This is your last will and testament made in favor of the one who will claim your very self when your course is completed. It also binds him to you in a new way, and gives you assurance of his more particular love and care. All Christians are united with Christ by a pact, in fact, that is for life and that finds its fulfillment only at the second coming of our Lord. Monastic profession is a re newal and intensification of that first testament which is concluded by receiving this sacrament. The texts we heard in today's mass from the Acts and from the First Epistle of Peter speak of the need for conversion from sin and from living according to the values of a world alienated from God.
Monastic profession is the fruit of such a conversion.
The vows are a formal expression of the decision to turn away from the ambitions and pleasures of this world and to set one's heart on pleasing the Lord in all things. Such a conversion is begun in a single act of choice and as sent to God's will. However, this conversion is but a beginning of a movement that engages the person in its entirety The whole of the Christian life is a process of return to God. The first step of that return is often more dramatic and evident as the believer takes faith seriously enough to turn away from sin and the world that is stranger to God. But until the very end of our journey on earth we must continue our advance on the path that leads to the Kingdom of God.