as the clock strikes

The canonical year ended yesterday for me at midnight. Yes, that was a giant sigh of relief you heard from me and my fellow novice Chero! ;) As the clock struck 12, I ceased to be a pumpkin (or canonical novice). Now I'm just a 2nd year novice, about to begin her first ministry experience.

This year of retreat has been a blessing and wonderful opportunity to stop my busy life for a while and just be with God and this whole new concept of religious life. It's also been a challenge full of a wide assortment of unbloggables. In the end, I not only "made it through" but learned a lot about myself and the community. My relationship with God has also deepened in ways I never could have imagined, which I suppose is the point. As to the hard parts of my novitiate, I will have stories to tell future generations! "When I was a novice, we had to ..."

The bit about no longer being a pumpkin is just a joke about the "lockdown" part of novitiate. As a canonical novice, church law governs how often you can be away from the novitiate and a number of other things. That phase is now officially over. While I won't be able to gallivant around like I did before novitiate, I will have a bit more freedom of movement which I'm looking forward to.

My life will also be much more active in the coming months. Going from full time "being with God" to full time ministry ~ in which the idea to be sure is to be with God as well, but in a more active way ~ is sure to be a stretch. Like fellow blogging Novice Nicole, I had to go out and by a new planner for the first time in over a year. Up until now there hasn't been much to fill the pages!

For now I'm just working through my lists of odds and ends as I get ready for London. The nice thing is I don't have to vacate my room while I'm gone, but I would also like to come back to order rather than chaos so some cleaning and organizing is on the agenda.

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!