Monastic vows
To experience love is to experience a summons to be something more generous, more faithful and truer. Against the weakness and changeability of our fallen nature, we seek to re-define ourselves not just by making declaration of love, but by promising that we will remain true not just for today or for a short time, but for good.
The supreme example is the sacrament of matrimony, where lovers vow themselves to each other until death, come what may. Taking monastic vows is not in itself a sacrament, but it is a special way of committing ourselves to living out the great sacrament of our baptism.
Monks take three vows: obedience, stability and ‘conversatio morum’.
Obedience, for the monk, is not at all the same thing as it is for, say, a member of the armed forces. It is not a question of efficiency, or of control. Preferring to do what someone else wants rather than what we want to do ourselves, is a sure sign of love. Jesus was completely obedient to his Father, because he loved him perfectly. This vow is about the self-abandonment of love.
Stability, at a purely practical level, is interpreted as a promise by the monk not to pack up and start again in another monastery when things get difficult. Benedictines do not join a centralized Order; they join a particular community under an Abbot and the Rule. Stability is nothing other than the virtue of being steadfast and trusting when we doubt our ability to continue. It is a decision, before the event, to face up to difficulties with the help of God and our brothers. This vow is about the victory of faith.
‘Conversatio Morum’ is usually left untranslated, but it would mean something like ‘Changing the way you live’. It includes chastity and obedience, but it does not refer simply to the decision to embrace the monastic life. Rather, it speaks of a daily and repeated willingness to re-adjust, to renew and to go on seeking the God who called us. It is the antidote to complacency and compromise. This vow is about hope which the Spirit puts in our hearts.
For good reasons, monks are not invited to make vows at all during their first year as a novice, and then only for a short period of three years or so (Simple Vows). Only after this initial period is it permitted to take vows for life (Solemn Vows). On that day the monk sings three times before the altar, “Suscipe me Domine secundum eloquium tuum et vivam, et non confundas me in expectatione mea!” (Uphold me, Lord, according to your word, and ldo not disappoint me in my hope). And these words are sung again for him by his brothers during his burial. The vowed life begins and ends with trust in God.