After a period of probation lasting almost six years, a Benedictine nun binds herself to God and the community with three vows. With the vow of stability („stabilitas“) we commit ourselves to remain in the once chosen place and to root our life totally in God.
We do not strive to change our environment nor the external circumstances, but ourselves. With the vow of conversion of manners („conversatio morum“) we promise to live a life following the Gospel. God’s call to every Christian to be ready on an ongoing basis, to rethink and to change one’s ways is meant here.
Such a call is also an ever-new motivation, not to despair in the face of one’s own weakness, but to be prepared tirelessly to start anew. With the vow of obedience („oboedientia“), which the Benedictine takes, we enter knowingly and voluntarily into a dependency on other people, believing that we will encounter God’s will in this way.
Obedience out of love for Christ and as his disciple protects against being trapped in one’s own ideas and whims and from revolving only around oneself. By a readiness for dialogue, by listening and by being responsive to the directions of another, we make every effort to be open to God and to fellow human beings.