February 10, 2013
ABBEY NEWS
February 10, 2012
Onwards & Upwards
Having completed his six months postulancy our Br. Felix began the next phase of his initial f
ormation in chapter this morning by entering the novitiate. In a meaningful ceremony during which he asked for ‘the mercy of God and the Order’ Abbot Gerard formally clothed him in the white scapular and cloak of a novice. The clothing in a religious habit has always symbolized a person’s response to St. Paul’s exhortation found in Romans 13:14 to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. While it is true, as the saying goes, ‘the habit doesn’t make the monk’, it certainly helps a lot.
Here on the left we see Br. Felix sharing a reading from St. Pauls letter to the Philippians 3:12-16 and on the right his being clothed with the novice's cloak.
During his novitiate, which for Trappist-Cistercians is for two years, Br. Felix will continue immersing himself in Cistercian spirituality while preparing for his profession of vows. Needless to say we support him with our prayers for a grace-filled novitiate and that as he continues to run on the path of God’s commandments, his heart overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love (RB Prologue 49) he will soon be joined by a few companions on the monastic marathon.
Pictured here from left to right: Novice Master Br. Anthony, Novice Br. Felix, Abbot Fr. Gerard.
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Lectio Notebook Vatican II says that the root reason for human dignity lies in man’s call to communion with God. From the very circumstance of his origin man is already invited to converse with God. For man would not exist were he not created by God’s love and constantly preserved by it. The mystical aspiration, therefore, is something inherent to human nature. Every human being comes from one and the same Creator, so that the human nature in its deepest reality is always the same. It is always created in the image of God and tends toward the perfection of its likeness to him. The Sun at Midnight |
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