Our dear sons of Christ, and all the friends, relatives, and parents, and members of the community, we are well aware of the reason why we celebrate this feast of the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ as the titular feast of Our monastery, the transfiguration of our Lord, gives us a glimpse, as it were, of that glory for which we are longing, which is our goal. That is the heartbeat of our monastic life.

[01:03]

and longing for the glory of the risen Savior. Under this feast of the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, we realize the goodness and the power of the new covenant that our Lord Jesus Christ is not like Moses and like Elias who come today to recognize in him their head because Moses saw the glory of God and Elinus saw the glory of God. But Jonathan was the glory of God. And that is the difference between the old and the new. That here on this Mount Sinai of the New Testament, on Mount Tabor, the one appears to us who is God's glory, the only begotten Son.

[02:13]

And he appears to us in the context of this earthly life. He does not deny the humility of his human nature, nor does he in any way shrink away from that mission that his heavenly Father has given him when he sent him here upon this earth. I mean, his exodus, his departure, of which Moses and Elias speak to him in this glorious scene of his transfiguration. He shows his glory, but that his glory... is not in any way opposed to our human bodily infirmity and nothingness.

[03:15]

This glory is, and that is why he speaks about his departure from Jerusalem, his glory is the overcoming and the victory not only over the weakness of our human nature, our bodily and material existence, but it is also the remedy for human sin, for that long glory that man has presumed to take upon himself against the will of his creator. And so in this scene of the Transfiguration, the whole of our salvation and God's ways with us, they seem to crystallize, they seem to become manifest on the top

[04:23]

of this mountain of the Transfiguration. We look back on human failure and human sin. We look forward into the glory that is promised to us. And that we feel this glory already present at this present moment. That is the beauty of this feast. And that is also the special lesson which this feast gives to us as monks. And that is the reason why you, my dear sons of Christ, stand here before the altar today in order to be taken into this mystery of the transfiguration in the special way of becoming monks. the gospel that we have just made, that shows to us your way.

[05:27]

And let me interpret this, which is known already to you, in a few words, so that at this moment, when you take upon yourself the yoke of the monastic life, that you may be clear what you are doing and what you have to expect Our Lord Jesus Christ called out of the total group of the apostles three with whom he wanted to share this glorious mystery of his inner true personality, Peter, James, and John. It was an election, an election of out of that free sovereign will of the Savior. And that also is the foundation of your life.

[06:28]

And make it clear to yourself at this moment that you always may give glory to the one who called you. Because you cannot make yourself not. You have to be called by the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. This loving heart you have heard in the depth of your soul. That is the reason why you stand here before us at this moment. You also know very well that this call does not rise out of the longings of the naturally and old man. This calling is truly a miracle of God's grace. You know it. And you know it well on the background of your past. There suddenly lies a lightning that call comes into your life.

[07:35]

It makes you lose the taste of this world and you long for the glory of the one who calls you. And not only calls you, then he sets you apart. The three apostles left the others and followed the Lord, who was leading them to the Mount of Zeus apart. You see, just as the work of creation started with the divine call that night be made. And that call has echoed in your soul. You heard it that night be made. It was the call that invited you to leave the darkness of the world, the darkness of sin, and to enter into light.

[08:41]

But then upon this call follows division, separation. That is the second and necessary phase of God's creation and also our redemption. Separation, division. There is no communion between darkness and light. We cannot... Stay halfway. We have to go the whole way. And that has become clear to you when you left the road and entered into the monastery. The monastery is a district set upon. We speak of enclosure. That enclosure means division. It means division from the world, not in an external sense, but in an internal sense.

[09:50]

The enclosure is to you a constant admonition that you should not be conformed to this world, but that you should in the very being be transformed in your mind in the likeness of the king of glory. The enclosure means to you in your monastic life a willingness and an eagerness to leave any conformity with this world, to enter into that silence where human voices, human respect, the flatterings of human glory seems where you are dipped to the world and to Satan's arms.

[10:52]

Therefore this being set apart and this leaving the world in silence necessarily also is followed up in your entire life by constant, always repeated conversion. You bow at this moment before God and his saints, before all of us, the conversion of your moments. And that conversion means repentance. That means not only to flee the world, but that means to start a life which is the exact opposite of the standards and the form of this world. Conversion means being turned upside down, and that is the meaning of your elastic life.

[11:56]

You do not only withdraw, but you fight, fight against the problems of the devil through the glorious weapons of humility. Humility is the heart of your conversion. Just as Christ is the heart of the tower, the Babylonian tower of this world, so is humility the foundation of that new tabernacle that you want to build in the side of Christ's glory upon this mountain, in this monastery. in this enclosure. It is to ascend the mountain with our Lord Jesus Christ, but on the ladder of humility, descending, recognizing that you are yourself the least of all human beings, that you are a world not worthy to be called men.

