Psallam​​ TIBI​

 

CONVERSATIO MORUM SUORUM

 

CONVERSATIO MORUM: a term variously translated, often insufficiently penetrating the depth with which it was employed by our Holy Father Saint Benedict to mean, not simply a vow to be taken, but a life to be lived. It is the life of a monastic, to be sure. But more than that, it is the life of a Lenten people, journeying towards the eternal joy of the Easter promises. And who are this Lenten people but all of us; the Church Militant, here fighting for our very souls against the forces of sin and darkness, that we may one day share in the vision of God’s glory, which is the life of the Church Triumphant. And this journey of ours is not just one of forty days during this season, but of our whole lives; conversatio morum being that interior state which constantly answers the Lenten call to “Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

 

This μετάνοια (metanoia) from which we have received the word ‘repentance’ is at the very heart of the Christian life, for it is in this turning, this process of conversion, that true change of heart takes place and we find ourselves transformed in the image of Christ. And conversatio morum invites us into this lifelong Lent of the heart, which is each soul’s dialogue with its Creator – an intimate conversation between lovers – that draws man back to his source through a laying aside of self only to find himself again in God.

 

When we enter the vow of conversatio morum we enter the school of the Lord’s service – a life of true discipleship, which learns the need for the ongoing conversion of heart that is the fullness of our life’s journey into life in Christ – a school from which we graduate, truly shriven, our eyes opened to the deifying light. It is to respond integrally, in toto corde meo, to the word of God, which asks, “Who is the man who will have life, and desires to see good days?” (Ps. 34:12) It is to respond and be moulded by his will, for we cannot just say “Here I am, Lord,” but are compelled by love to add, “I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” (Ps. 40:7-8) And it is this indwelling of the law of the Lord, which is perfect love, to which we turn in our conversatio morum, seeking to embrace life and live it as we were created to live it – in the fullness of our creation in God’s image, in intimacy with the divine, in continual surrender to the Spirit – that we may be constantly oriented to God and stand in true fear of the Lord, awestruck that all we have sought, all that we need is in him alone to be found; and to know that in us has the Lord said, “This is my resting place forever: Here I will dwell, for I have desired it” (Ps. 132:14).

 

Conversatio morum, then, is the full expression of the life of true repentance, which alone leads to the joy of the Gospel, and to which the Lenten season calls us to order our lives. It is not the exclusive vocation of the monastic but the lifelong vocation of all who seek Christ in a metanoia that marks a decisive change in who we are: the choice for God in response to his choosing of us to be made his sons through Jesus Christ. And it begins in the wilderness with Christ, the word of God always on our lips in our struggles against temptation; and it proceeds to Calvary, our souls bereft at love’s sacrifice for our sins; and it ends in the soul’s return to the breath of love from which it was made: the consummation of its lifelong dialogue in the eternal repose of communion. 

 

To this end may our life’s Lenten journey be directed, through Christ our Lord.