Update On Nonnovi!

[AnneLine]

 

.....

 

(I did figure out that it was 'Auhofstrasse' rather than 'Autostrasse'!!!    ;)

 

 

 

The autostrasse would have been a bit too loud and busy, wouldn't you say?  :P

 

 

 

It really made me sad to think of how noisy it would be to do ones novitiate at an Autostrasse!  

 

 

 

But some people will do ANYTHING for God!!!!  And be JOYFUL about it!!!!

 

Edited March 15, 2014 by AnneLine

[NonNovi]

Uhm, we don't live that far away from the Autostrasse... :unsure: :hehe2:  So, last day at home. Again. Tonight one of our priests is picking me up to go to our Belgian house and tomorrow after Mass we'll hit the road for Austria. This week went so fast...

[AnneLine]

NonNovi, you have our prayers and love to follow you into the Novitiate.  Your family may come around a bit more... we will pray.

 

My bet is they will be happy when they continue to see how happy you are.... and how perfect a fit this seems to be for you.

 

We'll be praying for you and celebrating with you and St. Joseph on your clothing day!  

................. :paco:  :priest:  :priest:  :priest:  :priest:  :priest:  :priest:  :priest:  :paco:

 We will watch for photos on the SJM website when you become novices.

 

Do you know approximately when you will be doing that 30 Day Long Retreat?   Because we would like to pray for you and your brothers in a special way during those intense days. 

 

AnneLine is a HORRIBLE paper correspondent :paperbag:  :mail:  :paperbag: (well, the truth is out now!) but I will try to get a letter or two off to you.  But if I don't write, know I do pray! :pray:

 

Godspeed!

Edited March 15, 2014 by AnneLine

[AnneLine]

Oh... and.... NonNovi... you can ask one of the mods to change your 'status' to religious I would think at this point..... 

[NonNovi]

Do you know approximately when you will be doing that 30 Day Long Retreat?   Because we would like to pray for you and your brothers in a special way during those intense days.

 

The whole month of May (I think the novicemaster said we will start in the last week of April and end in the last week of May, so we can still go to the first Mass of our newest priest in his home parish on Ascension).

 

The goodbye was hard, but it went well. Even my father got emotional. The priest that picked me up adviced them to visit me in Austria. At some point they will do that, I'm sure.

 

Today I also got rid of facebook. The scariest thing is that I immediately wanted to post on facebook that I got rid of it :hehe2:  I won't miss it. And now I'll have to leave Phatmass too. So this will be my last post for probably the next 7 years or so. Or not, who knows.

 

I'll pray for you all! :priest:
 

[TheresaThoma]

Bye Nonnovi! Good luck! I'll be praying for you particularly on St Joseph feast day and during May!

[AnneLine]

Pictures from Non-Novi's entrance into the Novitiate!!!!!  (Stijn P.)

 

Can anyone translate the German?   

 

http://sjm-congregation.org/htdocs/aktuelles/2014_03_noviziat.html

 

 

 

 

 

They aren't excited or anything!

 

Can anyone figure out which of them is Non-Novi?  This is the picture he gave us earlier in the thread, and he said it was fine to watch for him on the Servants of Jesus and Mary's website....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2014 by AnneLine

[marigold]

Pictures from Non-Novi's entrance into the Novitiate!!!!! (Stijn P.)

Can anyone translate the German?

http://sjm-congregation.org/htdocs/aktuelles/2014_03_noviziat.html







They aren't excited or anything!

Can anyone figure out which of them is Non-Novi? This is the picture he gave us earlier in the thread, and he said it was fine to watch for him on the Servants of Jesus and Mary's website....

Looks like middle left...

The 2nd paragraph concerns the novices... It says that "On the same day [feast of St. Joseph] four novices were clothed, Boris M., Stijn P., Peter S. and Wolfgang W. With a Frenchman and a Belgian, our novitiate has become international. The year of the novitiate is a year of deepening the spiritual life and testing the vocation. We ask the Lord that he especially lead our new brothers in this important year."

[ChristinaTherese]

I'm with Marigold, he's probably third from the left.

[AnneLine]

I'm figuring either 2nd or 3rd from the left... when I have some more time I'll try to look up the other pictutures on the SJM website (he gave us the link last page of this thread) because there were a lot more pictures of him and we may be able to ID him better....  If anyone has more time than I do today, feel free to give it a try....

 

regardless, he looks SOOOO happy!  :)

[marigold]

I'm figuring either 2nd or 3rd from the left... when I have some more time I'll try to look up the other pictutures on the SJM website (he gave us the link last page of this thread) because there were a lot more pictures of him and we may be able to ID him better....  If anyone has more time than I do today, feel free to give it a try....

 

regardless, he looks SOOOO happy!   :)

 

Look at the hairline...

[AnneLine]

You have better eyes than this old Llama, Marigold.... ;)

[TheresaThoma]

I'd definitely say third from left. I have a card for him sitting on my desk I just need to get an international stamp to put on it.

[NonNovi]

Just a quick update. I'm back in Belgium now. No worries, I haven't left the SJM. In the summer all of the novices and scholastics accompany summercamps and stuff. I was allowed to go on a camp with the youth group I founded myself.

