20th Anniversary of Vows

My Brother Karekin in San Francisco writes, "A vow is not a promise. A promise is between two individuals, and can be broken, and often is, with impunity and a mere apology to the offended party. A vow, on the other hand, usually has two defining characteristics. First, it invokes God as either party or witness, and second it involves a public proclamation, inviting the public's support in helping the parties to uphold the vow once made. Vows are not to be broken but every effort must be expended to make the necessary adjustments to one's needs or desires to ensure that the vow can be carried out. For all vows - ordination, marriage, baptismal, religious profession - life must be made to accommodate them, not the other way around. All of one's life must be structured to support these vows once made. If a vow is to be set aside - unlike a promise, all parties must be in agreement about the laying aside. In religious vows, these are made to God. No human power, not even the Church, has the authority to lay them aside on God's behalf. The moral of the story: don't make a vow you aren't prepared to keep."

Karekin shared this with the community on August 1, but I'm going to consider it a gift for the 20th anniversary of my vows today. On Aug. 3, 1991, at Graymoor, home of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement at Garrison, NY, I professed 1st vows in the Brotherhood of St. Gregory with my friend and Brother Maurice John Grove, then of Mexico, NY and now of Hinunangan Southern Leyte in the Philippines. On July 27, we celebrated our 15th anniversary of Life Vows with our Brother Richard John Lorino, who had been 1st professed in January, 1991 but became our "classmate" for life vows.

Our Rule says "It is the obligation of each brother to pray the offices on a daily basis."  In the past 20 years, there have been very few "misses" of a daily rota of Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline. If my basic math skills are correct, that means for about 7,304 (leap years included) days, I have prayed the offices some 29,216 times !  And for that I give thanks to God.

On this anniversary, I give thanks to God, to our Minister General and Founder Richard Thomas Biernacki for his vision and leadership; and to my brothers, especially those in Province V:  Our Minister Provincial Br Nathanael Deward, and Brothers Gordon John, Joseph Basil, William Henry, Will and Francis Jonathan. And finally in memory of my first Minister Provincial, the late Br. Thomas Joseph Ross of Cincinnati.

I must also offer my thanks to the Episcopal Church of the Atonement in Chicago, where the community was first welcomed by the late rector, the Very Rev. Dean Paxton Rice, and continues to be welcomed and supported by the current rector, the Rev. John David van Dooren; and to St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Chicago, with great support from the former rector, the Very Rev. James H. Dunkerley, and the current rector, the Very Rev. Sarah Fisher.

+Soli Deo Gloria+