arewell F Bren - Cistercian Monks of Tarrawarra Abbey

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mitting themselves today? Of what
are they now called to be a living
sign?
We will hear the answer to all of this
in the questions I will ask Samuel
and Joseph in a moment and in the
Prayer of Consecration I will pray
over them. We will hear about willing
and generous service of the bishops
and priests. We will hear about
the faithful proclamation of the
faith. We will hear about a ministry
of prayer on behalf of the Church
and the whole world. We will hear
about respect and obedience. We
will hear about sincere love, concern
for the poor, unassuming authority,
self-discipline and holiness. And at
the end of the Prayer of
Consecration, we will
hear it all summed up
in these words: “God
our Father, may Samuel
and Joseph imitate your
Son who came, not to
be served, but to serve”.
There it is. It is of this
that the deacon is called to be a living
sign. It is this which his whole
life must now be about. This is what
Samuel and Joseph take on today,
this is what God is calling them and
empowering them to be and to do -
that in every encounter with them,
people now encounter, in a new and
deeper way than was already the
case, a living image, a living icon of
Jesus the servant.
Jesus is many things: he is our
saviour, our good shepherd, the
bread of life, the light of the world,
and so much more. None of us can
be on our own a full expression of
the richness of Christ. It is only together,
as members of his body, as
the Church, that we can be what the
Lord is calling us to be and needs
us to be - his ongoing presence in
the world. But precisely because
the mystery of Christ is so rich,
and precisely because the world’s
need for Christ is so great, we need
people who, both in what they do
and in what they are, symbolize for
us those aspects of the mystery of
Christ which, if they are not present
in our Church and in our world,
will leave the Church and the world
a greatly impoverished place.
Today Samuel and Joseph are
saying “yes” to the Lord’s invitation
to be a living icon of service:
humble, unselfish, faithful service.
In fact, in all the different ways in
which Samuel and Joseph will work
with and for God’s people, they will
be saying with their lives, “Jesus
came not to be served but to serve,
and I want to be a living sign of his
loving service among you”.
The grace of God will be poured into your
lives through this ordination to enable
you to be all that God is calling you to be.
This morning, from within the mystery
of their vocation to the contemplative
life, they are ordained for a
ministry of service. Their formation
as Cistercians, and their experience
of the community life of the Cistercian,
has I am sure prepared them
well for this.
When we met a couple of weeks
ago to discuss the ordination, Samuel
and Joseph spoke of how important
contemplative life has been
for them and of how they had each
begun careers in the secular world
before investigating the call to religious
life. Each had inquired into
various Orders, but found the discipline
of contemplative life, the vocation
to which they believed they
were called. First and foremost it is
a call to contemplative life, in the
Benedictine tradition, lived in community.
Diaconate is asked of some
members of the community in order
that the sacramental needs of the
community be met. The Abbot and
his community have invited Samuel
and Joseph to fulfil this ministry
within the community and they
have generously accepted, knowing
that their primary vocation to contemplative
life will be served in the
diaconate.
Through their journey of the last
ten years, Samuel and Joseph have
been introduced to contemplative
life; have found their home within
this community, learned the ways
of prayer and the dedication of
the whole of each day to the Lord.
They have studied theology and the
Scriptures to inform and deepen
their love of God, prayer and ministry.
Underpinning this whole way
of life is the understanding
of the im-
portance of prayer
to the disciple of
Christ. This prayer
is not merely to benefit
the one praying,
but through the contemplativecommunity’s
prayer, the
Church as a whole and humanity in
total, is served by the intercession
made on their behalf.
As deacons, Samuel and Joseph,
you are called to the ministry
of service and proclamation of the
Word in a new and particular way.
Be confident that as you are called
to share in Christ’s Priesthood
through the diaconate, He who calls
you, strengthens you to meet the
challenges you will encounter. The
grace of God will be poured into
your lives through this ordination
to enable you to be all that God is
calling you to be. Open your hearts
to receive that gift now, and commit
yourselves to allowing that gift to
grow and develop in you each day,
so that God might be glorified and
his people might have the joy of encountering
Christ through you and
your ministry.
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