Working (lat. "Labora")

According to St. Benedict Rule, prayer, reading and work conducted in sensible turns and to a balanced extent, is the true way to God. Work is taking part in the Creation of God and Salvation. It belongs to the substance and dignity of Man and it serves the development of his personality and skills. Apart from that, it is, in the form of arduous daily work, a most excellent means of the Cistercian asceticism, contributes to creating and keeping the community alive, and enables the monastery to share the yield of work with the poor and the needy (from the Constitutions of the Cistercian Order).