The Solemn Profession of
Br Percy and Br Wilmer

 

 

About three hundred people assembled in the small monastery chapel and outside to share with the community the joy occasioned by the Solemn Profession of Percy and Wilmer. Abbot Paul travelled out from Belmont to receive their vows.

After the Gospel they were asked what they wanted from God and the Church; and they answered, "Perseverance to serve God in this monastic community all the days of my lives". The Gospel reading had been about the raising of Lazarus. Abbot chose to comment on the sentence "Did I not tell you that, if you have faith, you will see the Glory of God?" He said that this is what monastic and religious life is all about: it is a life of faith in which the monks will see the Glory of God, not just in the next life, but in the present life, in the faces of their neighbours and in the intimacy of interior prayer.

The Abbot had explained that the monastic formula is not three separate Christian Christian vows as in the "Poverty, Chastity and Obedience", which is of Franciscan origin. It is one single commitment to monastic life, expressed in the Latin phrase "Conversatio morum", which includes chastity and austerity of life and conversion"; "Obedience" which not only promises to obey the abbot and his successors, but also a general openness toGod's will, however it presents itself; and "Stability" which is a commitment to do this within the context of a particular community. Just as a man commits himself to one particular community in marriage, so the Benedictine monk commits himself to one particular community.


In a dramatic part of the ceremony which closely follows the Rule of St Benedict, the two sing a verse from Scripture three times, first at the door of the chapel, secondly in the aisle, and thirdly in front of the altar, each time on a higher note; and it is repeated by the monastic choir. The music was composed by Peter Abelard when he was an abbot for Heloise who had become an abbess:
"Suscipe me, Domine, secundum eloquium tuum et vivam; et non confundas me ab expectatione mea!" "Support me, Oh Lord, according to your promise that I may live, so that my hope will not be frustrated."
Having sung the verse three times, they lie down under a pall, symbolically dead to the world which has been closed in on itself by sin; and the community sing the Litany of the Saints for the two new life members of the monastic community.

After Communion, the two monks present themselves; and the Abbot pins up their hoods. Fot three days they will go around with their hoods up; and they will keep absolute silence in what is probably the best retreat in their lives. The hoods are unpinned after communion on the third day, and the community welcome them.