Dear Sister, the ceremonies of your profession are themselves so lovely a sermon that you can have no need of further words. Yet it is a joy to speak a little of your joy, and in particular to think over with you the particularly lovely antiphon which you are soon to sing: I have chosen to be an outcast in the house oh my Lord.

I have chosen. Our Lord once said to his disciples: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And yet God in his mercy when he calls us to his service, gives us the power to give him back his gift. Your vocation is his choosing of you; yet it is also your choice of him; an act of your own will. And that is why we are told that a religious profession is something that wipes wholly away whatever there was of darkness, of sin, in the past; it is a complete renewal of heart and soul, a complete cleansing—why? Because it is a complete act of love. But to have that effect it must be a perfect act. It is not enough to say I have chosen to be in the house of my Lord. You have to say, as you do say, I have chosen to be an outcast. Abiecta: it means thrown aside, poor, unnoticed, forlorn.