AS106 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 21, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: unresponsive vocation directors, disappearing nuns, is religious life dying?, body language at Mass, what nuns study in the novitiate, 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 addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I’d like to be a nun who works in health care or with people with disabilities. Book mentioned: Adam: God’s Beloved by Henri Nouwen
• I’ve thought about becoming a nun for a long time. But when I called the vocations director at a local convent, she never called back! What should I do? Links mentioned: How to Become a Nun and The Vocation Forum
• It is a very rare thing to see a nun these days. There must have been something that not only drew the young girl to a convent but also kept here there pre-Vatican II. What happened? The nuns put to rest some incorrect information about the decline or religious life with the very good news that it is very much alive!
• What is the proper hand-folding protocol at Mass? Should everyone keep their hands folded whenever we’re standing at Mass?
• What do nuns study when they’re in formation? Find out how the nuns are taught not to smoke, drink, or curse!

Do you have a question for us? Contact us and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. 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.

AS057 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 21, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: legit baptisms, stuff and the vow of poverty, novitiate reception ceremonies, looking for faith on the Internet, commitment to God, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

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 addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Is baptism in other Christian traditions recognized by the Roman Catholic church?
• When a person enters the religious life, what becomes of the person’s stuff?
• What was your novitiate reception ceremony like? How did you plan it?
• What are you thoughts on Christian websites with lots of inspirational articles, podcasts, etc. Is this a trend for future generations? Should people also incorporate an outreach such as attending a church service?
• How do I as a layperson consistently dedicate my life to God?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling, and an email address in case we need to contact you. We’ll play your message and respond on the next Ask Sister podcast — your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

How times change! I found it interesting to read through the “horarium” (the hourly schedule for sisters) that was used early in IHM religious life. It reflects a time in history when the main purpose of all religious life around the world was to develop personal holiness. Service to others was a “secondary” purpose. But times—and theology—change. In the 1950s and 1960s, service to others was understood as not being somehow separate from holiness, but a path for holiness.

If you were a novice with the IHMs in 1902, here’s what your day would look like!

IHM sisters performing their “charges” – serving meals in the sisters’ infirmary

1902 IHM Novitiate Directory

[Sisters arose to the sound of the bell at 5:00 a.m.]

As good order is the life of a well regulated Institute, the Sisters shall make it their duty to observe most strictly the following regulations. They shall rise in the morning at the first sound of the bell, without in the least giving way to sloth, thinking that it is God who calls them. Entertaining themselves with holy thoughts, they shall dress with greatest modesty. Afterwards, make the sign of the cross, and recite the usual morning prayers, offering to God all the actions of the day. Then, prostrate, they shall say three Aves and ask her blessing while in spirit kissing her hand. And having kissed the floor, before and after the three Aves, they shall kneel and with arms extended, say one Pater and Ave in honor of their yearly Patron.

Assemble in the chapel for meditation
Assist at Holy Mass
Breakfast
Manual work/study until 11:45
Particular examen [of conscience]
12:00 (in silence) go to dinner
Te Deum in Chapel after dinner
After Chapel, repair to refectory, kitchen, or other departments for charges [daily chores]
After these charges, recreation
Study/manual labor from 1:30-3:00
3:00 Spiritual reading (from a book selected by the Novice Mistress)
3:30 One-third of the rosary
4:00 Free time
4:30 Visit to the Blessed Sacrament and the BVM
5:00 Study or instructions
6:00 Supper, followed by recreation
8:00 Silence
8:30 Night prayers
9:30 Last signal shall be given, when all unnecessary lights shall be extinguished and each Sister is strictly commanded to be in bed.

Source: Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, published by Syracuse University Press, 1997. Photo: page 192.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

AS030 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 18, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: cultivating patience, personal opinion v. official church stance, right- and left-brain discernment, entering novitiate, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

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 questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How do I become a better “patience person”?
• What does a believer do when personal opinion on a “hot topic” issue (like women priests, abortion, gay and lesbian issues, immigration) differs from the official church stance? Can a believer have a different view and still be Roman Catholic?
• Can we turn our backs on people who are gay or lesbian?
• Is discernment a right-brained or left-brained activity?
• What might my first year of novitiate look like?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. 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 send us an email or 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.