AS076 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 23, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: going on retreat, detachment from (YIKES) gadgets, nun-fiction writer seeks authentic religious life, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I want to go on retreat. Where would I go and what should I expect?
• Could you talk about what detachment from material things means? I’m thinking about religious life, and I’m scared about giving up my things especially my gadgets!
• Another novelist contacts the nuns! The author wants to authentically portray a modern-day nun for her sitcom-esque story. Help the nuns in their advice for the story.

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

In “Novitiate – Overview” (my previous post in the Decoding Formation series) I wrote about what novitiate is in general and where it fits in the grand scheme of formation.

In this post I want to look at novitiate from another lens: Canon Law. Canon Law is the fundamental legislation that governs the Catholic Church. It is important to be aware of Canon Law in terms of religious life, specifically novitiate, because it provides guidelines and safeguards for people joining and for the religious communities. The section on religious life can be found in Book II of Canon Law:

Here are a few things that Canon Law addresses in terms of Novitiate:

Article 1: Admission to the Novitiate (Canons 641-645)

Can. 641 on the sole right of the major superior to admit candidates to novitiate

Can. 642 on the health, character, and maturity of a person entering

Can. 643-644 on impediments to validly entering religious life (e.g., having a spouse or overwhelming debt)

Can. 645 on necessary proof that must be provided (e.g. proof of baptism, confirmation)

Article 2: The Novitiate and Formation of Novices (Canons 646-653)

Can. 646 on the nature of novitiate as helping “novices better understand their divine vocation … , experience the manner of living of the institute, and form their mind and heart in its spirit …”

Can. 647 on the novitiate house (the place novices live)

Can. 648-649 on the requirement that novices spend a full 12 months “in the community itself of the novitiate” (with provision for some apostolic work)

Can. 650-651 on the person and role of the novice director

Can. 652 on how novice directors help novices discern their call and immerse themselves in prayer and the life of the community

Can. 653 on leaving novitiate

You might have heard reference to a period of novitiate called the canonical year. Canonical year refers to one of the two years of novitiate which is shaped specifically by Canons 646-653. Every religious community follows these canons in a way which is suitable to each particular community and tradition and which is approved by the Church.

If you have questions about how a particular religious community incorporates these Canons into their formation process, please talk with the community’s formation director.

Here is an article from my cousin IHMs in Scranton, Pennsylvania on A Week in the Life of a Canonical Novice. This article gives a real life example of how a particular community and its novices live the canonical year of novitiate.

The non-canonical year of novitiate is a second year of novitiate that is not called for by Canon Law but which most congregations have. It’s a time in which the novice is more actively engaged in ministry (apostolate). The work of the non-canonical year is still geared toward formation in the life of the community and in growing in relationship to God.

Toward the end of the two years of novitiate, novices prepare for their first profession of vows. They receive specific training on what the vows are, how they are lived, etc. Typically during this time, novices make a retreat in preparation for vows.

It’s been a while since I wrote about the stages of formation in my series, “Decoding Formation” (see the sidebar on my blog for the previous posts). But now it is time to look at novitiate. I’m going to write this in several parts because there are a number of things I’d like to address. As in the previous stages, there is some variance across communities in terms of what exactly happens during novitiate. And know that I come from a community of active women religious, not a community of contemplative nuns. So there may be things that are particular to contemplatives that I am totally missing — contemplative nuns: please feel free to comment with your experiences!

After Candidacy/Postulancy, a person is ready for the big step of entering the novitiate. ” Novitiate” is the stage at which a person is a novice (meaning “new”) in the community. The community and the person have discerned that the fit is a good one. The “dating” is over (so to speak) and now comes the official engagement period. Just as a couple is committed to one another during an engagement, so the woman and the community are committed to one another. She is now ready to become a member of the community — not a full member for she is not yet under vows, but a novice member. As a novice she is still learning about religious life and the ways of the community, and at the same time she participates in the day to day life and mission of the community. Whereas in the previous stage the Candidate/Postulant usually supports herself and continues with her “former” life, now she is part of the community – what was once “mine” is now “ours”. During novitiate (and for the rest of her religious life), the novice receives what she needs from the community. As mentioned above, she is not yet under vows, though she lives as if she is — the vows of povery, celibacy, and obedience become not just something she knows about but something she lives.

During novitiate, a novice has a novice director – a professed sister who is responsible for the formation of the novice. The novice typically lives with the novice director and any other novices in the same convent/house. Other professed sisters may live in this community.

When a woman is preparing for novitiate, she and the congregation must be attentive to both the congregation’s Rule of Life (or Constitutions) and to Canon Law which provides guidelines and safeguards for the novitiate. I’ll develop this a bit more in my next post on novitiate: Novitiate – Canon Law.