Abbey-Roads2

Novy Dvur

The Cistercian (O.C.S.O.) monastery of Novy Dvur, constructed outside Prague is a magnificintly austere abbey in the early tradition of Cistercian asceticism.  Designed by architect John Pawson, who gained fame for his minimal designs for the Calvin Klein boutiques, the monastery beautifully expresses the nada  of contemplative life.

The abbey Church is pure and unadorned space, majestically simple, wherein liturgical prayer is the entire focus, as is evidenced by the sanctuary with the centrality of the tabernacle and the altar of sacrifice.  Nothing created impedes the lifting up the heart to God.  The other traditional spaces of the complex are likewise as simple and austere with elements of classic monastic architecture. 

On monastic prayer.

“Do not let anyone occupy your heart, but God alone.” - Saint Theophane of Tambov

“It is above all a question of faith, a firm adhesion, without any support, where great things are at stake. In order to remain attentive to the Lord who is present, there is a manner of doing things that one would hardly call a method, unless one retains the etymology of this word: a way or path, a set of reference points from which each person must forge his own experience according to his personal grace, guided by an elder.

Each person, in effect, can turn himself to God, even without knowing it. But the practice of prayer – attentive personal and quiet presence before the Holy Sacrament – orients our life. We learn to remain in an attitude of prayer for a long time, occupied simply by a vocal prayer, invocations or a reading. We have grasped the fact that the desire to turn ourselves towards God, even when this is mixed with other desires, can happen with the help of divine grace.

And let us not distinguish between prayer from God and prayer from the man: there is only one side, everything comes from God, and yet the man really prays… Prayer in fact is a volontary commitment, consented in the action of the Christ Savior. If only we would care to lift the veil which blocks our vision, so overaccustomed to these realities, we would understand how much prayer is serious and simple in its accomplishment but ambitious in its result.

Outside of God, of the Faith, monks have no meaning and serve no useful end. the monk, himself, knows – since he shares the faith of the Church – that his vocation is mysteriously useful, mysteriously efficient for his brothers and sisters of mankind: he knows that it his participation, imperfect and unfaithful, in the life, the Passion and the sorrowful and solitary death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who in this way saved humanity.

It is also for this reason that the monk prays. Burying his prayer in the prayer of Jesus, he prays for all men, living and dead, believers and non-believers, those dear to him and those he knows not. Not so that, from bad they might become good… but so that all may have access to goodness and truth. This is the prayer of substitution or of intercession. - Novy Dvur website

Reading these thoughts on monastic prayer may help one understand the austerity of the architecture at Novy Dvur.