Temporary Profession of Br Paul Lyons

29th June 2008

In a delightful ceremony at Mass, on the feast of St Peter and Paul, Br Paul made his temporary profession (monastic vows for 3 years, as a step towards final profession). Profession is made according to the traditional Benedictine vows of STABILITY, CONVERSATIO MORUM (observance of the monastic way of life), and OBEDIENCE. After the homily he sang his vows, and then signed his petition document on the altar. He was then clothed in the monastic cowl.

Br Paul is originally from Cardiff, although he has spent much of his life working in London and with the L'Arche community in Brecon.

It was very appropriate for Br Paul to make his profession on the feast of his patron St Paul, shared with St Peter. The Abbot's homily for the occasion is reproduced below. On the same day in Rome Pope Benedict inaugurated the 'Pauline Year' marking the 2000th anniversary of the birth of St Paul.

There was a full congregation for the Mass. Friends and family of Br Paul, retreatants and parishioners joined the community for the celebration.

Abbot Paul's Homily

Br Paul, this is a good day on which to make your monastic profession. You have asked for God's merciful love and who better to show you what this means in practice than St Peter? He was weak, he was sinful, when put to the test he denied knowing Jesus, yet the Lord forgave him and confirmed him as the rock on which the faith of the Church is built, when he asked him on he shores of Lake Galilee, "Do you love me?" You have asked to share in the monastic way of life in this community. Who better to show you what koinonia, Christian community is all about than St Paul? From Cyprus to Asia Minor, from Thessalonica to Corinth and from Malta to Rome he preached the Gospel and taught those first Christian churches he founded what it means to live together in Christ, to be members of his Body, to have faith.

At Caesarea Philippi Jesus asked his disciples, "But you, who do you say that I am?" It was Peter who answered in the name of all, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." But on the road to Damascus, it was Saul, struck blind as he fell from his horse, who asked, "Lord, who are you?" And it was Jesus who replied, "I am Jesus and you are persecuting me."

Br Paul, on the way to becoming a Benedictine novice here at Belmont, I have no doubt that you walked, perhaps many times, along the road to Damascus, with all that such a journey involves. Then one day, when you least expected it, you encountered the Lord and he revealed his Name to you, "I am Jesus." At that moment you experienced his merciful love. This is not an easy experience for anyone and it can be painful. To be loved by God is to be touched by fire for the love of God is a living flame. This purifying love unites us to God and in Christ we are called to live a new life, a life of community. The Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul show clearly what this community was like and how it lived out koinonia, brotherhood, fellowship, communion with God and with our brethren, the very essence and basis of monastic life. There was good reason for the first monks to model their lives on those early Christian communities in Jerusalem and Antioch. In fact, they called their way of life the Apostolic life.

Now it's not possible to become a monk let alone remain one without the "Damascus experience." Those of us who have lived a long time in a monastery have probably had to go through it many times, for the monastic life, as you have already discovered, is disquietingly, exhaustingly dynamic. It is an extraordinary adventure. It is the search for God and with St Paul we ask, "Lord, who are you?" But the monastic life is not only our search for God. It is, perhaps and above all else, God's search for us. I suppose that is what the word vocation really means, God's search for us. And in his search for us he sends us his Son. "God sent his only Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that through him we might all be saved." The Good Shepherd searches for the lost sheep, as he searched for Paul on the road to Damascus and as, at Caesarea Philippi, he searched the hearts of his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"

If the monastic life is a constant Damascus experience, it is also, inevitably, an experience of Caesarea Philippi, that defining moment in the life of Jesus and of his disciples, the moment of truth when we can no longer avoid answering the question, that fundamental question, the only one that matters, "Who do you say that I am?" Of course, with Peter we say, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," but what does it really mean for us, as it did for Peter, to say, "You are the Christ"? It is a declaration of love, "You know that I love you," a declaration of trust and of total self-giving, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life." Paul said very much the same thing when he wrote, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain…. It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

Those words "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" go way beyond any doctrinal statement on the Incarnation or the Trinity or Christology because Peter wasn't actually thinking in those terms. No, rather like a monk making his profession, just like you, Br Paul, this morning, Peter was saying to Jesus, "You know that I love you. I am yours, Lord, for you are mine. All I have, all I am is yours, for you have given me all things. You are the very air I breathe, the life I live. You are my beginning and my end. You are everything to me, for without you there is nothing, no meaning to life, no point in living. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Dear Br Paul, as we prepare now to witness your monastic profession, we pray that, through the intercession of St Peter and St Paul, you may always be faithful to the vows you make today. May the Lord, in his merciful goodness, always grant you deep joy, total commitment and the gift of perseverance as a monk of Belmont and may Our Lady and St Benedict also pray for you. Amen.