Factors In Setting Entrance...

[FutureSister2009]

Actually not only would I want to enter on a Marian Feast Day, I would also consider entering ANY day in the month of May.

[FutureSister2009]

Well since I am being forced to go to school for a year, and my Community requires at least 6 months as an aspirant (don't know if my 6 months of college will count, not including all this time I've been waiting before I go away to school) I can't figure out how long 6 months will be after I get done with the year in May. I hope it's September or October. I could enter on The Nativity of Our Lady or St. Therese's Feast Day. My farther goal is December 8th.

[HopefulBride]

[quote name='JoyfulLife' timestamp='1303255641' post='2230344']
And what about other factors, like needing more time to mature; having to pay off student debt; needing more discernment time; etc.?
[/quote]

The community I am hoping to enter has a set date, August 22nd. They did accept a postulant 7 months into the novitiate because she came from another community. I was supposed to enter August 22nd of this year but because I still have a significant amount to pay I have to wait until next year, August 22nd 2012.

I don't know about delaying entrance to the Novitiate though....

[krissylou]

[quote name='FutureSister2009' timestamp='1311716128' post='2276373']
Well since I am being forced to go to school for a year, and my Community requires at least 6 months as an aspirant (don't know if my 6 months of college will count, not including all this time I've been waiting before I go away to school) I can't figure out how long 6 months will be after I get done with the year in May. I hope it's September or October. I could enter on The Nativity of Our Lady or St. Therese's Feast Day. My farther goal is December 8th.
[/quote]

Well, if your spring semester ends May 15, six months after that would be Nov. 15.

You said earlier that Christmastime would be very meaningful to you ... looks like the timing could work out for that ...

[LaPetiteSoeur]

[quote name='FutureSister2009' timestamp='1311716128' post='2276373']
Well since I am being forced to go to school for a year, and my Community requires at least 6 months as an aspirant (don't know if my 6 months of college will count, not including all this time I've been waiting before I go away to school) I can't figure out how long 6 months will be after I get done with the year in May. I hope it's September or October. I could enter on The Nativity of Our Lady or St. Therese's Feast Day. My farther goal is December 8th.
[/quote]

College could actually be a good thing! It's only a year (and I know how hard it is to wait...I will, by the time I will enter (Deo volente), have waited six years! Which is a very long time) and it is a Catholic school (a good one, too). You can be active in the Church there, grow in your faith, pray (pray, pray, pray, pray), and share with other students!

But I do hope you get to enter next year. Prayers for that!!

[FutureSister2009]

My spring semester ends May 12th and my mom and I are planning on going to Disney World right after that. Unless we change it so I can go in right after the semester is over as an aspirant, then I could go to Disney World right before my entrance to Postulancy so I could see Disney World Christmas Style. Hmm, I'll think about that one.

[faithcecelia]

Just remembered when I was setting my date for Q they highly recommended entering in Ordinary time. With hindsight I can totally see the wisdom in this - while it is nice to think of entering on a feastday, the routine and liturgy all take some adjusting to (especially if they liturgy is complex as it was there) so its well worth keeping it as simple for yourself as possible. I had been there 8mths by the time Christmas came around and even so it was extremely confusing and overwhelming.

[juchu]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1311776965' post='2276838']
Just remembered when I was setting my date for Q they highly recommended entering in Ordinary time. With hindsight I can totally see the wisdom in this - while it is nice to think of entering on a feastday, the routine and liturgy all take some adjusting to (especially if they liturgy is complex as it was there) so its well worth keeping it as simple for yourself as possible. I had been there 8mths by the time Christmas came around and even so it was extremely confusing and overwhelming.
[/quote]

This really is true! Feastdays are so complex of liturgy... I have been as an aspirant with my community two times for Easter and once for Christmas and New Years. First time Easter was the end of my aspirancy during lent and even though I was kind of in the routine, Holy Week was full of changes. Since I am sitting with the sisters (and in the first row) I always had to be attentive on when to get up, kneel, etc. because it always changed. Of course nobody looked upon me when I did something wrong or was the last one to get up from my kneeler on the floor, And sometimes the sisters themselves were also a little bit lost. Even though we talked the liturgy over each day.

And then of course, there is also a lot of work during feastdays, because of guests and special food... Of course, this may vary with each community.

I personally do not have a "date" I want to enter. For me "the factors settling entrance" are mainly getting my life "organized". I will graduate - hopefully - in the middle of January. Grad school was - and still is - really time consuming and a LOT of work and a lot of human relationships are just not happening right now, because I have so little time and spend most of it with my study group... So for me I need to really calm down a bit before entering, just doing "normal" things, meeting friends, family and the later two do involve some traveling.

But I would like to be before Easter in order to spend Easter with my community. But if I end up going shortly before easter I might just start postulancy offically some days after Easter to have some time of preparation.