The Ratio Institutionis is with Order’s guidelines on formation, with the subtitle “Called to be transformed into the image of Christ”. The current Ratio was developed in the 1980s in consultation with all the regions of the Order and approved at the General Chapter of 1990 with some revisions made in 2011. The Ratio Institutionis stresses that in a monastic context formation lasts all of one’s life and is the process by which the monk or nun is progressively transformed into the image of Christ, which is the goal of our monastic life. Therefore the document deals with both initial, ongoing and specialised formation.
Ratio Institutionis
Each community is called to maintain and to transmit the Cistercian patrimony and a faithful version of its charism to those who enter. — Ratio Institutionis, Prologue, 3