Factors In Setting Entrance...

[Tally Marx]

Well, I'm not Cherie...
But Sister Rita told me that they celebrate their birthday only during the postulant year, and their name day afterward.
(She said it was sort of like having two birthdays, because while the Sisters celebrate name days, your family still usually celebrates your birthday )

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='Tally Marx' timestamp='1303274392' post='2230443']
Well, I'm not Cherie...
But Sister Rita told me that they celebrate their birthday only during the postulant year, and their name day afterward.
(She said it was sort of like having two birthdays, because while the Sisters celebrate name days, your family still usually celebrates your birthday )
[/quote]

Wow, that's what I was thinking. I thought that it made sense to celebrate your birthday during your postulancy because you are still, in a sense, not yet part of the order. You don't have a religious name, but you are trying out the life. That's weird that I knew the answer.

It would be neat to have my favorite religious name of Sr. Mary Elizabeth and celebrate the Feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth on May 31st. I don't know what it is about that mystery of the Rosary, but it is so special to me. I tear up whenever I read the words that St. Elizabeth said to Mary, "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And who am I that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." The Magnificat is the greatest Canticle. I love praying it and the Canticle of Zechariah during the Liturgy of the Hours.

I pray that if it is God's Holy Will that I enter religious life, that the Holy Spirit will bless me with the name of the beautiful St. Elizabeth. Just the meaning of it is incredible--"God is my oath." Sounds fitting for religious life.

Edited April 20, 2011 by MaterMisericordiae

[FutureSister2009]

I am in the process of finding out if my Order has any specific rules but if they don't, I would like to enter around Christmas time because it's my favorite Holiday of the Church Year or if that doesn't pan out, I am absolutely all for entering on a Marian Feast day, ANY Marian Feast day. My birthday happens to fall on the Feast of Our Lady of the Angels so that would be kind of cool. I don't know if my mom would want me to go on my birthday but close to it would be nice too like August 15th. The Immaculate Conception would be good as well because it's close to Christmas and it's a Marian Feast.

[Cherie]

[quote name='MaterMisericordiae' timestamp='1303264074' post='2230405']


[b]Cherie, I have been meaning to ask you a question regarding birthday and feast day celebrations. Some orders that I have been in contact with, especially cloistered ones, do not celebrate birthdays. They celebrate the Sister's name day which is the feast day of the saint the Sister is named after. How does this work in regards to the SsEW? I'm always interested to know the various traditions in each order.[/b]
[/quote]

Sorry I missed this!

Yes, Tally Marx is correct. Although once you get your religious name, the BIG feast day is your patronal Saint's feast day, you still get a bit of a nod on your birthday, too, so it really is like having two birthdays Plus you sometimes get a "nod" on your titular feast day (meaning the Feast Day associated with your title) so that's cool, too.

I was super lucky because my birthday was the same as the chaplain's, which is major anyway, but he is a nonagenarian on top of it! So we had a HUUUUUGE celebration, and he [i]insisted[/i] on including me, hehe

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='CherieMadame' timestamp='1304451893' post='2236460']
Sorry I missed this!

Yes, Tally Marx is correct. Although once you get your religious name, the BIG feast day is your patronal Saint's feast day, you still get a bit of a nod on your birthday, too, so it really is like having two birthdays Plus you sometimes get a "nod" on your titular feast day (meaning the Feast Day associated with your title) so that's cool, too.

I was super lucky because my birthday was the same as the chaplain's, which is major anyway, but he is a nonagenarian on top of it! So we had a HUUUUUGE celebration, and he [i]insisted[/i] on including me, hehe
[/quote]

[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.