You could continue now with the ceremony, you know. Oh, I give you the word now, so I thought that was... You can see that, dear brother, that... I'm a little excited, you know, after all it's Pentecost and the Holy Spirit moves the hearts, you know. In a certain contrast to this, our present ceremony that we have here for you constitutes an exemplar of, shall we say, soberness, you know, sober to the axis. And it comes down to form, which seems to be just the writing and signing of a doctrine. Still, I think that has a deep meaning, as those things have.

[01:09]

where divine providence prepares them. And here we are, and you are kneeling here in order to make your profession, the first triennial profession. And we are gathered here together and we do it in the context of the terse of that hour when the Holy Spirit descended. And that fills up a little our ceremony, I think. and then we confirm it by the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, which will immediately follow our little ceremony here. Now this morning, just without knowing anything about it or planning anything of the kind, I was just reading in the plain parochial sermons of Newman.

[02:12]

And I came on a series of sermons there which are, I think, very appropriate for the moment I just read to you the titles. The first is profession without practice. And that is a sermon on hypocrisy. And hypocrisy are those and hypocrites are those who profess in public without practicing, deceiving others and deceiving themselves. Then the other sermon, the second one is profession without hypocrisy. And in this sermon, profession without hypocrisy, Newman really touches, not only touches, but goes in to the very essence of this act and of your status that you acquire, as it were, through this vow.

[03:15]

We used to call this, in the pro-Vatican Second Time, the state of perfection. But then, of course, one shrank away from this word, and for good reasons. The state of perfection seems to be something which is hypocritical. That means it is a profession of something that one really is not. And the question, of course, arises then, also in this very moment in which you are now involved, the contents of your profession are really tremendous. You profess, you promise obedience,

[04:17]

conversion of morals, of your manner of life, and you promise stability in this manner of life and in this congregation. And, of course, it is evident you will not live up to it. Is then an act like this hypocrisy? And how can we avoid it to become hypocrisy? It's evident the question if one should do an act like this is already answered by the very fact that every one of us is baptized, has been baptized, and the baptized has put on Christ. No. Who really has put on Christ? Still in baptism, too, we have made or taken vows, you know, the vow of turning to Christ and leaving the world in all its prompts and to turn to Christ and to trust in him.

[05:36]

And a new garment, a white garment, has been put upon us and the light candle has been given into our hands. Evidently, all these things are beyond our actual reality. We are not really anything like this, white and with a burning candle. We fall short of it, there is no doubt about it. Is then the conclusion we can draw from such a state of thing, is it then this, that no one at all ought to be baptized in any case and should be called a Christian? because the very name of Christianus means that he is another Christ. Is he really another Christ? Does he act up to his baptismal profession? It's evident that no one believes and worships and obeys duly the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost, whose servant he's made in baptism.

[06:46]

And yet, Newman says, the Lord did say, go baptize all nations, clearly showing that a man may be a fit subject for baptism, though he does not, in fact, practice everything that he professes, and therefore that any fears we may have, lest men should be in some sense like the Pharisees, must not keep us from making them Christians. And I think the same also is true for our profession. We should, though we realize that we are not and do not live up to our vows, still we make them. The question is, and we do it in the same spirit in which we received the white garment and the burning candle after we have been baptized. One would say this.

[07:49]

And Newman explains it very beautifully. In answer to such a matter of reasoning and acting, I would maintain that no one is to be reckoned a Pharisee or a hypocrite. For example, in the act of praying, the act of praying is completely beyond us. And in that way, nobody prays in such a way that his prayer should be and could be considered a perfect prayer. And still, everyone should pray as long as he tries not to be a Pharisee in doing this, but who aims at knowing and aims at correcting himself all the time. and who is accustomed to pray, though not perfectly, yet not indolently or in a self-satisfied way. However lamentable his actual wanderings of mind may be, again how poorly he enters into the meaning of his prayers, even when he attends to them.

[09:03]

And that is, of course, our whole thing. What you enter, what you profess, you enter, you profess to enter into a school, to a school of divine service. And therefore what you profess is not masterhood, but it is disciple, discipleship. You enter as a disciple. So this, your profession, is not against your discipleship, but is a profession of discipleship. And therefore, it is done in the conviction that this, what you do, is not a profession what you are, but it is a profession what you are long to become. And this, what you are doing, is a help is a help to becoming this. It is not the seal of something that you have done, but it is a help, an attempt for you to do what Christ tells you to do.

[10:08]

Therefore, one should, under this context, in this way, also always consider the whole monastic life. What we and what the monastic rule is really is not a rule of perfection and of perfect behavior, but it is a rule which helps us in our attempt, for example, to be attentive at prayer or to enter into the meaning of prayer. What the profession tells you to do is really this, you know, that you should systematically try. Systematically try. That is the key, let us say, to our whole monastic life. And that is what in some way singles us out, if you can call it that way.

