I wanted to make something with the same chapter more. I wanted to keep it about Darwin. The general character of this Darwin, general idea of the Darwin, you know, try to explain The votum is what we call a mysterium. The mysterium is of course the experience in which the four of the lions gather together. As, for example, our Lord lives on the cross. It's the arch-mysterium. So the vow to witness across that, again, in the words of the Spirit, is a specific kind, it's a fact, which, let's say, occupies a moment, but this moment represents the entire life.

[01:18]

And it is, because it is, it also beyonds the day by day, labor, you know, man is in that way so much more, I can say, in some way approaching the angelic existence, which is, therefore, is filled, as it were, is supported, coordinated by the divine 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.

[02:25]

sitting, you see, they don't feel what is lacking in its own mysterious way. That is the case for baptism, you see. In baptism you have the baptismal vows. And these baptismal vows, the devil is renounced, the pledge is given to Christ, then comes in the consecration, the mysterious God's work of redemption, that places then the baptized Christian into their new status, into a marriage life, marriage life, that pledging of mutual So, betrothed, only betrothed. And that is, you know, that's too bad. It's something for better and for worse.

[03:29]

That's causing beyond the individual thing. So there again, you understand, being violent. St. Thomas, for example, explains the same for molesting vows. Molesting vows. The vow really, that is for him, makes the essence of the solidity of the vow. We speak of solemn vows today. Now the idea of solemn vows today is, of course, it's influenced by all kinds of canonical considerations today, but juridical considerations, at least in the West, you know, not in the East, in the West. possibilities of dispensing, you know, from vows. That's then always looms largest, you know, in the concept of the solemn vows. Less chance to get out of them later on. See you soon. Well, that's the Wendel. The, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the decisive thing for St.

[04:34]

Thomas still was, you know, what makes the solemnity of the vow? The divine consecration. divine benediction. In Ecclesia, or in Ecclesia, the public, you know, there is the Ecclesia. Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst. That is represented by the benediction, you see, or consecration. I think he even spoke, in the Middle Ages, he 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, it is not only, let's say, the holocaust, you know, offered on the part of the one who takes the vow, but it is also the divine blessing, you see, the consecration by an element which enters into this

[05:39]

act which is really beyond the human level. It in that way fills a subtlety, or animates, you know, gives it that character of stability which really the human will or human character can never give it. It's impossible. They analyze somebody who's candidate for solid vows, you know, for 10 years, and the psychoanalysts would not be able to say, this man would love to get through, you see, and stay in it. There are simply others, another level there, the level of the spirit. So therefore that, and that makes also, and St. Thomas makes the solenity of the vow, you know, it's that element of consecration. A vow like that is made in public, That means, who is the public? The whole mystical body of Christ.

[06:42]

And Coram Deo et Sancti says, the entire church. And therefore Coram Deo, what does that mean? Only, let's say before God, with God as an onlooker, But Kurandeo, wherever God looks on, he is there with his effective assistance, effective intervention. He doesn't look at the human event like one looks at the races, the horse races. Of course, nonsense. But that is corandeo, that means an effective relation, it doesn't mean a neutral relation, of observing critically. But it's nonsense. What does it mean if one says in the Old Testament, I appear before the face of the Lord? It's an attempt, of course, for the encounter.

[07:45]

Now therefore, but that is not, and that's what we had last time. You see, let us say then, that character of the vow has little to call it a mysterium, in that wide, broader sense of the word. But as far as the obligation is concerned, that is, what do these vows entail? There you have the difference, I mean, you know these things already, but there is 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 oratorios, the 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

[09:01]

so that he who may know man should never do otherwise, he will be condemned by him whom he mocks. But here they are there for these three things, for stability, conversion of its life, and obedience. In the context of the rule, as I have always pointed out, these three vows are in a certain relation to chapter one, where St. Benedict tries to define the strongest kind of vows, the synapse. And this here is, of course, this promise here, in oratorio, in the presence of all, of course, is, so to say, a synaptic vow. So, and therefore, in connection, you see, therefore with the background which Saint Benedict gives. There are the hermits, and there are the cerebrites, and there are the gyrobites.

[10:10]

Now, the anchorites, the hermits, what is their way of life? Their law is the Holy Spirit. They are, in that word, spiritually independent, so to speak, because of the specific fullness of the Spirit that they have. Therefore, as he said, they go out, having learned with many brethren how to fight against the devil, they will go out well armed for the ranks of the community through 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 has, of course, pointed out, the anchorite, the lively anchorite, is in that way not subject to obedience. As it is, obedience is necessary everywhere where community, where vita communis,

[11:17]

comet life is lived, you know, they are your beings. It's less than that. 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. You know, those who who get, you know, enter and 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. That's it. Therefore, they say that this first, this vow of obedience has to be viewed on the background of the hermetical line. Not, and I warn you against that interpretation, which I think is wrong, Not that the vow of obedience is a protest against the unquiet life, you know, and kind of condemns it.

