"In Coenaculo" - Silverstream Priory (November-December 2015) | Page 4

Our Provisional
Oratory

Homily at the Solemn
Profession of Dom Benedict

D

Benedict, my dear son, when the
time came for us to choose a date for
this momentous rite, this life–changing action, this second–baptism,
we passed in review the various feasts of late
summer and, in the end, rightly chose today’s
incandescent feast: the Transfiguration of Our
Lord. The festival of the Transfiguration — and
the radiant mystery it sets before our eyes — has
long been considered, in both East and West,
wonderfully emblematic of the monastic life.
om

The Lord has led you, as once he led Peter,
James, and John, up into a high mountain, and to
a place apart. You have, over the past five years,
experienced the «hard and arduous» things of this
ascent: bruised feet, weary bones, fatigue, discouragement, darkness, and storms. Nothing of what
the psalmist describes in the psalm chosen by Saint
Benedict for Compline is foreign to you now: «the
terror by night; the arrow that flieth by day; the
pestilence that walketh in darkness; the sickness
that destroyeth in the noon-day» (Psalm 90:6).
At the same time, you have experienced the
tender providence of Jesus who, in leading you on
this most unusual journey to a place apart — from
the mountains of Denver to the plains of Tulsa,
and from the plains of Tulsa to the green pastures
of Silverstream in County Meath — has given you
constant and unmistakable signs of His presence
and touching manifestations of His mercy.

Today, the Face of Jesus shines for you more
brightly than the sun and clothed in a raiment
whiter than snow. Today you contemplate him with
eyes of faith, washed clean in tears. Today, for you,
there is a bright cloud: the overshadowing of the
Holy Ghost. Today, for you, there is a mystic passage through death into newness of life. Today, for
you, there is the voice of the Father coming from
the cloud: «This is my beloved son; hear ye him».
Today for you, there is the reassuring touch of Jesus’
hand and, in the ear of your heart, the unmistakable
sound of His voice, saying: «Arise and fear not». Today, for you, there is an inward brightness; like Peter,
James, and John on Thabor, you shall lift up your
eyes, and see no one, but only Jesus . . . nisi solum Iesum.
Once this sacred rite of «The Making of a Monk»
is over, you — again like Peter, James and John —
will necessarily leave the heights of Thabor for the
homely and humble monastic quotidian: obedience
to the relentless sound of the bell, dedication to the
Divine Office in season and out of season, adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, work, and lectio
divina, and all of this in a newness of life that cannot
be described. Only one who has lived it can grasp its
meaning. Expertus potest credere. And only one who has
consented to this life of death knows that what the
world judges death is superabundant life, and that
what the world sees as folly is the highest wisdom.

PAX
in remembrance of my solemn profession
& monastic consecration, according to
the rule of our holy father benedict,
on thursday, the sixth of august, in the
year of our lord 2015, feast of the transfiguration of our lord jesus christ, at
si lverstream priory, co. meath, ireland

THE REVEREND DOM
BENEDICT MARIA ANDER SEN

T

He Name of Jesus is more than light, it is also food.
Every food of the mind is dry if it is not dipped in
that oil; it is tasteless if not seasoned by that salt. Write
what you will, I shall not relish it unless it tells of Jesus.
Talk or argue about what you will, I shall not relish it if
you exclude the Name of Jesus. Jesus to me is honey in
the mouth, music in the ear, a song in the heart. Also it is a
medicine. Does one of us feel sad? Let the Name of Jesus
come into his heart, from there let it spring to his mouth,
so that shining like the dawn it may dispel all darkness and
make a cloudless sky. — Saint Bernard

Orate pro me, peccatore, ad Dominum Jesum!
Pray for me, a sinner, to the Lord Jesus!