Entry to the Novitiate of Br James Brennan
8 September 2026
How wonderful that this Rite of Entry to the Novitiate is happening today, on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, not only for Brother James, but for our Monastic Community here at Mepkin, with the presence of our 3 brothers from the Monastery of the Genesee and 3 other monastic guests!
This Feast reminds us that, as with Mary, everything happens at God’s initiative. Mary did not choose to be conceived and then be born. She was just called to life at the particular moment according to God’s divine plan. And we know that when the time came, she was given a chance to express her cooperation with that plan.
This evening, this is also how we can take it. At this particular moment, this God-chosen moment, God calls on a member of the Mepkin monastic community to come forward and express a desire to pursue in a more definite way the Trappist monastic vocation here at Mepkin. At this moment, God calls on the Mepkin cenobitic community to welcome a brother among itself in a newer and more intentional way of monastic life.
During the novitiate, our Constitutions state that “care is taken to discern whether the novice has grown spiritually through his participation in monastic life. If he truly seeks God, is zealous for the Work of God, obedience and humiliations, and is suited to living correctly, in solitude and silence, the community relationships that constitute Cistercian life, then at the end of the novitiate, he is to be admitted by the abbot to temporary profession. This is done at his free request and with the consent of the Conventual Chapter.” That is the objective, Brother James. That is the call you are embarking on.
Actually, Brother James had gone through this twenty-five years ago. But other routes and cares prevented him from pursuing further at that time. Through the many succeeding years, he knows that God allows U-turns. And from experience, making such U-turns demands not only skills, but also timing, to successfully and legally pull it through when one is driving a fully loaded 18-wheeler lorry. Road and weather conditions are also significant. And that, dear brothers, is the image of the challenge for us as a community. Are we able to accompany him accordingly as God and he presents himself to us? Not only for Brother James, but for each of us, are we able to sustain each other in the monastic journey by honoring and observing the appropriate cooperation with God in how we conduct ourselves in the Mepkin cenobitic way!
This is just the beginning, and you, Brother James, have shown your freedom and readiness in proceeding to pursue this life of seeking God at this present moment of your God-given life. May the Blessed Virgin Mary nurture you as she did her Son Jesus. And may she, as Our Lady of Mepkin, intercede for you in fulfilling God’s dream for you and your part in Mepkin monastic life.
