Please pray for our new novices, Br. Ephrem (Luke) Malone and Br. Daniel Miller (CPS ’14), who entered the novitiate this weekend! They received the habit in a private ceremony as we celebrated the first vespers of the Solemnity of St. Bernard of Clairvaux on August 19, 2022.

Br. Ephrem and Br. Daniel have now begun a period of focused discernment through prayer, study and community life. Concretely, they will not spend much time outside the monastery, and they’ll have little use of things like the internet. They’ll take classes from monks on topics like Cistercian history and spirituality, psalms, liturgy, and the theology of St. Bernard. If you see them on campus, be sure to say hello. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures from the ceremony!

1. The two young men begin the ceremony prostrate asking for “the mercy of God and of the Order” – after which the Abbot, following the rite, encouraged them by saying “Rise in the name of the Lord.” Prostration is an act of humility and trust, an expression of hope for mercy (e.g. Luke 5:12).
2. After having removed his suit jacket, Br. Ephrem receives the novice’s habit as a sign of conversion. As Abbot Peter helps the novice to remove his suit jacket, he prays, “May the Lord remove from you the old man, with his way of life.” And then, as he helps him to vest in the habit, he prays, “May the Lord clothe you with the new man, made like God in the justice and holiness of truth.”
3. After vesting the new novice, Abbot Peter embraces him to welcome him into the community.
4. Br. Ephrem (left) and Br. Daniel (right) flank Fr. Ignatius, their novice master.