Dom Jean-Bernard Marie Bories told the local diocesan newspaper that, in addition to restoring the Benedictine Rule, his main goal is to make the abbey a spiritual center dedicated to prayer and retreats, built around the cloister and accommodating larger numbers of people than at St. Joseph de Clairval Abbey.
There are also plans to house young people preparing for confirmation and other events, offering them the opportunity for a retreat.
Bories said: “In this place, generations of praying people have followed one another, forming a monastic breeding ground on which a new resurgence of the old Benedictine trunk will ‘grow’: more than 1,150 years of monastic presence link us to a great tradition, thus renewing a chain of prayer.”
But these plans will require several years of work inside the abbey’s various buildings, which extend over a considerable area. The process is expected to be long, arduous, and costly.
A few monks arrived at the abbey at the beginning of August to prepare for the resumption of monastic life. They will oversee the initial work to welcome the rest of the founding team, which won’t move in before the fall.
Bozo will celebrate an inauguration Mass on Nov. 28, the First Sunday of Advent. The diocese announced that from this date onwards, the monks will celebrate Mass in the abbey church daily, following the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, with Gregorian chant in Latin. The celebrations will be open to the public.
The monks will also participate in local economic life, starting with a collaboration with the Catholic education system, which plans to open a store with local products within the framework of a two-year technical degree in agriculture.
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The monks will be able to sell their products through the store and contribute to the students’ training by occasionally welcoming them in their gardens.
According to Bozo, the new foundation promises to be a real blessing for this very de-Christianized rural region, completely devoid of male contemplative communities since the Revolution.
“I am deeply convinced of the fruitfulness of contemplative life, especially in our fast-paced world, marked by materialism and individualism,” he told CNA.
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