I'll try to explain that the other day. The bottom is what we call a mysterium. Mysterium is, of course, the spirit in which the whole of your life is gathered together. That's, for example, our Lord, dead from the cross on the street. arch-mysterial.

[01:03]

So the vow to, and of course that, again, in the word of the spirit, this specific character, it's an act which, let us say, occupies the moment of this moment that speaks to the entire life. And it is, because it is also beyond the say, the day-by-day, labour, you know, there is, in that way, so much more, we can say, in some way, approaching the angelic existence, you know, which is, therefore, is filled, as it were, is supported, populated by the divine consecration, where man reaches out for a totality which is beyond him, which cannot be reached in the concrete existence of his life, where he reaches out for that totality.

[02:27]

You don't feel what is lacking in its own mysterious way. That is the case for baptism. You have the baptismal vows. There are these baptismal vows. The devil is renounced. The pledge is given to Christ. Consecration, the mysterious God's work of redemption. They place us, then, to baptize Christians into their new status. In their marriage life, married life, you have that pledging of mutual betrothal. And there is never that student.

[03:27]

It's something, for better and for worse, that goes beyond the individual. St. Thomas, for example, explains the same for monastic vows. Vows are really, that is for him, makes the essence of the solenity of the vow. You see, we speak of solemn vows today. The idea of solemn vows today is, of course, it's infinite by all kinds of canonical considerations today, but juridical considerations, at least in the West, you know, not in the East, in the West. But the possibilities of dispensing, you know, from vows, then always looms largest, you know, in the concept of the solemn vows. There's less chance to get out of them later on, seriously. Well, that's the rest of it.

[04:32]

The decisive thing for St. Thomas, still what? What makes the solemnity of the vow a divine consecration, divine benediction? Even ecclesia, or an ecclesia, public, you know, there is the ecclesia. Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in them is. That is represented by the benediction. You see, your consecration. I think we even spoke, the Middle Ages even spoke about the ordinatio monarchy. And we today, too, we try to emphasize again this whole aspect that it is not only, you see, this act of the monastic profession is not only, let's say, the Holocaust, you know, offered on the part of the one who takes the world, but it is also the divine blessing, you see, the consecration by an event which enters into this act which is really beyond the human level, and in that way fills, supplement, or animates, you know, gives it that

[05:50]

character of stability, which really the human will or the human character can never give. Impossible. They analyzed somebody's candidate for solid vows, you know, for 10 years, and the psychoanalysts would not be able to say, this man will absolutely get through, you see, and stay. They are simply other, it's another level there, the level of the spirit. So therefore that and that makes also in St. Thomas makes the solidity of the vow, you know, is that element of consecration. A vow like that is made in public. That means, who is the public? The whole mystical body of Christ. Corambeo et Sancti says, the entire church. And therefore, Corandeo, what does that mean?

[06:53]

Not only, as I say, before God, with God as an onlooker, but Corandeo, wherever God looks on, he is there with his effective assistance, you know, effective intervention, doesn't it? Doesn't look, you see, I've got to look at that human event like one looks at the races, the horse races, you see. That is, of course, nonsense, you know. But that is corandeo, that means an effective relation, a neutral relation of observing, kind of critically, you know. That is nonsense. What does it mean if one says in the Old Testament, I appear before the face of the Lord? The temple, of course, for the encounter. Now, therefore, but that is not, and that's what we had the last, you see, let us say, that character or the vow, as little as we call it, a mysterious, or that wide, broader sense of the word.

[08:01]

But as far as the obligation is concerned, that is, you know, what do these vows entail? And there you have the difference, I mean, you know these things already. But there's the specific form that the vows take here is in chapter 58 of the rule. Now, this shall be the manner of his reception in the oratory. In the oratory, it's a beautiful. In oratorios, the first word of this whole, the manner of reception. In oratorios. In the presence of all, he shall promise stability, conversion of his life, and obedience. Stability, conversion of his life, and obedience. And this before God and his saints, so that he who may know that should ever do otherwise, he will be condemned by him, book he mocks.

[09:15]

They are therefore these three things, for stability, conversion of his life, and obedience. Now, in the context of the rule, and I have always pointed out, that these three vows are in a certain relation to chapter one, where St. Benedict tries to define the strongest kind of one, the synopsis. And this here, of course, This promise here, in oratorio, in the presence of all, of course, is, let's say, a celibitic love. And therefore, in connection, you see, therefore, with the background which Saint Benedict gives, there are the hermits, and there are the cerubites, and there are the gyrobites. Anchorites, the hermits, what is their way of life?

[10:18]

Their law is the Holy Spirit in them. They are, in that way, spiritually independent, so to speak, because of the specific fullness of the Spirit that they have. Therefore, as he says, they go out, having learned with many brethren how to fight against the living, they will go out, rail out for the ranks of the community. to the solitary combat of the desert. They are able now to live without the help of others, and by their own strength and God's assistance to fight against the temptations of mind and body. And therefore, and that's what St. Basil, as of course pointed out, the Anarchite, the life of the Anarchite, is in that way not subject to obedience. As it is, obedience is necessary everywhere where community, where vita comunis, common life is lived, you know, there the obedience is left.

