Entrance into Novitiate 2011

From the New Novices

Blessings,

I’m originally from Newport, Vermont. I recently finished Postulancy with our community in St. Louis and have moved to Boston to begin my novitiate. I’m very happy to be in our community in Boston. During these next two years of novitiate, I’m excited to experience the Pauline life in a deeper way through studying, through community life, through prayer, and through my work in the publishing house.

Please keep me in your prayers!
Sr. Laura Nolin (Novice)



Greetings in Christ!

My name is Sr. Jackie Gitonga from Nyeri, Kenya, and I just began my novitiate journey with the Daughters of St. Paul! I officially entered this special time of discernment and prayer after a simple ceremony at our Motherhouse in Boston on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, September 14, 2011. The preparations to enter this stage of formation began with an 8-day "alone time" with the Lord to contemplate the depth of His invitation to not only become his faithful friend but His spouse - what a calling! Out of this retreat experience, I felt strengthened by the Lord to offer Him my 'fiat' and enter the School of the Master to learn the "hows" of becoming His spouse. The ceremony on September 14 was beautiful and the Lord invited me, through the Provincial Superior, to "try to progress along the way, giving much time to prayer, to detachment from myself, to contemplation, to the study of the Constitutions, and to the exercise of the Pauline apostolate". On that day, I also received the Bible so that it may be my "law of life and light for the mind" as well as a picture of Mary, Queen of the Apostles and a rosary so that I may ask for her help to enter more deeply into Jesus' School.

As I begin this new journey (as with any new thing), there are lots of feelings that I am experiencing. All in all, I truly give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and His mercy that endures forever! (Psalm 118:1). I continue to ponder this great mystery of God's love for me and His invitation to offer my life completely to the Father (just like Jesus did!) through religious consecration. I humbly ask for your prayers to be docile and open to the direction of the Holy Spirit. You will most certainly be in mine as I enter into this privileged time of intimacy with the Lord.

God bless you all,
Sr. Jackie Gitonga (Novice)



Prayer from the Rite of Entrance into Novitiate

O God, beginning and source of every vocation, listen to our prayers, and grant that, together with these sisters, who are resolved to follow your Son in this family, which is consecrated to you, we will seek with faith the designs of your will and bring them to fulfillment. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.



“Novitiate is the real initiation
into the Pauline religious life.  
It is a time set apart
for reflection,
self-discipline, and contemplation,
during which the novice
profoundly adheres  to Christ
in the knowledge
and practice
of the evangelical counsels
and strives to make
the Pauline charism her own  
by meditation on God’s action
 in the history of the Congregation
and by assimilation
of the Constitutions.” 
Constitutions 94