[13:07]

That is the out of your conversion, then is your ascent upon the mountain where then the glory of Christ will be manifest to you. With this, leaving the world, entering into the silence of God, leaving the hidden love of conversion of mine, In this way, Christ your Lord leads you up to Mount Taper. And there, then, you see his glory. You see his face shining like the sun. That means you realize that now, as those who have left the world, as those who have resigned their self-love, and have entered into the nothingness of humility, there you see that the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of light and of life.

[14:21]

He is your Son. He is your death. You enter then into that glory of the monastic light, which is unfolded in the divine office, in the participation, and in the living of the sacramental life of the Church. Here this altar is mountaintop. Upon this altar you see the glory of Christ becoming present. Here he takes you into this glory. He makes you a part of it. Holy communion is the visible sign that the Lord Jesus Christ is not only divine glory for himself, but he shares this glory with all those who are saved with

[15:29]

in upon the mountain of the Transfiguration. That glory that is revealed to you in the Holy Eucharist, that you receive in Holy Communion, that is the law of your being, that is the power in which you live. You enter into the cloud, into that cloud which is the living congregation around you, your brethren in Christ, the church. She is the cloud. This community is the cloud of God's glory. And out of this cloud of God's glory, you hear that voice of the Father. This is my beloved song. And when this voice continues and says, Hear ye hear me. That means a doctor for you into that same sunshine, into that same glory, in the cloud, in the mosque.

[16:38]

You hear the voice of the Father. You become adopted children of God. But you also realize, my dear sons in Christ, that there was the voice of St. Peter, who spoke for all the other two apostles too, and he had been called by the Lord, and he had followed this call, and he had ascended with the Lord to Mount Tabor, and he saw the globe. But then he said, O let us built a tabernacle here. One for you and one for Moses and one for Elias. And then in these words is expressed a decisive, important danger of the monastic life.

[17:50]

You will find that in your life as monks, which is before you, You will find that. You will have already realized it in yourself. We hear the call. We follow upon the mountain. We see the glory. And still we come with our own human reaction. We are not yet on the line of God's thought. We do not yet move in the full light of his will. We come with our own hasty, precipitous decisions and desires and longs. And maybe the danger is even greater for a mother, because he may think in his heart he has done so much, leaving the world, He is doing, let us say, a good job in ascending the mountain, and all that may build up a confidence in him, that confidence which St.

[19:04]

Peter blurted out with his words, let us build tabernacles here. O poor St. Peter, would it not realize that upon this mountain, it was not a matter for him to build something for the Lord Jesus Christ, to prepare a dwelling place for him, but that the cloud of light would descend from heaven, the shakedita, the dwelling place. And in this dwelling place and out of it, he would hear the voice of the Father. This is my beloved Son, him you shall hear. St. Peter, you see, in his wrong zeal, in that hastiness of his impetuous nature, was too eager to look for his own contribution and what he could do, and it really was not what.

[20:15]

He really, it even was stupid. His heart, that is not what would be adequate to the glory of Christ, but that lucid love, that shakina, that divinely prepared wedding place, that love of the Holy Spirit, a gift to those who are with Christ on the mountain of the Transfiguration, That was the dwelling that the Lord himself wanted to and was and is building for Peter and John and James. And so it will be also in your life as much. You will always have your own plans. How would the tabernacle of the Lord should be built for others as well as for yourself? You will always find yourself hasty to decide, what do I have to do?

[21:24]

What do I want to do? What is my contribution? But, my dear sons in Christ, in the presence of God's glory in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are nothing. You receive the dwelling of He will give it to you. And that wedding place is the place where you listen in obedience to the Father's word. That is what makes you at home on the mountain of the Transfiguration. And that, my dear sons in Christ, this will of the Father is that you should follow the Lord The mountain of the Transfiguration is the preparation for the victory on Golgotha. The way your way as monks goes to Golgotha.

[22:29]

And there at the cross, there is where your house is made. There is where you are really transformed in your inner me. My dear sons, don't forget it. Don't move in a false world, in a world of your own personal dreams, in a world of hastily anticipated spiritual compassion. Don't consider the monastery as the paradise that you own as a garden of delight, but realize that the will of your Father, the voice that you will hear in the cloud, is the voice which calls the Lord Jesus Christ and you with him to the cross.

[23:31]

That, Lord, that you find the bounty, And that glory that dwells in the vast is a glory which is beautiful, which radiates from the cross from death. That you should never forget. Because that is the price of sin that we all have to pay. There we are guilty in Adam. We hastily want to wear the crown. before listening in obedience to the will of the Father. And from that fact, we have to suffer everyone individually in our own deepest heart. And that is the reason why the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Glory, stands before us, not only in his transfigured glory on Mount Abel,

[24:33]

but he stands also before us in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion with a purple garment and a crown of thorns on his head. The purple garment, that is the sign of his divinity. The crown of thorns on his head, that shows that he is the son of the firstborn, that he has taken upon himself What is the extreme opposite of glory? The thorns. The thorns are not only nothing, but they are something which does oppose to everything and which only can be destroyed because it is of no use for anything else. And that is what happens to you today too, my dear sons in Christ. You come here, you have followed the invitation of Christ.

