Joy filled Fidelity
Silver Jubilee of Solemn Profession of Mother Miriam Joseph O.S.B
The Mount, Priory
29 November 2025
My friends,
“St. Paul writing to the Corinthians declared that Jews ask for signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified which is a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But, to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is Gods power and wisdom.” 1 Cor. 1:23.
The paradox of the Christian faith continues to unfold in a myriad of ways and a myriad of places.
Today we celebrate with Mother Miriam Joseph, the Silver Jubilee of her profession, of her wish and desire to dedicate herself to serving God and humanity in the monastic life and the community founded by Mother Marie Adele Garnier, Servant of God. You know well the pattern and arc of Mother Marie Adele’s personal spiritual journey and vocational discernment, that led to the establishment of the Tyburn monastery and your congregation.
Her path was neither straight or smooth, yet always, marked by profound faith, love and perseverance. The existence of communities at prayer across the world is testament to the truth of St. Paul’s word to the Corinthians first and to the Church wherever it has witnessed – that Christ in our midst is the power and wisdom of God.
Mother Miriam Joseph has come among us to lead this community of prayer. We rejoice and are glad that through her own personal journey, she discerned her vocation to monastic life with a singular dedication to the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and having discerned so, responded with generosity. For twenty-five years now, she has dedicated so much time in silent prayer before the Lord intercession for the needs of humanity and the coming of the Kingdom. We give thanks today with her for the rich blessing of these years of joyful fidelity.
My friends, the words of protest of Jeremiah the Prophet (1st Reading), are often to be found on our lips too when we sense the call to do a new thing or make a new beginning. Today’s celebration invites all to gather in prayer with Mother Miriam Joseph to love with an open heart, to have a sense of welcome for that which stretches us beyond what we consider we are capable of.
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Jesus Christ, were baptised into his death?" Asks St. Paul rhetorically in the 2nd Reading. In doing so, he presses us to enter more deeply into the life-giving ways of God through a joyful generosity and fidelity in our sacrificial offering of ourselves.
The Gospel image of the Vine and Vinedresser are so apt for us to seek to take to heart today – each of us doing so in the context of our vocational call. Pruning as nature testifies, is a necessary task for the gardener, if trees of beauty and fruitfulness, all to be enjoyed. The monastic community in our midst is a beacon of joyful fidelity to God with us. Your prayer moves us in turn to be silent in the centre of a noisy world – that we may radiate the serenity and salvation all yearn for,
“Abide in me and I in you….If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you.” John 15:88
