Let him who is received promise in the oratory, in the presence of all, before God and His saints, stability, the conversion of morals, and obedience, in order that, if he should ever do otherwise, he may know that he will be condemned by God "Whom he mocketh." Let him make a written statement of his promise in the name of the saints whose relics are there, and of the Abbot there present. Let him write this document with his own hand; or at least, if he doth not know how to write, let another write it at his request, and let the novice make his mark, and with his own hand place it on the altar. When he hath placed it there, let the novice next begin the verse: "Uphold me, O Lord, according to Thy word and I shall live; and let me not be confounded in my expectations" (Ps 118[119]:116). Then let all the brotherhood repeat this verse three times, adding the Gloria Patri.
Then let that novice brother cast himself down at the feet of all, that they may pray for him; and from that day let him be counted in the brotherhood. If he hath any property, let him first either dispose of it to the poor or bestow it on the monastery by a formal donation, reserving nothing for himself as indeed he should know that from that day onward he will no longer have power even over his own body.
Let him, therefore, be divested at once in the oratory of the garments with which he is clothed, and be vested in the garb of the monastery. But let the clothes of which he was divested by laid by in the wardrobe to be preserved, that, if on the devil's suasion he should ever consent to leave the monastery (which God forbid) he be then stripped of his monastic habit and cast out. But let him not receive the document of his profession which the Abbot took from the altar, but let it be preserved in the monastery.
The rule today was typed not by me, but lifted from:
The 1949 Edition
Translated by Rev. Boniface Verheyen, OSB
of St. Benedict's Abbey, Atchison, Kansas
If you have had the privilege of seeing a monk or nun take their final vows then you know it is a deeply moving moment for everyone involved. I have seen it twice at Gethsemani and both times the person taking the vows was so moved that they had trouble singing "do not let me disappointed in my expectation." The closest thing I can compare it to is a wedding, except this isn't one person marrying another person, it's one person marrying an entire group of people.
When you promise fidelity to the group, stability, lifelong chastity, poverty, conversion of life, and all of it to be lived with the same group of people, you have done something very close to marriage. Marriage, of course, is the wrong word for it, but it's a good metaphor for what needs saying.
As LCG we make a promise (not a vow) to live according to a rule of life, within the context of a community (that we do not live with), to be witnesses to the secular world of the charismatic gift which has been given to us from God, through the monks. One of the things that struck me as odd when I made my promise was that the document I was given came back to me. I didn't want it back, I had hoped that I was making a promise that would be kept in the archives of the monastery. None of us made a promise to the worldwide Lay Cistercians, or to Conyers, or to Genesee. We made it to Our Lady of Gethsemani.
To wrap this up, we should consider ourselves married in a way to the monastery and to each other.
As to Chapter 59, The Offering of sons of nobles or by the poor. I have nothing to say about that. If someone else would like to tackle that one, I welcome it.
May God bring us altogether to everlasting life.
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