As proud papa, you won’t be able to sing anyway – you’ll be so choked up with joy for the holy nuptials of your daughter. That is such happy news! Congratulations!
Thank you. I’m hoping to get permission from the community to walk her down the aisle. Even though I’m the superior general, there are some things that even the superior must ask. Attending your child’s wedding is one of them. It’s not a given. Family is something that Franciscans of Life renounce when we make vows.
For heavens’ sake! Who would ever think that would prevent someone from entering the order?
St. Bruno, the founder of the Carthusians.
So then, you are familiar with knots in the throat?
Knots in my throat are as natural as tonsils, for me. My greatest knot was when I made vows. The ritual requires that one have two witnesses stand by your side as you kneel and promise to obey until death. Then the witnesses sign the book of profession. My former superior asked my son and daughter to be my witnesses, but did not tell me. When it was time for me to profess, I went up, laid on the floor, face down, as the community placed the pall of death over me and began to chant the De Profundis. Then, they went on to the Litany of the Franciscan saints. The pall is then lifted.
By that time, a chair has been placed in front of you. The superior is sitting in. He asks you . . . “My son, what do you ask of God, the Church and this fraternity?”
To which you answer, “I ask to be received as Franciscan Brother of Life, to live the Holy Gospel in perfect obedience as did Christ on the cross, to detach from all things, including family, friends, possessions, thoughts of my own and feelings in order to conform to the poverty of Christ in Gethsemane, and to embrace the chastity of Christ, who for love of his Father and in atonement for his brothers, offered his life as the pure and spotless lamb, and to this I add that I promise to be the voice of Christ to voiceless or forfeit my immortal soul to the fires of hell.”
You’re still laying face down.
The superior signals for the witnesses to stand by you and then says to you, “Arise in the name of God and may he accept this offering.”
When I knelt to put my hands in my superiors hand to make my vows, my son and daugher were flanking me on either side. My superior sat there with the biggest grin. I had tears streaming down my cheeks and almost could not say the words of profession.
“I, Brother Jason Richard of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, hereby vow and promise to Almighty God, to the Glorious Ever Virgin Mary our mother, to the Church, beloved bride of the Son, daughter of the Father, and ward of the Holy Spirit and to you Father Superior, to observe the Rule of the Friars Minor, living in unquestioning obedience to our Holy Father Francis, without any property of my own or in common, renouncing all rights to marriage and a family in order to unite myself to this family of brothers, and I especially vow to bring the voice of Christ to the voiceless until death or suffer eternal damnation.”
He then accepts your vows in the name of the fraternity, the bishop accepts them in the name of the Church and the two witnesses sign the document with you.
I still shudder when I remember. I still get a knot.
What a joy to proclaim the Easter Exultet! It is a moment for which many of us do not have words. Best left unsaid, but experienced!
I had never proclaimed the Exulted. I became superior in March. Easter was around the corner. There was not much time to practice. I was a nervous wreck to begin with. Once I began, the words of the proclamation just lifted me away into another time and space. I could no longer see the congregation. All I could hear were angels, patriarchs and a long line of saints exulting the Glory of God. I began to cry as I chanted. It was an incredible experience.
To proclaim the Resurrection and the Nativity are the greatest honors afforded to a superior. It’s so humbling. You feel very small in front of the entire community.
Now comes my first Christmas as superior. I have to proclaim the Nativity at Midnight Mass. I’ll be a basket case again.
I’m not a good singer. I really need to focus to carry a tune. Some people just open their mouths and they sound like an angel. I open my mouth and south like an angel with a cold. LOL
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
. But it didn’t stop me from liking Archadelt’s ‘Ave Maria’. I also quite like a rendition of ‘Tu es petrus’ I heard once in Rome.
. Add on to that the fact that I’m nearly finished my degree in computer science and the end result is a lot of technical knowledge. Always happy to help. 
