Can the monastery buy up lots of nice stuff under the guise of common ownership?
It depends! If we are talking expensive tvs/entertainment equipment, aeroplanes (yes one new Cistercian community owns its own plane) and the like, then I think that is totally inconsistent with the Rule. St Benedict specifies a certain degree of austerity – no more clothes than are needed for the locality and type of work done for example. But the Rule does assume the monastery will spend up big on necessary things – like books in particular, since reading and study is a big part of the life. He also put a lot of emphasis on adapting the Rule of the monastery to individual needs – if some needed more things in order to persevere in the life, then the abbot should allow what was necessary (and others should not be jealous of whatever privileges they were allowed), since perseverence is far more important than uniformity. And whereas St Dominic, for example, specified that the chapels of his order should not be filled with expensive items, prohibiting for example the use of silk, Benedi