[25:36]

During your novice age and during the three years of your temporary house, you have followed Christ, tried to ascend the mountain, following and learning the law of humility, the ladder of humility. And now that you are here, you see the power of Christ before you. but you also hear him talk about his exodus, about his departure, about his death. And here you are, and you receive there the monastic garment, and this monastic garment, at the same time, it is a garment of glory, it is a garment of fullness, that solemn garment of the cowl, which you wear here in choir at the feasts of Christ's glory. But you also take upon yourself the hood, and that hood, that is the crown of thorns, that is your burial, that is your dying with Christ.

[26:50]

These two things you take and never forget, that are the two poles between which your life is moving. And if you want to sit with Christ at his right hand, then you also have to forget what is below and you have to extend your heart to the things that are above. And you have to sacrifice your own sin that you may receive the crown and the garment of the Lord. My dear sons in Christ, I say this not only for yourself, but I say it also for your parents who are present here and for your relatives and for your friends and for all of us. This piece of the Transfiguration shows us that the King of the New Testament is the glory of God.

[27:55]

He not only sees, He is the glory of God. But he is this glory of God not for himself but he is it for us that we may share this glory. That is the reason why he died. He died for us. He gave his human life that we may receive his heavenly divine And that is also the meaning of this hour for you, you dolly with Christ, that you may hear his glory. But, my dear Son, St. Christ, and for all of us who are yet present as monks, not for ourselves, but it is for all those who are in contact with us, whom God has brought together here,

[28:57]

so that we may for them be also a mediator of glory. And that is what I wish your parents and your relatives and you all would understand. If you sit here at this moment, your socks, vested in the hat and with the cup over their head, and you realize that this means entering into Christ's death. Then, say your yes and amen, because this death of your children in Christ, that is for you glory, sharing in glory, by entering into their sacrifice with a triumphant, yes and amen, you yourself also will be showers of the glory, which is the powers and the inheritance of those who surrender completely to Christ the Lord.

[30:16]

You will be crowned in your children. They will be your crown. They will be your eternal joy. You will see them again. And you will live with them for all eternity. And you will think back at this son of God, all of us. Those two my sons in Christ will. And you, dear parents and relatives and friends, You all will think that. When we all meet in the presence of the Lord and throughout his glory, when we have passed through this life from glory to glory, when we have ended and the aches of this life has passed and the loneliness of death has passed, then we enter

[31:23]

into that eternal glory which finds us all together truly of one mind and of one heart, then all the barriers separate. Then there is no enclosure anymore which separates you, the parents and relatives, from the lost, their children and their friends. The enclosure will be all around us. It will be an all-embracing enclosure. There will be nothing outside of this enclosure. Our entire life will be in this enclosure. And that enclosure is the garden of the eternal life. And that enclosure is the cloud of glory into which we have been. And in this glory we constantly hear the voice of the Heavenly Father telling us and pointing to him who is the Son.

[32:31]

And he will say, listen to him. And with great joy we shall listen. Because what is he telling us? Blessed are you who are in spirit. Blessed are you that ask us. Blessed are you, the peacemakers. Blessed are the weak, for there is the land, the land of eternity. So, in great joy, we enter into this pact, all of us who are here present, into this living pact, which these two dear sons of Christ are entering upon at this moment. We don't regret it. that they leave us because they enter into the cloud of glory. My sons, consider away the contact you are about to make with the Lord.

[33:34]

Angels are yet visibly present, waiting to record your profession, of which you must give account at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, I present to you the perfect life which is expressed by imitating the Lord's manner of life. What you must embrace and what you must reject, I shall make dear. Therefore, my sons speak. Will you renounce this world and its arms? I will. Before there are any saints, do you promise stability, the conversion of your life, and obedience? I do promise. My dear brother of God, will you announce this word and this promise? I do promise. Before God it is saying to you, promise stability, the conversion of your life and obedience? I do promise.

[34:34]

May the Lord help you carry out successfully in your deeds what you have promised by you. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

[37:21]

In the year of our Lord, 1959, on the sixth day of August, the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, I, Andrew Charles Leach, of the Archdiocese of New York, do solemnly promise stability for conversion of my life and obedience to according to the rule of our Holy Father Benedict, in this venerable monastery of Mount Savior, before God and his saints, whose relics repose in this monastery, in the presence of the very Reverend Damasus Wimson, prior of the aforesaid monastery, and of the monks of the same, in testimony whereof I have written this chart with my own hand, on the date indicated above, name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In the year of our Lord, 1959, on the sixth day of August, the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, I, Martin Thomas Fuller, from the Archdiocese of Omaha, do solemnly promise stability to conversion of my life and obedience, according to the rule of our Holy Father Benedict.

[38:41]

In this venerable monastery of Mount Savior, before godly saints whose relics re-closed in his monastery. In the presence of the very indefinite wisdom, prior to the aforesaid monastery, meant monks of the saints. In Thessalonians, where I have written this chart, with my own hand, on the day it can be

[39:02]

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