One of the questions that Archbishop John Wilson suggested to us for reflection during our retreat was: Why do you stay? I suppose the more frequently asked question of us is: why did you come? What made us think that you had a vocation to monastic life? Archbishop Wilson’s question, however, is perhaps more penetrating and takes us to the very heart of our vocation and indeed the motivation for our renewal of vows today: Why do you stay? Ultimately, each one of us has to consistently reflect on this fundamental question because it provides the necessary impetus and encouragement for us to continue to grow ever deeper into the vocation that we have freely chosen, rather than become stale and stagnant.
That you and I find ourselves from time to time complaining, grumbling, criticizing and murmuring about life in community is a fact, a simple feature of life as it is. I recall an occasion when my niece was having a good old moan about her husband, as married people do. When she eventually drew breath for a moment I simply smiled and said: “But what attracted to you to him in the first place?” “What did you see in him that made you excited and think, this is the one?” She gave me a murderous look and then said: “That’s not the point!” But of course, she knew full well it was the exact point.
We, too, as monks can indulge ourselves in the kind of conversation that inevitably has phrases such as why can’t the community be more like…. or what the community really needs to do is…So why do we stay? Perhaps one way to begin to answer that central question is to go back to where it all began and reflect again on what was it that you originally saw and that influenced and inspired us to request to take these vows of obedience, conversatio morum and stability. What was it that stimulated us to want to belong to this particular group of people, in this particular place?
Looking to the Rule, what emerges is that Benedict sees his monks as a people who have come to monastic life in order to do one primary thing: to seek God. To seek his very presence, to give him the first place, a preferential love. To seek Him in prayer, lectio divina, the work we are asked to do and the brethren and people we encounter. To seek him in obedience, stability and conversatio morum. To seek Him in humility, purity of heart and with a good zeal. We are seekers after God.
We do so in the monastery, not because we cannot do this elsewhere or indeed in other ways, but because of a deep conviction that it is through this way of life, with its rhythm of corporate and personal prayer, fraternal support, evangelistic outreach, it is in this workshop of love that we can best arrive at that communion with God and others for which we were created. A communion that brings us to heaven, eternity. A conviction that this is the gateway to heaven.
Yes, we may very well have explored the notion of a monastic vocation because we came across a member or even members of this community who inspired us, people in whom we saw and experienced the presence of God. It might even have been sitting in this Abbey Church, this choir that brought us to an encounter with the transcendent. We may even have been attracted by the thought of being a teacher, housemaster, parish priest, spiritual guide or retreat master. While none of these are misguided, I wonder if these things by themselves would sustain us for a lifetime. Indeed, by themselves would they enable the ultimate purpose, as put forward by Benedict, would they enable us to seek God, for God alone?
All of us realise, only too well, that to build our vocation on a specific work, or even a particular person, is to build our discipleship on sand. While our apostolate is an aspect of our life, an important means by which we contribute to the building of God’s kingdom, it can only be at best a response to the relationship we have with God Himself. It is that intimate relationship, friendship that is of the very essence of our monastic Christian discipleship.
And so, the word of God that the Church has given to us today is all that we need as we renew our vows. It is a word that provides food and challenge for the journey. Twice Moses says to Joshua: “Be strong and courageous.” But what was the basis for Josuha’s confident word of hope? Quite simply because: “He, (The Lord) will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Meanwhile the Gospel assures us that it is not in God plan or nature that any of us should perish. He constantly goes in search for us. We think we are seeking God. The truth is we have already been found by Him. We have come here to let ourselves be found, to let ourselves be seen and to let ourselves be loved.
Brethren, we renew our vows this year in the context of the Jubilee. Every Jubilee was the occasion for Israel to press the reset button – to go back to factory settings – to renew their covenant of love with the God who had called them/us into being. And so, it is for us. We renew our vows in this Jubilee Year and this ought to have a deep significance for us.
We can see this as an annual event that will come and go. Or we could pause and enter this moment of grace with a deeper and clearer intentionality. We renew our consecration. The total gift of self. The moment of loving trust and total surrender. Here in this moment, in this Abbey Church, on 12th August 2025 the covenant love that flows from God’s heart – a father who always keeps his promise – is waiting to be experienced, encountered. It was from this covenant love that God established the principle of ‘Jubilee’. A time when he would redeem, restore and renew his people. Hence, he made that Jubilee flesh in Jesus.
This is the moment. The one whom we seek is waiting. Let us take a moment in stillness to recognise the sacredness of what we are about to do. From all that is deep within us, let us once again surrender ourselves to Him. Be strong and courageous…the Lord will be/is with you, in you, for you.
Abbot Robert Igo, OSB
Ampleforth Abbey
12 August 2025
