Thank you for your prayers today and bring the anniversary of my ordination. Looking back on it, you realize that in those days the question of the relation between the monk monastic vocation and the priestly vocation was not acute. It simply wasn't a, in that way, the status questions had not arisen. It's always very important to remember that, that the periods and various phases through which the life of the church goes are very different and problems that may be very acute at one time are not all acute at another time. So for me, the inner connection between the monastic vocation and the priestly vocation was always kind of clear.

[01:13]

And with the grace of God, I saw it all in the light of the one idea of Christ, who is the head of the monks and of the priests and of the entire body. of the church in the pin all things are knitted together and he is the high priest and he is this high priestly function means function of reconciliation reconciliation he has reconciled he has united in himself the lowest thing he has united to the highest thing the earthly thing and not only the earthly things but those things that were in the far away and opposed to God. Through his sacrifice, he has them to his incarnation. He has united them to the highest things, and that is the mercy of God the Father, that is the creative power of the Father, the glory of the Father.

[02:22]

And in that way, when I became a priest, I still remember that. very well interiorly I ask God that he may use me as an instrument of his peace and that what I wanted love to announce as mouthpiece is the glad tidings, a herald to become a herald of the feast. was so clear at the time. Through the, of course, that's all part of the spirit of the monastery of Maria Lach, Maria Gura, and to, in that way, to today, one would say, with the, let us say, in this phase in which we are now, would say, to serve this Mendezina

[03:24]

converging movement. We call it reconciliation, but it's a converging movement. You could see that so clearly also yesterday or the day before in Father Panikkar's little talk. It was, of course, in improvisation. here and there may be daring in statements, but the important thing is to see, I think, what is the inner spirit, the spirit of converging lines. Does it mean that all that is done without battling with our death, you know, certainly, but it is simply also the thing that we feel so very strongly, that is, That is at work in our days, opening the hearts and bringing about new dimensions of union, unity.

[04:29]

And that is the other thing, you see, to be an instrument of his peace, to serve the community life. I must confess that just in the The older you get, the more, with the grace of God, you try to become objective towards yourself and to look at yourself really with the eyes of Christ, with the eyes of the judge, because judgment is approaching. And it is one of the themes of the monastic life for us to anticipate judgment. and to live under judgment. And, of course, it is amazing how obstinate we are as human beings, how difficult it is to let a certain spirit enter into every realm of our being. It's even sometimes seems to be sheer impossible.

[05:31]

One falls always into the same old grooves and one captures oneself again at the same kind of pattern of behavior and of judging and of thinking all the time. But of course there that is the first function also of the priest is, and in that way there's no difference between the priest and the monk, is to open the possibilities for God's grace to accomplish that reconciliation in himself. and to help in his own little microcosmos to let and allow the lions to converge, converge in the cross and glory of Christ. He is the knot in whom all things are tied together. That also, that knot, has to work in us to tie the loose ends together that everybody has in himself.

[06:36]

then, of course, also to us is in the Church, in the larger context of the Church of God. And now we see that more and more, and we get more appreciative all the time of the vision of St. Paul, to whom the whole of creation was sighing for the glory, the manifestation of the glory of the children of God. And all the things, or many of the things, let's say, that we experience today and that we are going through are on this line. And we as monks, we must be in that way clear and we must be conscious also of this, one can really call it, our cosmic function. And one can see this in the workings of a community, see, why is the witness. of a monastery so important because there are people and there are very different people and everybody who comes realizes the tremendous differences that are there but that then gives witness to the higher power of unity unity in the Holy Spirit that there is really this power that makes things converge and that is

[08:00]

The Holy Spirit, but he has to do that through human hearts. And the human hearts first have to be pacified interiorly themselves. Then they have to get that inner contact among each other. And then maybe, you see, one can speak about further fields, the fields of the nation or the fields of certain... civilization or the fields of mankind or the fields even of creation but of course for us as human beings that recapitulation and to be part of the process of recapitulation of the role of creation that is of course only possible through our hearts that is the And that is therefore something that we have to watch. And the monk's calling is to watch the purity of the heart.

[09:07]

That is really to be an instrument in God's constructive, magnifying, praising glory. And then to, from there then to take the role of creation. So in that way, again, there's a deep inner harmony between monasticism and the priesthood, not in a function, but in the spirit. The spirit is the same, the born spirit of Christ, the Panto Christ,

[09:45]

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