports; it’s also board games with monks. Fr. Philip joins the fun in “Board (not Bored) Games,” one of many classes offered June 9–27. Math, rec camp, and more still open for registration

Publications

Continuum Spring 2025

Contents News & Notes The Impossible Dream Teaching God in Many Ways In Memoriam Sports Floating an Idea

Thy Kingdom Come

The more I reflect on the petitions of the Our Father, the more I’m convinced that I have no idea what I’m praying when I mumble those words multiple times every day.

The current object of my loving mystification is “Thy kingdom come.” In an effort to be slightly less intimidated by this vast and marvelous petition, I will arrange my musings as responses to the time-honored journalistic questions.

Lessons learned in a monastery

One of the most important rooms in a monastery, after the church, is the chapter room. This is the place where monks meet to do various things as a community: hear an exhortation from their abbot; listen to a spiritual reading (often a chapter from “The Rule of St. Benedict”); deliberate and vote on the important material and spiritual questions that arise in a monastery, such as who should be the abbot, whether to welcome a young monk as a permanent member of the community through solemn profession, and how best to structure their lives to promote God’s purpose.