Summer is always an exciting time for us! During June, the month in which we commemorate the Solemnity of our Father Saint Paul, we celebrate the profession of our novices and the final profession of our Junior sisters. And in August, we rejoice as new novices enter into Pauline religious life through a simple but profoundly meaningful ceremony at our Motherhouse in Boston.
This year, on August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we welcomed Mari Bermúdez (from our Venezuela-Puerto Rico-Domincan Republic delegation) and Gabby Evidente into our community as novices.
Novitiate is the real initiation into the Pauline religious life. The two-year novitiate program includes time for prayer, study, classes, apostolate, and community as the novices deepen their relationship with Jesus and learn about the Pauline religious life in the Church. It is a time set apart for reflection, self-discipline and contemplation, during which the novice profoundly adheres to Christ in the knowledge and practice of the evangelical counsels and strives to make the Pauline charism her own.
It is a school of faith, of discipleship, a journey of life that guides the novices towards the radical choice of Christ.
In the ceremony for the entrance into novitiate, each novice receives meaningful elements and symbols for her formation: the Gospel and Letters of St. Paul, the picture of Mary, Queen of Apostles, and the rosary.
May the Gospel of Jesus Master
and the Letters of St. Paul, our Father,
be for you light for the mind, law of life
and guide in the apostolate. Amen.
May Mary, Queen of Apostles,
introduce you into the school of the Divine Master
and form you for the apostolate.
Entrust yourself to her,
know her, love her and pray to her. Amen.
During these two years, Gabby and Mari will open themselves to the action of the Holy Spirit, and enter into the school of Jesus Master, the Way, the Truth and the Life, so that they may come to know his life more deeply and live for him, with him, and in him. Gradually they will develop their gifts of nature and grace so that they can use them for the glory of God in the apostolate.
In the spirit of the Apostle Paul, who considered all a loss for the purpose of possessing Christ, they will aim to become firm in faith, strong in hope, generous in charity, totally dedicated to the cause of the Gospel, until Christ is formed in them.
God, giver of every vocation in the Church, in your kindness,
listen to the prayer of these your daughters,
Gabby and Mari,
who desire to become members of our family
in order to serve you in perfect charity
and to announce your Gospel to everyone
with the instruments of social communication. Amen.
Our novices, Gabby and Mari, joined by Catherine (second-year novice). We rejoice with them as they begin their next step in formation and hold them in prayer!