[12:23]

That's not true. Because what Saint Benedict says is that the practice of obedience in the common life, in the family, may eventually lead the individual to the hermeneutical line. And then of course the hermeneutical line is beyond a rule. But it is a necessary stage for the hermetical line. Therefore the obedience is not against the hermetical line. Just as stability is not against, you know, see that. Often one has in later years, I mean, 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 stability for your entire life. Therefore, you have to stay in the monastery and in the community to the end of your life.

[13:28]

Of course, that is true as long as it is not with the permission and the help, you know, of the community. further going into a higher stage of union with God. There is not a breach of the vows, the fulfillment of these vows. Therefore I wouldn't take these vows, you know, as something which is now, stands my life absolutely for the whole reason. Once I make the vow of obedience, I have to have an Abbot, you know, telling me what to do all the rest of my life. That is the common acception 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, and the word votum, of course, you can find that very often in the Roman missal, votum, vota.

[14:41]

Opere musti di 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? Epsilon? No, no, no. Hydrate, you know. And Chi. And Eta. Orche. Epsilon. Don't think about it. Incubate. What is it? Epsilon. Don't think. Oishi. Oishi means what? Oishi. Yes? Prayer.

[15:42]

Prayer. Prayer. Votum, in the Latin, can mean the same as prayer. And that is the aspect under which the ease approaches the vow. The vow is a prayer. It's an act of worship. In fact, in that way, highest act of worship. It's a prayer, act of worship. It's what we call holocaust. Muta Nostra. It 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, in the West, too, every time after confession, then the penitent, you know, is called upon to make a resolution. That's a votum, okay?

[16:44]

It's a prayer. It's a prayer. Not as they say in the West again, you see. Get your will together, you know. Marshall your willpower. That's the idea of the resolution. Marshall your willpower. And then... from a faith aspect, from mythos. But that is not in the order. The botum, in that way, is a prayer. It's an act of worship. In the world of the spirit, you don't act by order or command. But in the world of despair, you act in prayer. It's the same thing as an act of worship. The Holy Spirit is the hypothesis of prayer.

[17:45]

And so in that way also, in the West, you know, it's much more like, in the East, you know, much more the votum, the monastic votum, seen as an act of worship. Therefore, 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. 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 officer. So it's that, you know, this act of worship which, as they say, colors the votum, the prayerful, you see, in that way, offering up yourself, you know, to God, puts it that way.

[18:59]

But in the West, of course, has worked much more on what we call the binding force. That means the legal aspect of what we would call the promise. The promise is also the word that Saint Benedict uses here. Prometatis deritate. 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. How can you therefore be dispensed of your vows? And then the other question comes always in the West, if you have taken a vow, then you break it. And what is the binding force of your vow? And how far, you know, what is, what in the West calls, what is materia voti?

[20:03]

What is the material of the vow? For example, if you take a solemn vow on the rule of sin-bidding, it's then every single prescription of the rule that you don't observe immortal sin, for example. And that's the thinking of the West, you know, it's the way we approach this problem. But there is this bond then, we came to that, you know, this vow of obedience, in relation certainly to the alt-right, but not against it. Then there is the other element, of course, here, the Serapites, you know, and there is the Operigus, in their actions they still conform to the standards of the world. In their absence, they still conform to the standards of the world, so that their tonsure marks them as liars before God.

[21:05]

So, that is the vow of conversion of morals, conversatio morum. Therefore, what is conversatio morum is that inner renouncement of the opera's equity. The works of the And to my mind, in that light, the meaning of the vow of conversion of morals has to be seen. And that then leads to what I told you yesterday when we spoke about not so much really that the conversion of morals, you know, is devoting oneself to the monastic life as opposed to the secular life. And then one must of course see now, and one can see that from the rule, what is the difference. That is very important to explore the depth and the meaning of the Rauch conversion.

[22:13]

And then comes the last one, the gyrophage, you know, and see what is there. The thing you see there, No, that's the Stabilitas here, yes. Ever roaming and never stable, given up to their own wills and the allurements of gluttony, and worse in all respects than the Seraphites. You see, ever roaming and never stable, that is the Stabilitas. Stabilitas in Congregation. So, after all, it seems to me that the relation is quite...

[22:58]

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