What do you see? Why is it in the name of the Lord? in front of the entire community, and of course I know that you are a little self-conscious about it all, but it is so important that right here at the beginning of your monastic life that fully understand what you are doing right at this moment. And there was that prostration of the true. Then what do you seek? And your answer was mercy. Now that, you see, is the beginning, that's the principle, and it's the quantum hit, you know, of your whole monastic life, and that's the sum total of what you are doing, and why you are here at this place.

[01:09]

You see, if you would, as a young man, if you would go to a let us say, to an agency or something, and you want a good job, the first rule what you would have to do is to show yourself, you know, in some way that makes a favorable, I would say even a little impression on the people who are there. They want to see that you are capable and that you are promising. And in the terms of the words, you can do that only by now a certain, you know, a certain affirmation, a certain attitude which shows that you are knowing what you are doing and so on. In other words, you have to be smart. But you don't have to be smart.

[02:12]

Do you see the difference? If you come to an agency, you wouldn't pass and say, mercy, they will throw you out. That's not the type of people they want. That's the whole difference. Why? Because they have to. What do you sell? You sell your energy, your capacities, that you have to contribute. But here in the monastery, you don't come with that feeling, now here comes the future of monastery. Now listen. You couldn't say then, mercy. So therefore mercy, that is a completely different beginning. That's the beginning in which you realize that you, in the depth of your heart, that you, what you want is to live out of God's love for you.

[03:23]

And you can do that only really truly if you are convinced that you need Him. In that famous agency, you know, where you want a job, you have to give The people feeling that you can contribute something, that they need. But here in this context of the monastery, that's why we say the monastery is not the world. It's a difference. It's a radical difference. And that difference consists in this region. We are not building here the Tower of Bethlehem. We are waiting for the heavenly Jerusalem to descend And the only way which we can help and you can help the tabernacle of Jerusalem to descend by that ride of the Lamb, we must understand all these things. It's only to say mercy, that means that's what we are waiting for, to be in our poverty.

[04:32]

This we do well. We all heard today that beautiful gospel of the Annunciation of Our Lady. When the angel came and said, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, I was completely surprised. There was something that she, all of the servants, never thought of because she was the poor one. She was the open hand of mankind, you know. She was the humble one, the established one. And so, do you forget the communion verse of the communion, the reception of Holy Communions? We say, the nominificat, the cause we portend, as they say, yes, the mighty ones he puts down from their throne, you know, and the poor ones he lifts up. And that is what Mary experienced, you know. And that was for Mary the beginning of her whole way in which she served God.

[05:38]

You come here to serve God. You don't come here to establish your own kingdom. You want to serve. You want to give yourself. That means you want to be recreated by God's mercy. You don't come that way to make a contribution. You want to be re-created. And that is, of course, the basic thing is humility. And that humility you show in this gesture that you cast yourself down on the floor. That is humility. You are like dust, you know. What that dust is for God and the hands of God's love. That is the most precious thing, because that can be formed. That can be the water, and the spirit can be formed into a living image of God.

[06:40]

That is what you want to become. That is the meaning of your knocking at the door, the entrance of the monastery. Therefore, what you do is here. is crying for mercy. First of all, you have to think right away that this cry for mercy does not necessarily and only suppose on your part complete corruption. You see, Our Lady in this Gospel practically, her answer to the angel is being confounded in her thinking. It's a cry for mercy. But it comes out of her chosen God-loved soul. It is the reflection of God's love for her that seemingly makes everything and every new act of God's grace a complete miracle. This, to me, is a great surprise, rising out of the abyss of her humility.

[07:50]

And that's for you, too. At this moment, when you will see that and you put on the tunic for the first time, what is your reaction? Reaction is, and this to me, to me. God's grace really stings you out. And that you should deep, you know, the thought in your heart, deeply. take it in, in gratitude, because that's the source for the glorification of God. You come to the monastery to glorify God. You can't glorify God if you consider yourself a god. You can glorify God only if you enter into the spirit of mirth, into the spirit of the creature that realizes that we are not made by ourselves. We are the result, we are the fruit of God's creative grace.

[08:54]

And then you cannot give thanks, only then. But you know, giving thanks is our greatest joy. Everybody who lives a monastic life and sits, you know, for example, at a celebration of the Holy Eucharist as this morning, we realize to give thanks is our greatest joy. That is our happiness. Because then we are really children, children of God, images of God. That is our happiness. So that is the first thing, what you do here today, ask them for mercy, that is that establishes your true relation to God. And that makes you servants of God, that makes you able to join the choir in which you give thanks. And you do that, of course, together with your brethren. And then there's the second thing that rose out of this, your cry for mercy. It's for the first time that we do it this year, that we waited, you know, until some candidates were together forming a group.

