“Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5)

In this monastic community as in many others, the Divine Office in its Invitatory Prayer turns each and every day to Psalm 95: “Today, listen to the voice of the Lord.” The message is inescapable: every day is a vocation. Every day begins a new effort to listen to God. And every day we proceed at our own peril, reminded not to “harden our hearts.” In this sense, “vocation” remains at the heart of Benedictine life, not as a calling once heard and once chosen, but as a choice that calls continuously.

Matins at Portsmouth Abbey

This week of the Good Shepherd, and this Sunday’s World Day of Prayer for Vocations, seek to prompt reflection on vocation. “Vocation” is a rich and polyvalent term, though it flows from a singular experience in faith: God speaking to his people. “And God said…,” is the refrain of the opening of the book of Genesis. “In the beginning was the Word,” echoes John’s Gospel. And faith, from the Creation to the Christ, has been a listening for that Word. It is a Word addressed to all humanity, to each of us, and attentiveness to it fundamentally shapes the long history of Christian life. The experience of faith is, in sum, an experience of vocation. It is expressed in the first and thematic word with which Saint Benedict famously opens his Rule: “obsculta”: listen attentively.

Prior Michael giving a blessing, Confirmation Mass 2020

In his messages on this day for the past two years, Pope Francis has highlighted two themes that one might not immediately associate with this listening. While this call to listen attentively might connote a sense of obligation and the demands of law, Francis connects vocation with gratitude and joy. “The first word of vocation, then, is gratitude.” (2020 Vocations Message) One hears the Word as gift, as grace, and it elicits possibilities of desire and fulfillment, of meaning and purpose. And fidelity to this vocation, perseverance and commitment to the calling we hear, he calls “the secret of joy.” (2021 Vocations Message). Reviewing these messages more extensively provides for worthwhile reflection on faith and our response to God’s word:

We find in the message for this year, a year dedicated to Saint Joseph, that the Holy Father highlights in the experience of vocation elements that we find in the life of Joseph: dreams, service, and fidelity:

Looking over the messages of the pontiffs on this day throughout its fifty-eight year history, one indeed identifies a rich supply of inspirational statements. Pope Saint John Paul II, for example, in his message for the year 2000, directed those discerning all varieties of vocation to the Eucharist:

Eucharistic elevation, Easter Vigil 2021

In a message for this day first delivered on the feast of St. Francis in 1990, John Paul II reminded the entire community of believers to dedicate themselves to prayer in the “discerning and maturing” of the call of God: “For some time now, this Day has become a special occasion for reflection not only on the vocation to the priesthood and to the consecrated life, but also on the duty of the entire Christian community to foster the birth of these vocations and to cooperate in the awareness, discernment and maturing of God's interior call” (cf. Optatam Totius 2). (John Paul II: 1991 Vocations Message) The following links lead to the collection maintained on the Vatican’s website, each message rewarding the reader with helpful insight:

Pope Francis: World Day Messages

Pope Benedict XVI: World Day Messages

Pope John Paul II: World Day Messages

Pope Paul VI: World Day Messages

The Order of Saint Benedict, rooted in his Rule and taking up centuries of monastic practice, traces this path of a vocation through certain moments or stages of monastic life. To become a Benedictine, one will follow a path shaped distinctively by these origins, although adapted to each individual’s calling as well as to each community’s practice. The Order’s central website says: “When Jesus calls us to follow him, the path is not always immediately clear. Every vocation story is unique and often full of surprises. Because our monasteries are autonomous, the call to Benedictine life is a call to live in a particular community and to follow its customs. For this reason, vocational inquiries are handled by the individual monasteries, not by any central organization. And the process of entering the monastery differs from community to community.”

The “osb.org” website offers an atlas capturing the global reach of Benedictine communities.
 

While thus affected by each individual’s story and each community’s heritage, the entry into monastic life is outlined in a universally recognized progression. The Order of Saint Benedict outlines a five-step process leading to final vows. One begins as a candidate, where, “a young woman or man visits the monastery over a period of time and speaks to the vocation director and/or the superior, who help the person discern their call.” When the candidate enters the monastery and begins to live as a member of the community, he or she enters postulancy, “receiving instruction from the novice director.” After a number of months as a postulant, depending on various circumstances, the man or woman is then “clothed with the monastic habit and becomes a member of our Order” as a novice. The novice continues to receive guidance and instruction from the novice director in a novitiate that lasts canonically a minimum of one year, and may last longer. After this initial stage as a new member of the community, the novice may be admitted to temporary vows. This lasts for a minimum of three years in temporary profession, to further study and live the monastic life, become more fully aware of the realities of community life. Final vows may be taken after at least three years, with the order requiring “no more than nine years of temporary vows.” These are the solemn vows of the professed sister or brother, and they “are taken for life.” (OSB website)
 

A joyful Father Christopher Davis

The Portsmouth Abbey website outlines a plan in harmony with the Order’s progression, while noting additional detail in the vocational stages for this monastic community:

As the monastery welcomes to its community a novice (see article in this issue), we are heartened to see the continued vitality of Benedictine vocation. Indeed, as the pontiffs have stressed the universal vocation of all the faithful, it is also important to point to the wider Benedictine vocation shared by many others who have joined the extended monastic community as lay oblates.

Monastic Community with Manquehue Apostolic Movement friends Cata, Alvaro and Clarita

Oblates express this commitment through a renewable promise to conform their own lives, as fits their particular situations, to the pattern set out by Saint Benedict. “The duties of an Oblate are chiefly to devote a period of each day to prayer, lectio divina, and if possible, to attend mass during the week, especially on notable feast days. In addition, one should observe the call to repentance and make a brief examination of conscience each night. Acquaintance with the Rule can be fostered by reading a small portion of it on a daily basis as is done in monasteries.” (Oblates)

Eric Buck's oblation, 2019

We note in this description the emphasis on each day’s devotion, each day’s vocation. The conclusion of the day thus hearkens back to its beginning: the call to hear his voice, and the self-examination to discern what one has heard, and how one has responded. So with the gratitude Pope Francis sees in this experience of vocation, and that we see in the response at work in our own community, we join the prayers of this World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

A monk at Our Lady's altar in the Abbey church