 

Investiture was simple (we don't have big ceremonies), just blessing of the cassocks the night before. In May we had the big 30 days retreat, wich was pretty intense. In June we had a Pontifical Solemn Mass (EF)with the archbishop of Liechtenstein in a German Mary sanctuary, wich was super nice That's about it for the past months I think. Life as a novice isn't that different from life as a postulant. I became "primus" of the novices, wich means I'm responsable for some small things like making sure everybody in the noviciate is awake at 5:30. I'm also responsable for planning the liturgy, wich is actually not a task for a novice. Since we use both ordinary and extraordinary form it's always a challenge to combine both calendars. I guess the superiors really trust me.

 

Theresathoma, thank you so much for your card! I really appreciate it, it was wonderful to receive mail.

 

And I'm indeed the third one from the left on the picture. It was taken on the day of investiture. The ones on the left and right are the former novices who took their temporary vows on the same day. The four in the middle are the new novices.

[oremus1]

Hey, we don't know each other, but the convent I'm discerning with is also in Austria and has the EF most of the time! I think it's great to have the SJM here and it's good to hear they are growing.

You'll be in my prayers, especially to our country's great patron saint. Und grüß das schöne Österreich von mir ;)

which convent?

[cmaD2006]

Investiture was simple (we don't have big ceremonies), just blessing of the cassocks the night before. In May we had the big 30 days retreat, wich was pretty intense.

 

30 day meaning 30 day Ignaitan exercises?  Yes those are intense, but life changing! :)

[Matana]

@Oremus1: The Capuchin Sisters of Perpetual Adoration  (Kapuzinerinnen von der ewigen Anbetung) in Salzburg . There's not much about them on the internet, let alone in English, but I found a bit about their church if you're interested: http://www.salzburg.info/en/sights/churches_cemeteries/loretokirche

@Nonnovi: Great to hear from you! And it's kind of funny you met archbishop Haas, I actually lived in a building next to his for a week when I stayed with the Sisters of the Precious Blood in Schellenberg :)

[AnneLine]

@NonNovi!!!!   So good to hear from you!!!    YOu are in my prayers -- and yes, on my never-moving 'must write these letters' list... in fact, your letter to me is on my DESK!  So glad to know all is going well!!

 

OF ALL THE TIMES for us to have our private messaging system dismantled!  (there are some threads about it in open mic, but don't waste your limited on-line time reading them).   And of course, I am out of props.  Grrrrrr!

 

It sounds as if you have had a wonderful novitiate experience thus far, and yes the Spiritual Exercises are intense... but very powerful.  (Always to be undertaken under qualified spiritual direction, I might add!)  I know you have said before that your community is very Jesuit-like in structure, and doing the SpEx was always a part of the Jesuit tradition at the beginning of their religious life, so I know that you had good supervision in place for your Exercises.  

 

If you are comfortable sharing this in an open forum, how are your parents and family doing with your vocation at this point?   Has the tension died down at all?   

 

Please let your brother novices and seminarians know we pray for them.. .and I will do what I can ( :paperbag: )  to get a snail mail letter off to you so  it will be there when you get home to the novitiate.  Unless you care to post a summer address?

[brandelynmarie]

Prayers for you, NonNovi. :) Very happy that you are progressing in formation. I've been watching from afar, but wanted to let you know I've been thinking about you...

[NonNovi]

30 day meaning 30 day Ignaitan exercises?  

Yes, we have to do them in the noviciate and a second time a few years after being ordained (in the time of tertiate, a "second" noviciate year for priests).

 

@Nonnovi: Great to hear from you! And it's kind of funny you met archbishop Haas, I actually lived in a building next to his for a week when I stayed with the Sisters of the Precious Blood in Schellenberg :)

Archbishop Haas is awesome :)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9KaIyxYK9E (I'm the one holding the book at the end).

 

 

It sounds as if you have had a wonderful novitiate experience thus far, and yes the Spiritual Exercises are intense... but very powerful.  (Always to be undertaken under qualified spiritual direction, I might add!)  I know you have said before that your community is very Jesuit-like in structure, and doing the SpEx was always a part of the Jesuit tradition at the beginning of their religious life, so I know that you had good supervision in place for your Exercises.  

 

If you are comfortable sharing this in an open forum, how are your parents and family doing with your vocation at this point?   Has the tension died down at all?   

 

Please let your brother novices and seminarians know we pray for them.. .and I will do what I can ( :paperbag: )  to get a snail mail letter off to you so  it will be there when you get home to the novitiate.  Unless you care to post a summer address?

The spiritual exercises belong to our core business. Our priests are well trained to give them, so that's not a problem. Every member of the congregation has to do a retreat every year with spiritual exercises (not necessarily the 30 day program of course, usually a week).

 

As I suspected, my family is doing better with my vocation. My mother even tries to have some church related things to say every time I call here (when something happened in our diocese for example). And my father helps out when administrational stuff arrives at home for me, so I guess I can assume that tension is also gone or a lot less. I'll see them tomorrow.

 

I'm only here for summercamp, wich starts next tuesday and will be in Germany. So it has no use to give the adress of our Belgian convent where I am now. If someone wants to send me something, send it to the motherhouse in Austria.