Off to Tarrawarra

Seven years and two weeks ago, a friend of mine entered Our Lady of Tarrawarra Abbey; to-morrow, Br Luke will take his solemn vows as a Cistercian monk there.

Getting to the Abbey will mean getting up about as early as the monks do! – I am taking the 6 a.m. flight to Melbourne, which requires arising before the sun, even in these days of high summer.

Thursday will be a reunion in many ways, given that I expect to see many old friends at the Abbey and afterwards; then come a few days in Melbourne, culminating in Sunday Solemn Mass at St Aloysius, before I return home.  It should be a pleasant trip...

Death and Birth: to God be the Glory

Having laid to rest a stedfast handmaid of the Lord, Sr Paul Joseph of Mary the Mother of God, at the end of July, to-day the same Carmel rejoiced in the solemn profession of Sr Elijah Mary of Mount Carmel, on the highly appropriate feast of the Nativity of Our Lady.  I was privileged to attend the Mass along with many other friends of our Carmel here in Launceston, and above all her parents and family.

I transcribe from the booklet the words of her profession of solemn vows:

I, Sister Elijah Mary of Mount Carmel, desiring to live faithfully with the Blessed Virgin Mary a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ, with my sisters as witnesses, into your hands, Mother Elizabeth Mary Katrina of the Trinity, vow to Almighty God for ever, chastity, poverty and obedience according to the Rule and Constitutions of the Discalced Nuns of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.  With my whole heart I give myself to this religious institute restored by Saint Teresa to seek perfect charity in the service of our Mother the Church, by the grace of the Holy Spirit and the help of the Mother of God, through constant prayer and evangelical self-denial, and to give eternal glory to the Most Holy Trinity.

Truly, she and her fellow nuns have chosen the better part.  I pray for Sr Paul Joseph, that she rest now in peace, having the reward of a good and faithful servant – but also make bold to ask her prayers, that as she trod the steep slopes of Mount Carmel, forsaking all save the Cross, Sr Elijah Mary may persevere in following the narrow path that leads to life.

Solemn Vows

May I extend my congratulations and friendly prayers to Br Paul Rowse, O.P., who has just made his lifelong solemn vows as a Friar Preacher on the Feast of the Sacred Heart last Friday.

I look forward to soon seeing him a deacon, and, please God, a priest.

St Dominic, pray for him.

Happy News: Solemn Vows

I am delighted to learn that a friend of mine, Br Paul Rowse, O.P., has been accepted to make solemn vows as a Dominican Friar on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the 19th of June this year.  Well I remember the Master of the Order clothing him with the white wool of St Dominic on Trinity Sunday 2003, marking his reception as a novice; while (owing to work commitments) I most likely, unfortunately, will be unable to attend the ceremony at St Dominic's, East Camberwell, in Melbourne, I do pray and give thanks to God that Br Paul may live and die a religious - and, one day, a priest - through his upcoming enunciation of his vow usque ad mortem, the formula of which would run as follows:

I, brother Paul Rowse, make profession, 

and promise obedience to God,

to blessed Mary, to blessed Dominic,

and to you, brother Kevin Saunders, 

Prior Provincial of the Province of the Assumption,

in place of brother Carlos Azpiroz Costa, 

Master of the Order of Friars Preachers

and his successors,

according to the rule of blessed Augustine

and the Constitutions of the Friars Preachers

that I will be obedient to you and to your successors,

until death.

The Dominican formula of solemn vows is notable in that it is an oath of obedience, since by promising to observe the rule and Constitutions of the Order it includes the avowal of poverty, chastity, and all else that a religious and a Friar Preacher must undertake to observe as a holocaust of himself to the Lord.  The vow is a free oblation to God, willingly laying aside things lawful in themselves that the great race may be run in liberty without hindrance, the better to serve the Lord and carry out His evangelical mission after His own model and that of His Apostles; and is at once also made to Our Lady - a consecration to and through her to the Lord - and an entrustment to the Apostolic Patriarch Dominic, the man of the Lord, to live after his pattern and so more closely, more surely and more sacrificially cleave unto Him, for His glory, for the preaching of the Gospel and the salvation of souls.

The vow taken must be lived!  The religious life is defined as the state of acquiring perfection (that most high calling that all must strive to answer, but the vowed in a most strict way).  Please pray that Br Paul, and many more like him, may, following in the footsteps of Our Divine Master (himself the Model and engenderer of obedience, poverty and chastity in the service of the Father in the salvation of all), of Our Lady (and her unceasing Fiat) and of all saintly religious moved by the Holy Spirit, give themselves to God for His honour and glory and the salvation of mankind.