On Friday, August 12, Br. Christopher made his solemn vows!!! Thanks be to God!!! In these pictures you can see many key parts of the ritual:

1. Br. Christopher lies prostrate to ask for “the mercy of God and that of the Order” – and then he is invited by the Abbot to stand. We approach God in humility, trusting in his mercy. And we are invited by the Church to be confident in His love.
2. Br. Christopher makes his promise of obedience in the hands of the Abbot. In monastic life we seek, as every baptized person, to conform ourselves to Jesus and his love for the Father. As Jesus said before going to the Garden of Gethsemane to embrace his Passion, “The world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up, let us go” (John 14:31).
3. Br. Christopher signs his vows on the altar after reading them aloud. Monastic vows are an expression of our desire to offer our life to God in union with the self-offering of Jesus Christ – and thus we sign them on the same altar where we celebrate the Eucharist.
4. Br. Christopher receives his cuculla, which is the garment worn by all the solemnly professed members of the monastery during the liturgy. It is a sign of simplicity of life, of the purifying gift of grace, and of a life consecrated to worship.
5. Br. Christopher’s family brings forward the gifts at the offertory. Families are one of the most important means through which God gives his graces and prepares young men and women to offer themselves in their vocations, whether to priesthood, religious life, marriage or consecrated celibacy.
6. Br. Barnabas brings in the cross at the beginning of mass – everything we do is, we pray, a participation in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Come join us at 9:00 on Sunday, August 28, when Br. Barnabas will finish his novitiate and make his temporary vows to the monastery for three years!