Now, there's the question if he, at that time, should already have his ear shorn or not. It would be better to have it shorn than not. Then the second step is that of Anonymous. And there, of course, is the The rule of that novice has the habit, and that is, of course, something that is new to this year, and there was the question of the mandatum, therefore we said, you know, that. I think I later found that, you know, he had to, I mean, it came just to my mind a little You know, we didn't hear a distinguished, really, two faces. The one of the cool sons, who is kind of treated rather unclean, this boy.

[01:08]

Find out, you know, what, you know, see if the spirit's really gone. And when he is admitted into the guesthouse for a few days... Now, one cannot, of course, not prove those things, you know, but if he is admitted in the guesthouse, probably also in that moment then treated as a guest, you know. So that... And that's... There is then the... the mandatum would be suitable there, at that moment, as a section into the monastic family. Now, I have hinted at a little hint here, things that may be that that's only the habit of Christoph Peter, not the others. There are some reactions to that. the heart, you know, was engaged that if it were not better, you know, it would also be too puritanical.

[02:20]

And, you know, that is, as I say, that is pretty good. You then can know what this of the idea that one must have the mandatum, it is that idea of really receiving, you know, this child of the family, and such that is, of course, moments that we all relate to, we all those who have. That's certainly gratitude and also the common of all, each one, you know, and kissing the feet now, therefore that is a thing which I think it would be done in such a way that people really agree that this is, you know, what we would like to know. Then it's the, uh, let's see.

[03:24]

Gotcha. I in this. that acche be iugum domine, take upon you the yoke of our Lord Jesus Christ, and carry his burden, it is sweet and light. However, the ham, the scapula, at this moment is not blessed, because it is, for that matter, Now it is not really the giving of the monastic habit. Then we have, after that, we have then later on the triennial profession. Hence there, in the right of simple profession, there comes then, that is really the element which is here, the promisor et istabilitatis tua perseverantia, if he promised to persevere in his purpose, and at the end of two months his rule, that we hold the law in which you wish to serve, you cannot serve in any terms, you cannot freely promise.

[04:39]

Therefore, there is the moment for the interrogation as we have it. You are well equated and so on with the rule, now tell us who you are. There is the interrogation as we have it also in the Preparation for baptism. There are the baptismal promises. That is the last preparatory stage for receiving the sacrament. However, since this is not yet the solemn profession, it's not, in a way, the real incorporation into the status of the monk, the sushi bear and things that really are taken from that, right, and taken out of that situation, they would be what?

[05:42]

and the bringing of the chart to the altar at this moment. The simple profession is the public promise to persevere in the monastery under the rule for the three years as that is prescribed in the canon law and of this now here in this suggestions here that the way we They're worked out. There are different recommendations which are here placed in order of preference. The first is that there is, at least at the simple profession, no chart. The profession is made simply in answer to the interrogation. The profession, of course, must be recorded in the register, just as we have that also in the elaboration of the categories in the register.

[06:49]

In every case, and therefore also in the register, it is signed actually by the one who makes the profession. Another suggestion here is that there is no chart. The candidate writes the formula of profession as previously in the register. At the ceremony, the answer to the interrogation is the profession. We have of course now, and I think you realize that too, we have really in the right of solid profession as we have it now, we have a duplication. There is first the profession in the form of an interrogation, And then afterwards the same thing that is professed, that is promised in the interrogation is again read in the charter, in the petition, what we call the petition, in the document, which in itself is a duplication.

[07:54]

That, of course, has its good meaning, as it is here in the also in the rule, if that is the interrogation. It marks a special stage in the preparation for the sole profession, this stage in which the candidate now publicly promises the observance of the rule for three years. And as I say, that is put in the register, and therefore is put down certainly also into the archive, but not in the form of a chart. Or there is a chart, and the candidate is here, the candidate signs it, and he writes it out before the ceremony. And at the ceremony he reads it, and shows it to the superior, then kneeling, gives it to the superior, hands it to the master of ceremonies and means then afterwards kneeling before the

[09:01]

superior, and then we conclude with prayers. I said, Lord have mercy on our Father, Lord be with you, and then the prayer that we have at present, the God who called your chosen servant from the turmoil of the world. And then after the prayer, which is the blessing, To the promise, the novice master leads the candidate to his place in the choir, and then he leaves, or retreats, and retires then in Greece as a novice, and afterwards at a suitable time with the Pax. Now, the right of monastic profession, you see, that was the idea. Now we have, I think you all feel that in some way, that the right of certain profession, and it's of course the tendency that these servants always have, in itself they grow, and they kind of, let us say, follow the law of their own solenity, and in some way then grow so much in proportion that they kind of interrupt, you know, the structure and the process of the mass.

