Taste and see...

What’s up with tasting things? Why do so many people like it? I guess they like to take risks or they like going for adventures. There is one event that most cities have in common: “Taste of …” festivals. In the last two weeks, we actually went to an International festival, then to a Greek festival, and (jealous or not) went to Maker’s Mark Bourbon place in Kentucky.

Everyone has different preferences of food, clothing, art they like in their homes etc. However, preferences are the result of tasting… first many people take a chance to taste and see if something fits their preference or not.

In the novitiate, we "taste and see" God's desire with our life while deepening our relationship with God. It has been only three weeks, but tasting the novitiate life has been great. Once we were missioned, we all came together to “taste and see” Dominican religious life. Most things landed on my “sweet taste buds” and some on the other buds, but those are good to develop to live with and get used to, too. For example, medicine doesn’t always taste sweet, but it serves a good purpose, right?

Have a taste of our life in the novitiate. Anne shared last week, that we started school. Well, since then, we started to have some routines, so life has started to settle a bit. Since then, some recent tastes included

Prayer: it’s like an energy drink… it's cool, it's refreshing, it's energizing, and there is never enough. We tasted "day for reflection"; we are learning chanting the morning and evening praises, we started to lead prayers for the community, explored several places for Mass, and contemplation became part of our daily life.

Study:  we keep tasting until we find the best recipe for each food. Same with study: study is an on-going formation so that we can use the intelligence to serve others. We go to Aquinas Institute and take classes on preaching and also on vows. We also participate in intercommunity novitiate, learning from others to deepen our relationship with God and others. We lucked out, taking preaching class (I’m lovin’ it; it’s a very practical class with great teachers/preachers) and Vowed Life (it’s another great class; we are now learning the roots of it.)

Ministry: we didn’t just hear about things, we tasted them. We checked out different ministries... They were all wonderful, and the lucky ones are stuck with us, we are ready to serve. Week of September 16 we will start our ministries. What are they? Volunteering in hospice ministry; ministering in jails to women who are working on their GED as well as being with them with their emotional journey, helping women transitioning from jail to the common life, and helping immigrant population to learn.

Community: that has been the most fun; we have a great community here. As community, we pray, eat, study, play games, do chores together, but most of all, we are there for each other. We go to lots of places together as well. Last weekend, we had a nice trip to Kentucky that made our Vowed Life class come alive, as we just learned about the history of Nuns in the U.S., and Kentucky was the first one. First of all, we ate at Overlook restaurant on the way. The food and view of the river were both great. Then, we got to visit Dominican Sisters of Peace, who were really welcoming. We had a hay ride on the sisters' farm and property which was beautiful in the sunset, we learned about the history of Dominican nuns in the U.S., we had a guided tour at St. Rose Church, then on to Maker’s Mark, where we learned how they make bourbon and we also taste it. Then we drove to the Abbey of Gethsemani, where we prayed vespers with the monks. In the evening, we had a delicious meal and paa (pie in Kentucky) at Pat’s Place. Next day, we participated in Mass at the Cathedral in Bardstown, where we experienced a wonderful sense of community. The electricity went out and all pitched in smoothly, without interruption, and in a subtle manner to continue celebrate Mass. After that, we drove to Louisville, and went to Slugger’s Museum. You don’t need to love baseball to love this place! No funnel cakes, but a bunch of fun from Lego baseball player statues to learning how the best baseball bats are made. We had a short sightseeing, then we went to spend the night with two Dominican sisters, where we shared vocation and ministry stories and a yummy dinner with BBQ chicken. It was one busy weekend, but it was nice to do all these with community. 

Oh, one more thing: our novice directors are not like the directors used to be long ago... We've been mischievous at times; good thing that venia (sliding on the floor across the room for mercy) is not practiced anymore. We do have to take responsibilities for every good and not-so-good, but Sisters Megan and Joye are not grumpy or mean at all. They really are there for us in this journey. 

OK, now that you had a taste of novitiate life... I would say that great minds taste alike. I assume that so far, all of us like life as a novice and willing to spice it up or just simply take another dip.

If you are a sister or brother, what’s your best recipe for the novitiate? 

If you are not a sister or brother, I hope that this helped you have a taste, but honestly, as I wrote it above, to know if it is meant for you or not, you can taste and see if it fits your (and God’s) preference. 

If you liked this article, please come back for "another scoop" next week for Christina's blog.