So what?

This is a question we hear every single Tuesday by Sr. Regina, who is teaching us the Foundation of Vowed Life class. However, this very question has been coming to us pretty often during the novitiate - voiced and unvoiced.

Many people wonder what we do during novitiate, or even what's the point of the novitiate. Why would someone "ditch" her beloved home, congregational community, and workplace to live with others just for a year and then a year later (being enriched) go back to continue life where she paused it?

We follow the Canon Laws (646-653); however, reading those only, novitiate can seem a bit dry...

So what? Why is it, that the novitiate is something that every sister remembers as "one of the best experiences" of her life?! What makes it so special? Let's see what we have been doing... Is it the day of reflection that is set aside each week to hang out with God and reflect? Or is it the Cardinals game we went to? Or is it having fun watching Megan (novice director) waving her Tigers-towel and spinning it over the speed limit above her head as she is cheering for the Detroit Tigers? Or is it having a field trip to the very first Dominican convent for sisters in the U.S.? Or is it biking in Forest Park when leaves are changing colors? Or is it going to Jubilee Farm? Or is it having the joy of not having to do chores for hours each day like long time ago? Or is it getting up before the rooster crows and leave the house at 6:30 a.m. so that we can pray together and celebrate Mass with the Dominican brothers? Or is it Anne's (novice) delicious squash soup? Or is it trying to learn the impossible chanting tones? Or is it the yummy chocolates in the cabinet? Well, I guess, all of these above, but there is something else, too.

What makes novitiate special is that we come together and try to sort out - with fancy words: discern - God's desire, while we deepen our relationship with God, get to know ourselves (our inner Gumby) better, we pray together, live in community, study religious life, and do ministry. We get the time to reflect on everything we experience here: our prayer life, feelings, classes, scripture readings, preachings we hear or lead, community fun nights, community in general, being there for each other, ministry, and our novice directors, Sisters Megan and Joye, help us reflect and discern.

This week, we spent a day learning about discernment. While learning about how to sort out things, how to be attentive to God and to our feelings, and to what is really going on inside and outside, we also heard about great images. 
      One of the images was Jonah in the whale. So what? We are like as if we were Jonah in the whale's belly: having the time to reflect and awaiting where this journey is taking us. 
      Another memorable image was the metaphor of driving in the dark. Driving in the dark, we have headlights, but the light is only good enough to allow us to see what we need; there are no extra lights to see things that could take our attention away. This kind of driving in the dark is focused on the task, from point A to point B. So what? In the novitiate, we journey God's desire and see where it takes. No extra "noises."

During evening prayer this week, we heard another great reflection on Luke 11:5-13.  The Gospel describes how a father would never give a snake when his child asks for a fish, and how a father would never give a scorpion when his child asks for an egg. So what? In Kathy's preaching, the message was, that God would never give the opposite we ask for, but we won't get everything we ask in prayer either. If we ask for a fish, God would most likely provide a fishing pole. If we ask an egg, God would probably give us a hen to nurture and care for that later gives us eggs. So what? When we ask God: "what is your desire? or how am I to bring your love to others?" God doesn't whisper in our ears, but God does give us the tool, the novitiate: the opportunity to live together in community, study, have a deeper relationship with God through prayer, and enfold the journey with the help of our directors and the novices.

Discernment is a life-long journey. So what? The point is, that during novitiate, we are here for each other to help be attentive to and sort out God's desire with our life.

How do we know it? One sure sign is: we feel at peace, joyful and energized (wheee!) when we can be our very best self using the gifts God gave us. A spouse is the very best self within a marriage. A religious sister, brother or priest is the very best self in a community and ministry. If you are not married, or not ordained or a vowed religious, but have played with the thought, look for the help God offers you in your best buddy, or a spiritual director, or vocation director, how you can be your very best self.