[11:22]

Of course, here, the anchorite, say, who has arrived at the fullness of the Spirit, in that way, his law is the Holy Spirit. His law is the Holy Spirit. The rule is made for beginners. For those who get entered have to enter the school of the divine service. Now, you cannot have a school without a teacher. You cannot have any common life without a common authority. Therefore, they say that this vow of obedience has to be viewed on the background of the hermitical line. Not, and I warned you against that interpretation, which I think is wrong, not that the vow of obedience is a protest against the anchorite line, you know, and kind of condemns it.

[12:24]

That's not true. Because what St. Benedict says is that the practice of obedience in the common life, in the family, may eventually lead the individual to their American life. And then, of course, the American life is beyond a rule. But it is a necessary stage for the American life. Therefore, the obedience is not against the American life, just their stability is not against. Very often one has in later years, I mean, one has interpreted things in the West, you know, in that way. One said, now here, you have promised obedience, you know, for your entire life. You have promised ability for your entire life. Therefore, you have to stay in the monastery, in the community, to the end of your life.

[13:30]

Of course, that is true, as long as it is not, with the permission... They help, you know, the community if going into a higher stage of union with God. That is not a breach of the vows. It's a fulfillment of these vows. Therefore, I wouldn't take these vows, you know, as something which is now, stamps my life absolutely for the whole rest. Once I make the vow of obedience, I have to have an habit, you know, of telling me what to do all the rest of my life. That is the common exception in the West, you know, today. But one must always consider that there is a difference, you know, between the approach of the East and the West again, you know, to the vows, the vota. The East approaches the vota.

[14:32]

The word votum, of course, you can find that very often in the Roman Missal. Votum, vota. Of perimus tigi, vota nostra. We offer you our vows. What is a votum there? In the Greek language, the Latin votum is very often translated with the word orche. Orche. You know, e. What is it? Y, Y, you know, and T and Eta. Epsilon. Y, what is it? Y, Epsilon. And T and Eta. Eta. Orche means what?

[15:33]

Orche means prayer. Prayer. Prayer. Votum, in the Latin too, can mean the same as prayer. That is the aspect under which the ease approaches the vow. The vow is a prayer. It's an act of worship. It's, in fact, in that way, highest act of worship. It's a prayer, act of worship. It's what we call Holocaust, multa nostra. That means our prayers, our sacrifices, our resolutions, as we say sometimes in our language today. We offer you, God, our resolutions. Every time, you know, after the rest, too, every time, after confession, then the penitent, you know, is called one to make a resolution.

[16:42]

That's a votum. It's a prayer. It's a prayer. Not, as they say, the rest again, you see. Get your way together, you know, and struggle with your will. Martial your willpower. That's the idea of the resolution. Martial your willpower. And then that Prometheus aspect, Prometheus. But that is not in the organ. The votum in that way is a prayer. It's an act of worship. In the Word of the Spirit, you know, you don't act, you know, by order of command. In the Word of the Spirit, you act in prayer. The Holy Spirit is the hypothesis of prayer.

[17:46]

And so in that way also in the West, you know, it's much more, in the East, you know, much more the votum, the monastic votum seen as an act of worship. Therefore, it cannot be, for example, you can read Dennis the Areopagite. Dennis the Areopagite in the Hierarchia Ecclesiastica. There you find, you know, what he calls the mysterium, the consecration of the monk. Consecration of the monk. And that consecration of the monk is, of course, an act of worship. That's why it is, also in our present ritus, connected with the offered. Yeah. So it's that, you know, this act of which, let us say, call us the voto, so prayerful, let's say in that way, offering of yourself, you know, to God, put it that way.

[19:00]

But in the West, of course, has worked, you know, much more on the, what we call the binding force, that means the legal aspect, you know, of the what we would call the promise. The promise is also the word that St. Benedict uses here. I don't say that that element is lacking in the East, but it is not the predominant element. In the West, that is the predominant element. How can you therefore be dispensed from your vows? And then the other question comes always in the West, you know, if you have taken a vow, then you break it, you know, and so on. And what is the binding force of your vow, you see? And how far, you know, what is what in the West called, what is materia roti, you see?

[20:04]

What is the material of the vow? For example, if you take a solemn vow on the rule of sin building, it's that every single prescription of the rule that you don't observe him or the sin, for example. That's the thinking of the West, you know, that's the way we approach this problem. But there is this one thing, we came to that, you know, it's this vow of obedience. in relation certainly to the anchorite, but not against it. Then there is the other element, of course, here, the serabites, you know, and there is the operibus, in their actions, they still conform to the standards of the world. In their actions, they still conform to the standards of the world. so that their tonsure marks them as liars before God.

[21:07]

So, what is, that is the vow of conversion of morals, conversatio morum. Never, what is conversatio morum? Is that inner renouncement of the opera securi, the works of the world. And to my mind, in that light, the meaning of the flower, conversion of mormons, to be seen. And that then leads to what I told you yesterday when we spoke about, you know, the conversion of mormons, you know, is devoting oneself to the monastic life as opposed to the secular. And then one must, of course, see now And that one can see that from the rule, what is the difference? That is then important to explore the depth and the meaning of the round conversion of one.

[22:15]

And then comes the last one, the gyrofakes, you know, you see what is there. Thing you see there, ever roaming, no, that's the stability here, yes. Ever roaming and never stable. given up to their own wills and the allurements of gluttony. It's worse in all respects than the seraphites. Then, you see, have a wrong and have a staple. That is the stabilitas. Stabilitas incongruation. So, of course, it seems to me that the relation is quite... Thank you.

[23:03]

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