I Call You by Name 

            Behind the monastic practice of receiving a new, “religious” name at vestition, there stretches a long and rich tradition all the way back into the earliest Jewish history. Throughout the Old Testament, we find instances of people receiving a new name from God to mark the beginning of a covenant with Him. In the earliest examples, Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah, and Jacob becomes Israel; this is carried on into New Testament times by the call of Mary to be “Full of Grace” (Kecharitomene in Greek), Simon to be Peter, Saul to be Paul. In each case – and in countless others, both recorded and unrecorded – God calls the soul personally and by a new name in order to signify that this is a pivotal moment. It is, in fact, the definitive moment that she begins to fulfill the unique role in God’s salvation for which He has created her.

            In today’s world (at least in the West) some of the significance of receiving a new name has been lost. This is because some of the significance of a personal name has been lost to our culture. In Biblical times and in some cultures still today, a name is much more than a word by which a certain person is distinguished from another. A name had almost a sacramental nature; it was a powerful, verbal sign of an inner reality. One’s name said something about who the person was in his inmost being, in his truest self. One’s name often indicated his background and allegiance, and even more often, it reflected the role he played in his milieu. In many ancient cultures, simply hearing a person’s name would tell you important information about who he was and what sort of person he was. This more significant understanding of naming is that which under girds the tradition of religious names. The only real vestige we retain in America is the practice of taking the surname of one’s spouse when one gets married, and this is slowly falling to the wayside, probably because of the gradual loss of the significance of a name.

            When, therefore, a novice receives a new name from God through her superior at the time that she receives the religious habit, she is receiving much more than a “label.” Her religious name contains significance for the whole of her religious life, helping to shed light upon her particular vocation, the unique way that she will live as a Bride of Christ. Like the patriarchs of the Old Covenant and the first disciples of the New, she receives a name to mark the beginning of a new chapter in salvation history. While her vocation may not have as epic proportions as Abraham’s, or as eternally grand consequences as Mary’s, she is called by name, in spirit and in truth, to further God’s salvation upon earth by her following after Christ in the religious life that He sets before her. May each of us receive the grace to follow wholeheartedly Him who calls us by name to be His own!