[10:19]

And that is the difficulty. You see, the priest here, you notice that. He says, goes to the altar and says, reads the offertory versicle. And then the thing stops. Then he leaves his place. He gets around the altar. He sits down. Now a whole new ceremony starts during this. And then after the ceremony is over, then the mass is being resumed. Now the idea here that was proposed here, worked out, was to strictly work the monastic profession and make the monastic profession a part really incorporated into the offertory. That is of course not a thing which is simply arbitrary, but is a thing which, as you know, is certainly expressed here clearly for the offering of the sons of the rich and of the poor.

[11:27]

At the offertory, you see, there is again, you know, now here, in this case, because he's too young, the petition is drawn up by the herds. Then at the offertory, As you see here, let them wrap the petition and the boy's hand in the altar cloth and so offer him. Therefore, here the oblation is connected with the mass itself and one can take that also as at least that we can't prove it. from the text of the rule, but, I mean, it's in all probability, and anyhow, there has been the monastic tradition, you know, in memorables. from ages down, that the solemn profession is done in the mass, as part of the mass, at the altar, and therefore we're putting the chart of the chart on the altar and all these things.

[12:30]

So the meaning here is to make that very clear, and maybe even clearer as we have it now, by working it into the very act of offering. In this way, the offertory antiphon is shown as usual, and then the candidate takes his chart from the offertory table, where it was placed before the mass, and there, of course, the chart then is already signed, and in that form is put on the offertory table. And then he takes it, the most place before the Mass, and he follows the president of choir who carries the oblata to the altar. And the president of choir and the candidate then remain at the side of the altar after the oblata have been taken, that means the bread and wine have been taken by the deacon and the acolyte.

[13:33]

Then, after the offering of the chalice, that is, of course, that is also not an invention, but that is the old tradition, also in the solemn ceremony, the profession takes place after the offering of the chalice. because there is the way it is offered, why it is offered, and now comes the one who enters in an absolute singular, unique way into this oblatio through his sort of profession. So then, after the offering of the chalice and the prayers in spiritu militaris, veni sanctificatio, then the servant and deacon turn towards the candidate and the whole community stands. And then the candidate then reads his profession chart, which he has signed beforehand when he wrote it. And he then shows it to the celebrant, the deacon, and the president of the choir.

[14:37]

And after this, then, he places it on the altar, and then he kisses the altar. then standing on the padella at the side of the altar, then he raises his arms. Ernst, just not to know this, kneeling down and so on, when he is left out, he simply raises his arms and he sings, Proceed me, O Lord, thrice, elevating the tone, each time Ernst, the solemnly professed repeat, The verse, and after the third repetition, the whole choir sings, Glory be to Father, and then the professed crosses his arms. Now, at the conclusion of the doxology, then the newly professed goes to the middle of the choir where he prostrates, and there he begs the prayers of the brethren.

[15:41]

And then all the brethren bow profoundly and pray in silence. And at a sign from the celibate, the acolyte brings the cowl, and the president of choir goes to the newly professed. And the celibate pronounces the formula of blessing over the cowl, and the community stand erect again. And the newly professed rises, goes to the side of the predella, and there he kneels. blessing of the cows, may this gown be blessed and hallowed, which our Holy Fathers ordained to be worn as a sign of humility by those renouncing the world, and that our brother, about to be clothed with it, may deserve to put on Christ. And then the servant invests the newly professed, and leaving the hood raised, says my son, put on the new man, the Lord Jesus Christ. and the newly professed rites accompanied by the presence of choir goes to his place, new rites covered, until he receives Holy Communion.

[16:48]

Now, that was the suggestion Rismus Markle made here. Personally, I must say that, you see, there is always that question with the clothing, you know, you remember that We have before, in the present custom, the posthumous receives the tunic, and then when you know, for the novice, you see, then that is, of course, in our time, that is the time when he kind of gets the habit, you know, but it's really, as I say, I think the investiture is really the solemn expression of, let us say, the sacramental character also of this act here. the sort of profession, and therefore, but you remember that usually, I mean, yes, we have it now, the postulant appears then in the secular dress.

[17:57]

Now, of course, some people may or may at first glance think, oh my, this is a little artificial. Of course, in some way there is an element, you know, of that is in there, especially if we do it as we do it now. the master of novices comes and then says, you know, now here there's somebody waiting outside, he wants you. And then there is a beep, and then I said, oh my, yes, that's the way he looked about six months ago. And I was a little, maybe a little confused, you know, at that. I think personally it really is better if this little question, you know, of the novice master would be put to the abbot and the community at the moment where the candidate, so to speak, becomes a postulate, you know, and then, of course, would not be repeated for the novice.