[10:04]

And that we then wanted to start a new year, as it were, because this year for us, as you're coming here, it's also for the communities, like, the beginning of a new year. And we feel that. We rejoice in your presence here. We feel encouragement by that. But we wouldn't feel that encouragement if you came here and said, now here, I want to have a good job. I want to make a career. Then we would kind of tremble. It won't be a struggle. It won't make everything. That's Babylon, not Jerusalem. So therefore, but if you come here, you know, and you ask for mercy, and all the house of those that sit around here, you know, your brethren, they just are drawn to you. They receive you. They say, there you are with me, brethren. If you would come here, you know, with other intentions, then everybody would immediately consider you as a competitor.

[11:14]

They would say, no, we keep them down a bit. We have to keep them low. But if you come in this and ask mercy, they will grant you. So, in other words, this word, you know, that you've said, opens to you the gates to become a family, you see, that you get out of your isolation, the splendid isolation of a gifted man, you know. Get out of that, you know. And there you are received, and you are considered as children, but as children, not, you know, kind of childish business, but then it's a fulfillment, you know, of the human, as I say, what God wants man to be, a child, his child. And so, that is the thing that I wanted to tell you today, too, that this word, mercy, this cry, mercy is the key to community life. Without that,

[12:14]

If you would ride your high horse to mark your arrogance, you would have all the doors around you locked, closed. You wouldn't come in, impossible. But if you said, mercy, there we are. And therefore, that is, you can see that too, not only in your own individual realm, you see, that for example, if you come here for And you say, what? Mercy, you see. Then you are among yourselves immediately. You are who? And I wish you would realize that. Now I think you do realize. You realize that here you are together. And you are not only nice young people or something like that, you know, but you are souls. Souls who belong together in the depth of your heart. You should feel that. You should, in that way, really rejoice in your being together and your being a group.

[13:22]

Yes, we do. You being a group, that's a great new dimension of our job. the individual interiorly and kind of automatically counts less than the group. The group is something new, and it's togetherness. And this togetherness, that is the real mark of the Holy Spirit. And that is why Mary, the humble handmaid of the Lord, was then the mother of the church. A new dimension opened up. I think it's so important for you. You see the Holy Father coming to New York and still visiting the United Nations, and this you are apt to respond still under the spell of this great and significant event. What does he do? He says, I come from the smallest, smallest, smallest state on earth.

[14:26]

What I have is 200 acres. And here I am. And therefore, thank God for this poverty, you know, because then, you see, I don't come as an interested person. I come as a disinterested person. And as a disinterested person, I can tell you something. and the interested persons cannot tell one another. If the United Nations were only a bunch of competing powers, it wouldn't demand anything. But there comes the Pope out of a different dimension, out of the dimension of mercy, the dimension of poverty, the dimension of service, And he is, of course, able to tell you something that in the conflict of our politics, they are angry that they are forgiven. And that is, of course, also you should realize that your cry for mercy as a kind of essence of your monastic life not only makes you members of a group beyond yourself, not only makes you truly members and brothers in this community,

[15:45]

but they also make you the brethren, the brothers of mankind. There is a complete and absolute universality in this one word of mercy that cannot be replaced by any other word. Any other word is a word of selfishness, egotism, and isolation. But the word mercy, that is a word which then opens to you the universality of mankind. Just as the Holy Father said when he put his foot here in this country, he said, there we are, we come from Rome. What does that mean, coming from Rome? That means from a city which made it its purpose, you know, to serve the universality of mankind in the political field and fulfilled in the church in the successor of Peter. who for that matter, too, is the one who serves the universality of mankind in the region of grace.

[16:51]

So therefore, that you must also think that we, as Mount Saviour, you and I stand, we don't want, you know, simply to be locked in and have nothing to do with the rest of the world, but out of this condition, you know, of this cry for mercy, there comes the farthest Why? I've been designed for the whole of mankind. And therefore such a community has then the power of creation. It has a concrete mission, a function here in this world, but that function is absolutely universe. And therefore we receive, and we receive everybody, as the root of what we call today ecumenism. So, until all these things you must realize, this little beginning that you do here, you must repeat that every single day. When you get up, you know the first thing is, interiorly, spiritually, cast yourself down before God, and say, here we are, mercy!

[18:00]

Why do we have mercy? And that means that you open the gates of your heart for God's love for you. And that is your strength. And not only your strength, that is first of all, that is your joy. And in that way, you become a light. And in that way, others may rejoice in your presence. So take that all to heart. Keep that. And I'm sure that if you stick to this motto of mercy, you will be children of God and living in that perfect joy that only the Father's love for his children can give to us. so therefore grace and mercy and peace be to you from the father of all Jesus

[18:55]

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