<p><em>Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, Prior</em></p>
<p>There are these little leaps I've noticed take place on the spiritual journey in general, and in the monastic journey, the contemplative journey in particular. One of the biggest is this: I thought that maybe Fr. Thomas had made up some kind of New Age claptrap when I first got here and we sang the antiphon that we use for Christmas: "O wondrous exchange! Christ became a human child so that every child of Eve might become God."<sup>1</sup> But sure enough, there it was in Saint Augustine. And there it was again in Saint Basil the Great, "Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspiration––we become God."</p>
