“What do you seek?” Benedictine monks become members of the Order by professing stability to a particular “The mercy of God, and the fellowship of this monastery. Stability makes St. Benedict’s Abbey community.” our permanent home, effectively planting our roots here. This vow is unique to Benedictine The novice, after experiencing the way of life in the monks and it is an essential part of our charism. monastery for a year, comes before the community For us, stability is a freeing vow — we cannot be and the abbot to request admission to first vows. transferred to a new province or house, but we vow to be a member of this community for life. It is at The abbot asks him that question, “What do you St. Benedict’s Abbey that we make our monastic seek?” profession, it is here that we seek God in our life of prayer and work, and it is here that our mortal So the vowed life together is a solidarity of remains will be committed to the earth. We may be brothers seeking to prefer the love of Christ before called away on various assignments, but this abbey all else. By the monastic vows we seek to live as is our spiritual home forever. Jesus lived, in union with his heavenly Father, and to be a city on a hill in the Kingdom of God. We We promise to live here and serve under an abbot, seek to live as members of the Body of Christ and running on the “road that leads to salvation (RB so bring the healing of Jesus to a fractured world. Prologue, 48) unto death.”

Our fraternal life as a special family in Christ Stability has a twofold dimension; one of making a is a shared journey in which all monks seek to particular community one’s own and the other of support the vocation of one another. Within this having a stability of heart that embraces this place life Benedictine monks profess vows of Stability, as our home and this way of life as our destiny. conversatio morum, and Obedience. Through The crucifix (below) stands firm in our cemetery these vows we live the evangelical counsels of – reminding us that we are rooted in Christ in this poverty, chastity, and obedience modeled by Jesus place, and it is with Christ that we hope to rest in Christ. eternity.

As Pope St. John Paul II taught in Vita Consecrata, “the consecrated life is a living memorial of Jesus’ way of living and acting, a re-enactment in the Church of the way of life which Jesus embraced and proposed to his disciples.” Christ gave his whole existence to obeying the We promise conversatio morum, which is generally will of the Father and committing himself to his translated to mean conversion to the monastic mission of bringing about the Kingdom of God. way of life, especially the practices outlined in So the monk, by living according to the Rule of St. Benedict’s Rule. We promise to live in fidelity St. Benedict and obeying his abbot, seeks to to this way of life and so enter more deeply into replicate in his own life that of Christ who obeyed conversion of mind and heart. without reserve. He expresses his love and loyalty to his monastic family by collaborating through Conversatio, faithfully practiced, leads us to obedience with all that builds up the community in conversion. Within this context we promise its journey to Christ our King. We obey our abbot celibate chastity and evangelical poverty, which who holds the place of Christ in the monastery (RB are fundamental pillars of monastic life since 2:2) but also obey one another (RB 71:1 -2). its inception. Through consecrated celibacy we forego marriage and family in order to respond Obedience is an opportunity for freedom in our to God who loved us first. The choice of chastity vocation. By surrendering our will to God and to is made directly for God through Jesus Christ in our abbot, we are free to seek Christ, unfettered order to belong to God in a way similar to how and undeterred. Jesus belongs to the Father. It is our hope that this initial renunciation in imitation of Jesus’ foregoing of family, will lead us to a deeper and more generous love of all the persons we encounter in life and will lead us to seek Christ with an undivided heart.

Similarly, the renunciation of good material things through the choice of evangelical poverty imitates Jesus’ dispossession of himself for love of his Father and the world he came to save. By renouncing personal ownership of property we depend upon Christ represented by our abbot and are interdependent on each other by our owning everything in common. Our mutual sharing of goods calls us to a reverent and respectable use of material things so that God may be glorified in everything.