On the 6th of January I made lifelong vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience according to the Rule of St. Augustine and the Assumptionist Rule of Life.  

The Profession Mass took place in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Assumption College.  My immediate family flew in from Colorado and Hawaii. I was happy that the long-awaited moment had arrived and that my relationship with the Lord would be strengthened and supported by this visible commitment of exclusivity and permanence.

A life’s vocation consists in making a gift of oneself.  Ultimately it is a gift to God, returning to Him what He has already given.   One can do this through making a gift of oneself to a spouse. Or in other ways like the religious life, consecrated virginity, or the single life given over to God. What is wonderful about lifelong vows is that they allow one to move forward unhindered in certain new ways. New concerns replace older ones. There is a sense of rest from difficulties that until then had been defining.

`A newly-married couple experiences this kind of rest.  These days in the back of my mind is the thought: Lord, I’ve chosen you in this certain way, and definitively so.  It feels stabilizing, this kind of relationship with the Creator and Redeemer of the world, who is our first beginning and final end.  

And now I am definitively a part of a community of brothers who have resolved similarly, brothers who will accept and forgive and give me the occasion to learn the same.

Please let us pray for each other, that we would be faithful in our vocations, remembering always where we’re coming from and where we’re going, and the corollary of God’s love for us, the opportunity to choose the good.