[19:03]

However, that's a question that... came to my mind as reading these things, there is of course a meaning behind it, and that is that the tunic, you see, that the candidate, the postulant wears, is of course not a religious garb. It's in itself a pure external thing of conformity, you see, of conformity with the whole. If you live in the monastery, then of course you take that. The tunic is the kind of minimum, you know, it's set, you know, it's the undergarment, you know. Minimum, you see, they offer a certain conformity, and that's the reason why it is done. But I ask myself, you know, it would... Here in Saint Benedict, of course, he makes it very clear, he says, at the certain profession, there the one who is being professed should take off his own things.

[20:13]

and the things of the monastery should be put on him. And that is, of course, as I say, that is the external sign of the change that takes place. He gets rid of what is his, And he takes all of what is the monasteries. I mean, the idea came to me that maybe this change, you know, of Gaul, which is in itself a tremendous significant thing, and it's, of course, old monastic tradition. If you read Dionysius' Theologian, it's all clear there in the Orient. It is also so. And then you remember, for example, for the Consecratio Virginum, saying that the yogo for a time leaves and goes to the sacristy and then appears, you know, in your new dress. Now in the... Old times, you know, they would stand all around him, and then, if he was a he, they would change.

[21:22]

The change was very radical. I mean, as radical as possible. And then he would say this new thing. Now, there was, of course, the thing that here, too, we might, you know, here at this moment, you know, where you really receive... I mean, there is no doubt about it. And what he had before was really, in that way, never, so to speak, official. It was never really giving the habit power to wear it so that he would be buried in it, and this habit would appear before the face of God. That's, of course, not true. the case, you know, with the little scapula, and that's not the case with the little cowl without sleeves, you know, that's what the triennial professed in some monasteries, all that are, as it were, concessions, you know, they have that privilege, you know, to wear the hat, but not on the basis of their really being monks.

[22:37]

but on the basis of their preparatory living with the monastic community. So maybe at this moment, you know, he would appear, you know, in his section of dress, and then really the hour of tithes would come. So, Ernst, the celibate, then invests the newly professed and leaves the neighborhood waste and says, put on the new man, the Lord Jesus Christ, raise and accommodate Father. Let's know the choir goes to his place and they remain in the cupboard and he receives Holy Communion. Then in the communion profession, the newly professed follows the president who leads the procession, and when he stands at the place where he will receive, then the servant, handing the pattern to the deacon, empowers the newly professed. That was always, you know, that was a very... significant rites, the monk dies, and of course he has his hood on there during the Resurrection, which is of course the canon of the Mass.

[23:51]

While in Holy Communion, there he receives the kiss of peace. That is the Resurrection, that is the entry into the life in the And therefore, then, when he stands, you see the servant handing the cup to the deacon, uncovers the nunic profess, gives him the pacts, and then gives him holy communion. Then the nunic profess returns to his place. The rest of the choir receives. He does so after the nunic profess. So he is the first. Then after the communion, the nunic profess, then he returns to his own place. Then after the last gospel, the servant takes The proficient shark from the orator carries him out with him, and the community goes to the crypt to give the packs to the newly professed, not waiting for the servants. little Gregorian details.

[24:54]

There still was not the right for the receiving of the obelisks, but now you have the picture of these three, that is what I want to give you. I realise there's a long ways to go, but he finds that in the parable of the mustard seed, and in that of the… what is that?

[25:57]

The leaven, which then is always the beginning, is out of proportion to the end, so that it's absolutely clear that the end is not the result and doom to any glorious beginnings. But between this very small and insignificant beginning and this great fulfillment effect, there is then the grace of God, there is the sharing of the kingdom of God, the power of God, And that brings about this miracle. And that is also what we should consider if we celebrate in such a beautiful way the reception of new members into the community.

[27:09]

They are mustard seeds. They are a little piece of leaven But they shouldn't be worried when they realize that. But they should enlarge their hearts, but in the right way, in the way of faith, in the way which leads them into the kingdom of God, so that they are really ruled by God in all their actions. And that is the meaning of the rule of St. Benedict. that the monk is ruled in all his actions by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the level, and that is the power which then has that great and wonderful effect. And then once one realises that, this hopeless, let's say, difference between the beginning and the end, then we'll also realise that if only the grace of God, the Kingdom of God is the bridge between the two, that we can't enter into it without prayer.

[28:31]

So therefore I wanted to ask that too for the three that were received yesterday as children into our community and also for everyone that we remember of the community because happens in one or three, that in some way happens to all. Always consider that every good work, as St. Benedict says, that is begun and only through prayer be brought to perfection. Whenever somebody in his own finds himself faced, you know, with seemingly insurmountable mountains and difficulties on his monastic path, he must always think of that, that there are the eagle's wings of God's grace. And prayer is the way to get on these eagles.

