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"A
Day in the Life of a First Year Novice"
by
Sr. M. Bernadette and Sr. M. Isabella
What is a novice?
Novice comes from the Latin word "novicius" meaning
new or newly arrived. That is exactly what we
are! We are the new Sisters and we have taken
on a whole new way of life. As first year
novices we pray, work, and live in the convent for a
year to deepen our relationship with Christ, our
Beloved, in preparation for the rest of our
religious life. "Can there possibly be that
much to do in the convent?" you are probably
wondering. From our experience we can testify
there is plenty to accomplish in a day...even a day
that begins at 4:35am!
From the moment our feet hit the floor in the
morning everything is a new experience. A
glance towards the mirror brings a "double take."
"Who is that?" And then reality kicks in -
"I'm really a Sister! A bride of Christ!"
We then make our way eagerly to the chapel to say
"Good morning" to our Beloved and we pray Morning
Office with our community. We then prepare for
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with a half-hour of
meditation on the Scriptures. Then
strengthened with the Eucharist, we begin our
apostolates and are taken back to Nazareth.
Sr. M. Bernadette finds her Nazareth in the
refectory, aka "the kitchen", and Sr. M. Isabella in
housekeeping. Without going into details, we
both learn the way of love in the little things.
What was once an ordinary task has become an
extraordinary adventure with Christ!
At 8:00am we watch the news in order to know the
needs of our world, which are many. We then
have class with our Novice Director, Sr. M.
Alexandra, studying the Rule and Constitutions of
our Community. Despite the sound of it, the
Rules and Constitution are not a list of do's and
don'ts, but rather a way of closely following in the
footsteps of Christ. Everyday we have an
opportunity to implement what we learn in class as
we work in our apostolate. We continue working
in our apostolate until Midday Prayers with our
community. We have lunch together, which is a
beautiful time to share the joys of our day.
Each day after lunch we have an hour to pray,
recreate, write letters, listen to music, or even
SLEEP! At 2:00pm we make our way to the chapel
to be with Jesus and talk with Him. We have an
hour of spiritual reading to be inspired through the
words of the Saints, our Holy Father and other
inspirational writers. After our spiritual
reading time we go back to work in our apostolates
with Jesus experiencing His deep love for us.
At 5:00pm we have personal prayer time where we pray
our stations and rosary, which we pray everyday, as
well as time to simply "BE" with Christ. At
5:45pm we have scripture reading for fifteen minutes
and then Evening Office with the Community.
Suppertime! More moments from our day are
shared. Throughout the week our evenings vary
from Confession and Benediction, Community
Recreation, Bible discussion or early retirement to
bed!
One day in the convent is enough to learn the
impossibility of finding a dull day in the convent.
God surprises us often with many unexpected
blessings and plans. This fall we had a
blessed road trip to Washington DC for the
Eucharistic Congress and experienced the beauty of
the Church's religious communities coming together
as one. Throughout the month we are delighted
to entertain and get to know the young women who
come to discern. On the weekends we teach PSR
and have an opportunity to share the joy and love of
Christ with the youth. Pope Benedict XVI at
Cologne, Germany said to the youth, "If we let
Christ into our life we lose nothing, nothing,
absolutely nothing..." Our year in the
novitiate testifies to the truth of these words.
And we can add that in Christ we gain "all". |
