communitas et caritas

Well, I should start by saying that it's not literally my birthday (that's in February, in case you needed to know).  But--yesterday was the anniversary of my entrance into the novitiate!  I'm officially a second-year novice! (The pics are what my novitiate community sent me--the Elmo card cracked me up!!) So, our formation program includes two years of the novitiate (sometimes called the noviceship, which I tend to make jokes about...falling overboard...needing a "captain"...).  The first year is bound by a number of rules, based on the law of the Catholic Church.  Basically, it's a time when the novice focuses on her relationship with God.  She does not do any sort of paid ministry (but she should do some voluntary ministry that does not carry too much responsibility, and that brings her in touch with God's people), and she spends more time in prayer than she otherwise has the freedom for.  Other things are included, like study of the religious order, ...

My friend Sister Susan has some great thoughts on lumps of clay over at her blog ! My reaction to the morning's reading was a little different from Susan's.  I've never taken a pottery class, though I think it would be fun--even if it is hard to make anything less earthy than a lump of clay! Jeremiah says: I went down to the potter's house and there he was, working at the wheel. Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased. "He tried again."  My life over the past few years has been so full of changes, both external and internal.  I'm not a big fan of change, but I am very aware that the only way we become better people is by changing.  That God tries again calls me to patience with myself and with the changing world that is within and around me. God has a particular purpose for each of us, but we sometimes live without attending to t...

Advent is one of my favorite seasons.  It might just be that we've been in "Ordinary Time" for so long that I'm ready for a change from green vestments to purple.  But it's also a time of anticipation and preparation. Preparation...a little like formation to become a religious sister, really.  I'm being "formed" or prepared to (eventually) take vows, to devote my entire being to Jesus Christ and God's work.  Quite a big task. But back to Advent. We all know that it's about getting ready for Jesus, but it's more than that.  Traditionally, and we see this in the readings, Advent is also about preparing for the final judgment and the coming of Christ at the end of all time.  There's a third element to the preparation:  opening our hearts to receive Jesus each and every day.  This is another of those great Christian paradoxes--that we are preparing to receive Jesus, and yet we know that Jesus is already with us.  So what is the pr...