[29:36]

And then he will be carried to the place where God wants him. And that is then God himself. The beautiful word of the prophet Jeremiah maybe applies here too. The word of God, he says, one has to carry to carry them, because to walk they are not able. And that is exactly here. Always this great mystery of divine grace. We are not able to walk. We have to be carried. But as already the God of the Old Testament of Israel says, I carry them on eagles' wings, and I bring them to my sin. and baptizing and preaching the baptism of tenets to the remission of sins, and then with greater intensity and absoluteness than repeated by our Lord.

[31:23]

After St. John was handed over, arrested into the hands of his enemies, Jesus came to Galilee and he was preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. He said, time is there. The kingdom of God is at hand. Do penance and believe the gospel. Now, the detail, a little more of the interpretation of these words, that we shall do later, but at the moment it's then sufficient for us to see balance is the key to the Kingdom of Heaven. And, therefore, it is of great importance that we realize what is meant by our Lord and all through the New Testament with this word metanoia. And there are certain difficulties, as it is with our whole Christian vocabulary.

[32:30]

We are so accustomed to it that sometimes these words get associated with, for example, an external ritual. or with other superficial associations that cluster around it in that way, cover the real importance and meaning of such words. So we have popular concepts of what it means doing penance, people would say. For example, in our days it crystallizes most around the sacrament of penance. That is for people the way in which the metanoia enters into their Christian lives. one can't even say enters in some way the routine of their Christian lives.

[33:37]

People who go to confession every week, every Saturday, you know, dear, good ladies, you know, who come for the dusting off. And usually are those who, I must say, would now, again, you know, superficially speaking, They don't have to go to the sacrament of penance, but how much they are in need of metanoia, that is, of course, a completely different question. What I mean, good people going to confession on Saturday, And then, due a confession, then they are asked and they are told, now your penance is, no matter what they say, a decade of the rosary. So that then the idea of penance, again, is connected with doing something.

[34:39]

For example, they would say the next time when they come back to the sacrament of confession, they will say, I have set my penance. So there is saying one's penance. And in that way, the... way in which people speak about penance is, as I said, a very, in danger at least, to become superficial. Now we have, of course, deeper levels, you know, in which we speak about penance, we speak, for example, in the religious life, we say that, for example, the chap's life is a penitential life. I will speak there about penitential life. Again, the idea is very much that it is a life of a certain austerity, or we say, for example, this or that one is a great, now we say in German, let's say, ein großer büßer.

[35:53]

because of Musa, Simeon's deleter, you know, who stands all his life on a column and there leads a life of great austerity, great penitence. Now there the idea then is, as I say again, connected with certain works of penance. And then also, for example, when we start the Lenten season, everybody knows the Lenten season is a penitential season. Now, the first association which presents itself there is that the penitential season is connected with the idea of fasting. And then that again becomes concrete in the life of people with the idea of giving up this or giving up that, giving up candy,

[36:58]

or giving up going to movies or things like that. Therefore, certain works, you know, giving up certain pleasures that the world offers in a very harmless way, but during a penitential season they are giving up. So then also the associations go back, for example, to the... say to the Old Testament times when we start Ash Wednesday, that is the beginning of the penitential season, and there we receive the cross of ashes and we are told, you are dust and unto dust you shall return. That reminds us, you know, that penance is connected with the idea of death, with the idea of judgment, and of preparing for it, and of humbling ourselves, the idea of humility.

[38:03]

And all these various ways, therefore, present to us penance as being accomplished, through certain works. We have in the past, and I just wanted to remind those who maybe come recently to the monastery, but we have tried in the past to throw some light into this whole idea of penance, by looking at it in the light of three words or the vocabulary of him. They are pointed out, you know, that in three ways. One is the, say, the Jewish way, and in the Jewish way of work of the Old Testament, the idea of penance is expressed in the word shub, or in the substantive teshubah.

[39:14]

That is then the to go back, to turn. the idea of conversion, to take on a new direction, to walk a different way. We are in one way of darkness, we turn to the way of light. What is this way of light in the idea of the Old Testament? It is the law. The law is the lamp to my feet. So, therefore, conversion in the sense of Old Testament for the Jewish idea means the turning away from what we'll call godlessness or sin, that means doing things without God, against God's commandments, And turning to the way of light, the way of light is the fulfillment of God's commandments.

