Paula Eats Worms

  By Sr. Paula Danforth

Amazing things are happening here at the collaborative novitiate. Five women are on a journey into religious life with our director and one other perpetually professed sister. We have been here for two months now. We have ministries, common prayer times, community building outings, and classes. We attend formal classes at Catholic Theological Union. We attend lectures and Dominican Life Seminars. We have informal classes that take place around our shared dinner table and in spontaneous conversations that often happen on community building outings. 

We accepted an invitation to spend some time at a house owned by the Springfield Dominican Sisters in Braidwood, Illinois this weekend. I was especially happy to travel to such a beautiful property outside of the City of Chicago. I looked forward to processing in my head and heart the things I had learned at a lecture I attended on Friday at the Intercommunity Novitiate gathering. 

The title of the talk was “Collaborative Leadership,” but so much more information was covered in Brother Loughlan Sofield’s lecture. Collaboration also includes communication, anger, forgiveness, transition, stress, and our emotions. We spent a great deal of time covering the topic of loss that occurs from transitions. 

In Braidwood, I was able to take part in a conversation about all we had learned in Brother Sofield’s lecture. I needed time to process one specific challenging truth I had to accept. I chose to transition into the novitiate in Chicago. Chicago is a long way from Vermont. My family back in Vermont, transitioned into a life where I was not just a short car ride away from them. I had to process the idea that my choice had an impact on not just me. This is a loss for me, but also for my family. I chose this option with the attached loss. My family has to deal with a loss due to this choice of mine. They support me in this move, but the loss they feel is mostly on me and my decision. Whenever we collaborate, when we are part of a community, when we make any decision, everyone’s life is impacted in some way. This was heavy information for me to process. Thanks to the Dominican Sisters of Springfield who loaned us their lake property, I had a nice place to do the processing and integration of Brother Sofield’s teaching on collaborating and all it entails. 

My first two months here have also been fun. In addition to the picture of the lake, I have attached a light moment of laughter. Our house is studying the possibility of incorporating a composting worm bin into our environment. I think you may be hearing more about this in future blogs from the novitiate. We visited a neighboring community to see their worms in action. I assure you that no worm was harmed in the composition of the attached photo of Angela and I. Despite what I told my family, I did not actually eat a worm as a part of the novitiate.

Blessings and Peace from Chicago.