Chapter 58: The reception of candidates for the community (paragraphs 4-5)

The record of their profession, however, which the superior took from the altar should not be returned but should be preserved in the monastery.

(From para. 5 of Ch. 58 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.) 

From this vantage point I look back on my life, and could see a lot of false starts, missed opportunities, maybe even failures. But meditation has helped me to discern a coherent narrative among all the fragments, a movement of the spirit shedding light on my true purpose.