[40:23]

And that is to turn into the way of light, because to fulfill God's commandments, that is in the Old Testament to know God. Then we have, on the other hand, we have in the Roman, Latin world, we have the word penitentia. Now, penitentia comes from pena, and pena is associated with punishment. So there again is another aspect of ends, the punishment which the one who has violated, ended, the law of God he is ready to accept punishment from the part of God and to do penance as a satisfaction for the sins that he has committed in an attempt to placate God and the wrath

[41:35]

So there is, if you want, in the Jewish Old Testament, there is what we may call the ethical element of penance. In the Latin word, it's contained what we may call the juridical element of penance. Penance as a way to fulfill God's justice. And then on the other hand, we have the Greek word metanoia. And that means, metanoia, metanoin, that means to change the mind. Mentatio, as one may call it perhaps in Latin, metanoia transmentatio. As we speak about transfigurance, here transmentatio means a taking on another mind, a change of heart, as we would say, a change of heart.

[42:43]

And that, of course, you can see right away just if you compare these three worlds. You can see that, of course, the inner essence of it, or the deepest level, evidently is expressed in this word metanoia, a change of heart. Now, in order to find out in a more concrete way in which this change of heart consists, it would be good, you know, to see also in the light then of the first of the Old Testament, because it is clear that St. John the Baptist, our Lord himself, the preaching, the metanoia, go back in some way, continue, but one has to add also fulfill and transcend the preaching of the prophets. And the prophets of the Old Testament, especially Osiris, also Amos, they, of course, were the first to want to

[43:52]

try to deepen or to preserve the idea of metanoia in its original depth, against superficial ways in which the popular opinion tried in one way to do penance and at the same time still maybe not to deliver one's heart into the hands of God. Well, that's the next one. Father Rick. I think it's 75 years, isn't it? Seventy-one?

[44:55]

Seventy-five years. Yes, it gets into the sixties now. Seventy-five is not so far away. But we were all invited then this afternoon to go up there and to celebrate the vigils on the field. And I wanted to ask you, because the best thing is to do it in the afternoon, but you realize there isn't too much time, it must be back to Vespas on time. So I wanted to ask you all to go up right after noon, not to, you know, drag out too long, you see, because then we need the time, otherwise we get there at five or four and things are being prepared.

[46:10]

We cannot, you know, we don't have enough time. So let us be on the alert. How we get up there, I don't know. I don't know what we should do. By the way, it's very much right to get up there yesterday. That's American snow collected in East Germany. Trousers, which you had, you know, she had turned up, which she shouldn't have done. Maybe you are the culprit as well. The water, you know, let the water run.

[47:18]

Who could be responsible? These are just the shots. So let us go there, you know, not to hesitate, you know, not to go as soon as we can. And then I wanted to, just two points that came to my mind. There are several points, but I have to do them at the time. But one thing is that I wanted to call your attention, you know, to... the things that are done in the public, you know, where an individual, for example, the reader, you know, if it's a table or if it's in the choir, I don't refer to anybody actually at this moment reading a song, you know, so don't misunderstand me, but yes, the general

[48:41]

observation. I think there is a tendency, we have spoken about it, a table to read too much into oneself. as if the one who stands there and reads, you know, is just concerned, you know, to tell something to himself. He has to serve, he has to offer what he reads to the whole community. And as a reader, because it isn't his word, it's the word of God, or it's the... the book that is being read and a table too is very important that the word is pronounced, articulated in such a way that people can easily kind of follow it because if one is concerned with eating and then that takes already attention, some attention and then

[49:50]

if the word is not presented really, you know, to the community, to those who listen there, then it just passes by and it cannot be registered. So I wanted to, especially the younger ones, those who start reading, the novices, Juniors, you know, to get into the habit to have the feeling you present something to the audience. It's a service, you know, as the deacon, just as the The server at table takes care that everybody receives the material food through the one who reads, and therefore lift up his voice, you know, and present it to the community in such a way that everybody likes and easily can take from it, you know, and receive the word.

[50:59]

And... Yes, for example, why in the future it would be very good, I think, to be allowed to do it. One or the other is ordained deacon. Of course, that would be somebody who has a voice, you know, and things to do with it. Not everybody has. and then can serve the word, announce the gospel. And so the apostle is in such a way that everybody likes to listen to it, and then goes into the ready listening ear. And then other thing is, concerns and manifestations, for example, of respect. They are public manifestations of respect.

[52:02]

That is also a thing that people should learn. For example, sometimes when I You know, at the beginning we have spoken about it. Should one at the beginning of every hour, you know, greet the superior, exchange this mutual greeting, or should one do it once a day? But we have all agreed, you know, that at the beginning of canonical hour, the mutual exchange of greeting is a kind of now we are constituted as a community, especially explicitly by this mutual salutation in which all the brethren recognize the presence of Christ in Superior and now in this Illumina Domini we are gathered together, now we go ahead. But then that respect to this gesture, you know, should be really done.

