In preparation for our vow ceremony, the to-be-professed gets to craft a “vow card”, a sort of beautifully decorated frame which hold a personally chosen image of Our Lord, Our Lady, and the panel where she handwrites her vows. This is what she reads from for the actual ceremony.
I wanted to mention this project because of the significance of one the details on my vow card has—far from being merely an aesthetic touch, this image has special significance, for the implications are rather… eternal.
On the top of the place where my vows are written, I have placed a small image of the Rublev Trinity, a famous icon depicting the Three Persons that refers back to the strange guests of Abraham in Genesis 18:1-8. This image, then, is an entry point into the eternal outpouring of God’s love. The Trinity gazes down, it seems, on my vows. The gaze of chosen love they pour down on my small offering is like a waterfall, surrounding me in God’s very Life.
The vows themselves reflect the Trinitarian Mystery; as in the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, none of the Three Persons possesses anything, loves anyone, or wills that anything be done without the concordant possessing, willing, and loving of the others. Our vows and community life seek to manifest this mystery of unity; this communion of persons is the End towards which we all strain.
I am so filled with gratitude for the gift of my profession. I get to belong to God in a unique and total way. The sense of belonging to both Him and to the community in a more fixed and stable way has been a truly grace-filled experience. And while, yes, it’s a significant commitment on my part, and while each moment of the ceremony itself was brimming with meaning, I realize that, fundamentally, it’s not so much about my choice to make give myself. It is, rather, His choice for me. There would no me to give if God had not first given me to me!
And His choice is for each of us. At every moment, the Triune God is gazing down on your life too. And He prays for us, that we may, “all be One.”
