"In Coenaculo" - Silverstream Priory (November-December 2015) | Page 5

I shall not attempt to unwrap the riches of this
ancient rite of the Making of a Monk. The origin
of the rite goes back over a thousand years and
more. It has been called, and rightly so, a second
baptism, a mystery of death and resurrection, a
configuration to Jesus Christ, crucified, buried,
risen, ascended, hidden in God in glory, and hidden
in lowliness in the Sacred Host. This only would I
say to you, dear Dom Benedict: abandon yourself
now to the prayer of Christ and of His Church,
surrender to the invisible operations of the Holy
Ghost, and you shall emerge from these sacred rites
a monk — that is a single-hearted man who lives
unto God alone in an ineffable commerce of love.
Be like the host laid upon the corporal. Prepare
yourself not so much to act as to be acted upon, not
so much to speak as to hear the Word, not so much
to give as to receive. You are in this moment with
the Virgin of Nazareth, Our Lady of the Cenacle:
Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. «Let it be done unto
me according to Thy word».
At the heart of this sacred rite there is a most
touching dialogue: an exchange between son and
Father, between Father and son, a playing out of
the mystery of divine adoption that Blessed Abbot
Marmion so often preached. You, like a little child
lifting his arms to his father, will sing that ancient
song that rises from the depths of the human heart
yearning for, and straining toward, the divine embrace for which it was created: Suscipe me, Domine.
Lift me up, O Lord. Take me to Thyself. Hold me
safe in Thy embrace. Claim me as Thy own. And
in response to this cry out of the depths there will
come a voice from heaven, Hic est filius meus dilectus.
This is my beloved son. In this exchange all is said:
the child cries, the Father answers. The Father’s
answer, dearest Dom Benedict, is what you have
been waiting to hear all your life. You are about to
be made a monk. >

Outing to Old
Mellifont Abbey

Homily at the Simple
Professions of Dom Finnian
& Dom Elijah

M

y very dear sons ,

Dom Finnian
and Dom Elijah, today is a festival
of passage. The Mother of God
passes from this valley of tears to
the bridal chamber of heaven, where the King
of kings is seated on a throne amidst the stars.
She passes from the company of the Beloved
Disciple to the that of his Master and Friend,
the Bridegroom-King, hidden in God, and returning in glory. She passes from the Jerusalem
below to the Jerusalem above; from ceaseless
prayer in the heart of the Church on earth to a
ceaseless and universal mediation in the sanctuary of heaven. She passes from toil to rest; from
desire to possession; from the land of shadows
to «the city that hath no need of the sun, nor of
the moon, to shine in it. «For the glory of God
hath enlightened it, and the Lamb is the lamp
thereof» (Apocalypse 21:23)
Both of you, as well, are living, with the Blessed
Virgin Mary, and in her, a festival of passage. You
have completed the first stage of your pilgrimage
— not on the way to Chartres, as you have already
done twice together – but on the way to the altar
where you will pronounce the vows that, for the
next three years, will bind you more closely to the
Lamb of the Holy Sacrifice.
You are passing from a very short time of apprenticeship to a lifetime of labour; from sparing
tears to more abundant tears; from joys to greater
joys; and from light to light, for the Apostle says
that, «we all beholding the glory of the Lord with
open face, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord» (2
Corinthians 3:18).
You are passing from the hidden life of the noviceship to a life that, sealed by your monastic profession, will become even more hidden, for yours
it is to enter, more and more, into the hiddeness
of the Host. What is our Benedictine life if not a
gradual, almost imperceptible, penetration into the
hiddenness of the Host: Christ in the sanctuary of
heaven and Christ in the tabernacles of the earth?
With Our Lady, hide yourselves in Christ, as
Christ is hidden in the glory of His Father.