[53:09]

That means one shouldn't in one way, you know, make a little inclination that at the same time maybe you know, try to open a book, you know, and so on. That spoils, of course, the whole thing. And also, if the family in the victory, if somebody goes and makes a satisfaction, he should, you know, do that and make vows and so on, or be servers who come at the beginning or at the end of the meal, if you were... pay public respect to the representative of Christ in the community, then do it well. And then it serves the purpose. But if it's just done in a kind of a sloppy way so that everybody has the feeling, my, this fellow really doesn't go out of his way, you know, to pay any respect, then it isn't good.

[54:14]

And we just, not long ago, we read the seventh chapter on humility, and the last one, this kind of thing, in which St. Benedict described the external attitude of the monk as monk, and there just tells us at once that the signs of respect, you know, are the expression of our humility and are therefore to be taken seriously. It should really be a form which convinces. For example, while greeting the altar, We don't just stand around and just make a little bow, you know, but we really make a profound bow. It's not a matter of personal matter, it's a matter of the respect that we pay to Christ.

[55:21]

See that this Therefore, Roderton will just briefly explain first the Old Testament idea of penance to Shula. He spoke yesterday about it, these three words, penitentia, conversion, change of heart, the metanoia, the Roman and the Jewish and Greek words. Now the call of our Lord Jesus Christ, of course, is based on the Old Testament.

[56:28]

He fulfills the Old Testament idea of balance. And there we distinguish then two aspects of it. One is the official and public pens, and the other one is the interior pens. Public pens is in the... which people you have the classic place for that in Jewel in the second chapter is exactly this place in which which we read and on Ash Wednesday where the trumpet is blown and where the people are invited to gather together and then a a public fast is announced. And then this public fast is filled with the litany of the confession.

[57:35]

The priests lie at the grounds of the courtyard of the temple and in pure guard for the sins of the people. Now that is this in public penance of which Joel in the second chapter gives a concrete example as every year is repeated in the Jewish year and that fall when the great what they call the days of awe come about. There is the climax of the Jewish year, the ecclesiastical year, and it starts in this way. It's firstly what the Jews call the Yom Teruah. That means the day of the Teruah. The Teruah is the shofar trumpet. The Jews distinguish two kinds.

[58:36]

One is the shofar, which is the ram's horn, and the other one, the katzetzorot. And that's how the silver trumpets The shofar is, in Jewish tradition, represents the call of the Lord. It announces the presence of God. It announces then also the conversion which is necessary, which God wants. God tries to break through our heartedness of the people. and tries to bring about the teshub, the conversion. There are three tones to the shofar. One is what we call tekia, that is one long and low tone on the ram's horn, and that is One can say this way that really the Shofar is certainly also historically comes from the time in which the Jewish people was essentially nomadic or they were a people raising sheep as we hear of Abraham, father of the Jewish race.

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And the shofar is in the hand of the shepherd, the call, which the sheep follow, in which they are gathered together. And then they are counted, and it's seen if every one is there, what shape they are there. And then they all go into the fold, into that union, community. And that is the, recall the tekia, that is the first sound, ekchia, so here I am. And then the invitation, here I am as the good shepherd, as the one who invites the people to abandon their own worries, their personal interests. So beautifully expressed, you want to read in Isaiah chapter 56. And to enter into the union and gather together in the name of Yahweh, of the Good Shepherd.

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And then comes ready, of course, now to receive his command. And that is then, this command comes in the terroir. The terroir is then the second sound or melody, if you want, of the shofar blast. And that is a treble. It represents, once represents, that in our, let us say, shaking, that which is necessary, in which we are ready and break with the past and break with the customs or the laziness of the everyday life. We break with the lassitude, with the sloth of disobedience and we enter into the obedience to God. We break off old the relations which we have in the course of the year, which have been established

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in order, as free people, to follow God wherever He wants. That is the terroir. It's another you recognize right away that also all these things follow the same inner pattern which we also have and try to follow in our own little scheme in the schools, that inner freedom, Break off relations in order to be free for God alone. And then comes again the tekia sound, another shukra blast, and that is then go and come and follow me. And that is then the, if you want. leaving of the old past and marching into the messianic future under the leadership of God as the Good Shepherd. And that is, of course, that feels and gives the characteristic note to the Rosh Hashanah, the first year, beginning of the

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of the New Ecclesiastical Year, the Rosh Hashanah, which is Yom Teruah, that is the day of the Teruah. The Shofar Blasts, in this way, are the, let's say, the characteristic note of the New Year. And then after the New Year, as you know, follow the days of the Teshuvah. And these days are then, for the whole Jewish people, an examination of conscience, a field with these beautiful litanies, I don't know if you have ever read them, which are public litanies of public confession, because that is a necessary element of this whole process of conversion. One is to realize the presence of God, the second is and to gather around the presence of God, what we call return into the peace of Christ. Then the second is to establish the complete inner freedom, and then with him, with the putscheper, to follow into the promised land.

