The profession of solemn vows which I made on 25 August past, the feast of our holy founder Calasanz, is the culmination of having discovered God’s merciful love throughout my life. It is a process through which I have been able to see how that love has always remained at my side—in spite of my limitations, or rather: because of them. That has been and continues to be my vocational experience.
To consecrate my life to that mystery of love, within the Pious Schools, means abandoning myself into the arms of God-Love revealed in Jesus Christ. Solemn profession is, then, a lifelong commitment; it is not something undertaken lightly. It is the proclamation of a desire to become each day more conformed to the style of Saint Joseph Calasanz by making one’s own the cause of justice and solidarity with the little ones.
It is, therefore, a journey in which God is the way, the one who accompanies, and the one who brings forth experiences. A journey along which one advances, finding the lights needed to remain on the path, as well as the time to give thanks, to dream and to build. All this acquires meaning when that love of God, shared, becomes life.
Solemn profession is a “yes” that is not improvised, but is reaffirmed in the everyday life shared with one’s brothers. It is a forever offering to the living God, to someone real who continues to surprise me and to show me signs that make it clear he is an active part in the building of his Kingdom.
In short, I understand the profession of solemn vows as a process of humanisation which, with tenderness and love, God has worked and continues to work in me. The Lord humanises me; he makes me a more “real” person. That passage from Ezekiel (11:19; 36:26), where the Lord affirms that he will change hearts of stone for a new heart, could describe this process very well: from sclerocardia to mercy (Giselle Gómez). And what moves me is to know that he will go on doing so.
Albert Moliner Fernández