[11:11]

Systematically, making a point of attempting and attempting over and over again in spite of bad success. And not only, and that's the difference, you know, attempt only now and then, And then consider our best devotion only when our hearts are actually excited by some accident which may or may not happen again. So this is the important thing that you, I'm sure you keep in mind because you are, thank God, as a Dane, you know, being a little melancholic nature, you are by nature against ostentation anyhow. You are by nature not a hypocrite and a Pharisee. What you want is simpleness. And what you have is what Newman may call the tenderness of conscience.

[12:20]

And there he says, whoever from tenderness of conscience, for example, shuns the church as above him, shunning her services or her sacraments. But awful as it is to approach Christ and to speak to him, you should think about it and you think about it and we all think about it. Awful as it is to approach Christ, to speak to him, to eat his flesh and drink his blood and to live in him, as awful as it is, If we realize that and our tenderness of consciousness manifests this to us, to whom shall we go? See? If we follow this, we know that Christ is the only way to salvation open to sinners. And truly we are children. and cannot suitably feel the words which the Church teaches us, though we may say them after her, nor feel duly reverent at God's presence.

[13:33]

We may not feel duly reverent at God's presence. Who does? Who can? Who could? It let us but know our own ignorance and weakness, and at that very moment we are safe. God accepts those who thus come in faith, bringing nothing as their offering, as you do today. You don't come with your hands full of the tremendous weight of your own life and your own goodwill. But you come really here to this profession also in the complete consciousness of your sins and of your limitations and of your corrupt nature. And therefore, in some way, what you do is a confession not of virtue, it's a confession of sin, because you come to promise conversion. And this is really the highest excellence, everyone says, to which we ordinarily attain, to understand our own hypocrisy, insincerity, and shallowness of mind.

[14:44]

to own while we pray that we really cannot pray aright, to repent our repentance, and to submit ourselves wholly to Christ's judgment, who could indeed be extreme with us, but has already shown his loving kindness in bidding us to pray. And while we thus conduct ourselves, we must learn to feel that God knows all this before we say it and far better than we do. He does not need to be informed of our extreme worthlessness. We must pray in the spirit and the temper of the extreme's abasement. But we do not search for adequate words to express this, for in truth no words are bad enough for our case. Some men are dissatisfied with the confessions of sin we make in church as not being strong enough.

[15:46]

But none can be strong enough. Let us be satisfied with the sober words which have been ever in use, and it will be a great thing if we enter into them. no need of searching for impassioned words to express our repentance when we do not rightly enter even into the most ordinary expressions. It's very important to understand the whole world of the public worship of the church. And we should not always try and think And Newman says it's nothing so distressing to a true Christian as to have to prove himself such to others. Both as being conscious of his own numberless failings and from his dislike to display.

[16:48]

And Christ has anticipated the difficulties of our modesty. He does not allow such a one to speak for himself. He, Christ, speaks for him. And in each of us to his brethren, not as we are in ourselves, fit to be despised and rejected on account of the temptations which are in our flesh, but he helps us to speak as messengers of God and even as Christ Jesus. In this, this is the, one can say the spirit also of this profession, profession without ostentation. And because it's profession without ostentation, it is not promising without doing. We are sincere in thus genuinely and desiring and purposing to be obedient, and we think we are earnest.

[17:55]

But, of course, always the possibility is we go away and we forget everything about it. That is, of course, our great thing, that we do what the first Sunday we promised and then we forget all about it. But that is not your case, I'm absolutely sure, and that is why I rejoice in your special profession today. That you promise without ostentation and you promise therefore also in the attitude of the first son who said, now I won't do it. But then he repented and then he did it. And I think that is also your case. And that gives us also the promise of your endurance. And we have to think, you know, that the Holy Spirit, today is his feast, is not the one who agitates people, but he is the one who confirms.

[19:05]

And the matter of confirmation is something which is done in humble, modest endurance in the everyday promising and doing and doing in the little things of the everyday life dear brother you are needing there for such a long time we have to come to the real thing now but i think you understand what i meant Then, my son, do you wish to promise for a period of three years your stability, conversion of your life, and the obedience before God and his saints? I do promise. The Lord be with you.

[20:33]

And with your spirit. Let us pray, oh God, to inspire those who are converted from the vanity of the world to strive for the rewards of the heavenly vocation. And you prepare in heaven a home for those who renounce this world. inflame the heart of your servant with heavenly graces, that he may be born with us in the bond of bodily love, and may with singleness of heart observe the monastic law, and may in sobriety, simplicity, and peace realize the grace of conversion you have freely given him. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. Now we celebrate.

[21:15]

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