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And then afterwards, we have the teshuva, which is a necessary element. That is the element of what we call humility. an element which is expressed also in the idea of fasting, in the idea of the ashes, in the idea of having one's God. Sacrament to him. he considered in the famous thesis he put on the door in Wittenberg as even compatible with the lifelong repentance, which is asked for every Christian by the word of God. says there Dominus et Magister Nostra, the Lord and our teacher, Jesus Christ.

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In saying, do penance, he clears that the whole life of the faithful should be in penance. And this, then he continues, this word, cannot be understood of the sacramental penance. And he illustrates that. That means by going to confession and doing satisfaction, all the things that through the ministry of the priests is being served. That is unfortunate, it's one of those exclusions, contradictions which in reality do not exist. It's quite evident that for Luther the liturgical Lenten season of the Church did not mean much.

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He himself moved in that era that he identified simply the sacramental penance with penance in the larger sense, which is celebrated by the church year after year in the Lenten season, and with the texts of the prophets on Ash Wednesday and the following days. But of course, he reflects only what was the general attitude of Catholicism of his time, which probably did not sufficiently hear the warning of the lesson of Septuagesima Sunday. All there under the cloud, and all drank from the rock, but in most of them God was not pleased.

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which we take today in our context of the New Testament as a warning against the false sacramental security. But that certainly is not the intrinsic fault of the sacrament as such, because the sacrament is only the instrument in the hands of Christ through which he reaches everybody with the creative power of his own metanoia on the cross. And that is the new thing through the New Testament comes in. That is the new perspective which changes repentance so much. Repentance becomes the creative act, the creative intervention God's mercy in the heart of the penitent.

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Now that is of course again is an idea that's not in any way fallen to the prophets but it is there and so beautiful if you in these days if one allows it to work on one's mind and one's heart that we read the prophets according to the order of readings that we have established. And then these words of the prophets, the warnings and exhortations of the prophets then lead in some way fulfilled through the creation in the beginning God created. and then that again put into parallel with the Gospel of St.

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John in the beginning was the Word as we had it yesterday so beautifully and now in the coming days and weeks we will have this opportunity to see that to see the creative level on which the Word of God made flesh leads us to that metanoia, which in the last analysis is dying with him and rising with him in the Pascha, the Easter celebration. But that's the prophets, you know, feels that, realize that. There is that, on one hand, there's that invitation of the prophets, the exhortation, urging the people to conversion and to conversion of the whole man, not only in external forms of public opinion but in their personal dictum, in the totality of the individual, so that we are preserved and those who turn to God may not become victims to self-deception

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He smites us and He heals us, as we have seen it in Hosea on Sunday. Amos, for example, the prophet, is one who, as nobody else, exhorts the people and says, Word of God, seek me. and ye shall live. Seek the Lord, and ye shall live, lest ye break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour him. But the same Amos, who in the fourth chapter of his prophecy also points out that this the Lord has sent you. happening with other calamities and then comes always the burden and still you did not really and truly return to you so that then he says the last day will be a day of darkness and not of light and that way it destroys the messianic hope

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for lack of repentance, inner repentance, the inner deep return to God. Jeremiah says so beautifully in the fourth chapter, Yet thou wilt return, O Israel, return unto me, says the Lord. And he continues, says, Break up your fallow ground, and so not among the thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah, lest my fury comes like fire, and burn that none can quench it. So there is in some way, let's say, a pessimistic note in the prophets. They realize that this hoped for common return of the whole people to God is not taking place.

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They, however, did not truly return to God. or Osi fivefold, they will not frame their doings to turn unto their God, because there is a spirit of adultery in their midst. And so also then Isaiah says, you know, in the beginning of his prophecies, The ox knows his master, Israel, does have no knowledge. And woe to the bad children who have turned their back to the Holy One of Israel. And then Jeremiah's 13th chapter. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?

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If that were possible, then perhaps you also may do good that are accustomed to do evil. So into that pessimism of the prophets, Then comes the other, the other tone, and that is the turn to the creative intervention of God. Psalm 50, create within me a clean heart, that spiritum rectum innova in viscerius mei. Or in Jeremiah 31, but this shall be the covenant I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, I will put my law in their inward talks and write it in their hearts.

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And I will be their God and they shall be my people. Or Ezekiel 36. A new heart I will give you. And a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. And I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. in chapter 11, and I will give them one heart, which then is taken up, as you know, in the Acts of the Apostles, and they all wear of one heart. So it all comes down to this, then, maybe characterized well by the words of Isaiah that came across just

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in these days, in the 48th chapter, when he says, I shall show you new things from that time on, even hidden things which you did not know. Now they have been created, not from the beginnings. And before you have not heard of them, lest you should say, of course, we knew them. Ye, you have not heard them, and you knew not, nor had your ear been opened. That's what Isaiah says of the old covenant. And in relation to that then, our Lord, in speaking about repentance and speaking about the new justice that He gives to His own, says, who has ears to hear, may hear.

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So it's really a new creation, a new realm, a new dispensation. that sets in, and then also then changes deeply, essentially, changes, or let us better say, fulfills the idea of metanoia. In that sense, in the sense of Hoseki, I shall take away the stony heart, and I give you a new heart. I take away the old mind, I give you a new mind. Korkatuita, Let humiliation not be switched. A clean heart create in me, O Lord, and the right spirit renew in my inward. And that, see then how that is put into the New Testament. of the New Testament.

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Outsteps in the prophets try to lead the way into the depth of repentance, pointing out the superficiality of the people and the terrible danger of turning either one's good observance or even the very mercy of God into a means of protecting oneself against that complete and unconditional surrender of the whole person to God. which we called the zero point, in which the Old Testament marks with that phrase, I shall lead you down to the gates of hell and Babylon.

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Now pointing out the direction toward this absolute surrender or conversion, the prophets also came to the point when it becomes clear that this depth of conversion is in some mysterious way beyond our own reach. When we speak of the heart of man, we realize that our heart is not even in our own power. that it somewhere, somehow, we transcend ourselves there. The conversion of the heart is really, in Lannister analysis, what we call a mysterium. It is brought about by divine intervention.

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It involves a creative action on the part of God. who alone is able to plumb the depth of the heart. And the Lord is able to take away the heart of stone and to give us a heart of flesh. Now this is exactly the point where the preaching of Saint John the Baptist comes in. He completes the message of the prophet and at the same time anticipates the message of the Messiah, Jesus. St John is called the Baptist because it is his baptism of repentance which is his decisive contribution

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St. John uses the language of the prophets when he chastises the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who both use religion as a means of their self-aggrandizement, the first advertising their severity and the others playing family politics with the treasures of the temple. But St. John the Baptist goes beyond the prophets, and he preaches the Baptism of Venice, a ceremony of actually having oneself immersed drowned in the waters of the Jordan. There is, it seems to me, a new thing in Israel.

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If one keeps in mind the fact that neither in the passing through the Red Sea nor in crossing the Jordan, the Israelites were drowned. they went through their dry shot. The sign of the Baptist merges in the new messianic era in which God not only leads to the gates of hell and back again, but really leads into death. Saint John makes that clear. that his baptism points in this direction. It makes it clear, however, that his baptism is not itself that book, but that another will come after him that is already there.

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That means an historical human reality and be baptized not only with water, but with the divine elements of fire and the Spirit. And that this world, he points out, is the Lamb of God, which carries away the sins of the world. In other words, Saint John the Baptist opens a completely no depth of repentance by pointing to Christ who himself insisted on being baptized by John as he said to fulfill all justice now you see this is The new thing which Isaiah spoke, as the last time I quoted to you in the 48th chapter of his prophecy, that is the new thing that the Messiah is himself first baptised, and that means takes upon himself the sins of the people.

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and carries them into the water immerses them or which is the same as you know carries them up to the cross that in baptism they may be washed away or on the cross they may be killed in his death and this is then the way in which The new creation, the changing of the hearts, the taking away of the heart of stone and the giving of the heart of flesh takes place through the Son of God made man. Deus tu conversus vivificamis nos. O God, you turn around and then you give us So the baptized one baptizes then himself.

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But now, not in water only, but in the spirit and in fire. That means in the divine power, which purifies, consumes, creates, and blesses. So in the New Testament, as you see, repentance is truly a mysterium. That means an entering into the repentance of God, we may say. That means the death of Christ. And it is the sacrament of baptism in which we are buried with Christ in death. that as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, we then also would walk in the newness of life. How this, then, which is all already contained, foretold, as it were, in the story of the Baptist,

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erred in the fact of the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, all that then is unfolded in our Lord's teaching and preaching, especially the Sermon on the Mount, in which he explains then this way of repentance in a concrete way for his disciples that we hear in another time.

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