I am still here

A.M.D.G.
J.M.J.
A.T.C.

I have just been wicked busy. Let me sum up that last month plus that I have been away:

-still a postulant.
-still living in Pittsburgh.
-getting closer to novitiate.
-taking postulant-esque classes.
-had a nice Advent.
-turned 24 … almost a quarter century old.
-went home for Christmas home visit for two weeks.
-my sacrifices hit me hard.
-my two closest friends and a couple sisters helped me put them in perspective.
-decided to keep on truckin’.
-lather, rinse, repeat.

Oh, and I am going to New Hampshire for my apostolic experience in February. We have some sisters there who are at a parish which also has a school. It will be a nice change of setting. While I hope, in the long run, to either go into higher education/seminary teaching or canon law, I still have a special love for grade school and parish ministry because they were my first’s.

After February, we head to Chicago for about a week and a half where we shall spend time with our sisters and take classes on the spirituality of art (I am looking forward to that). The provincial vocation director is also taking my classmate and I on a vocation awareness trip in the area of Chicago sometime that week.

After spending some time in Chicago, we head to my dearly beloved Livonia (I love all my sisters’ homes but Livonia has a special place in my heart for more than one reason) for two weeks. The first week, we are taking a class with one of our sisters there. The next week we are helping with a retreat being held for the University that the Congregation runs. I am looking forward to being back in my old stomping grounds.

After that, over the duration of the remaining months until entrance into novitiate, I will go on retreat twice (one week-long in NJ during Easter Week), go to CT for Novitiate orientation, get our habits, go to NM for a few weeks and spend time with our sisters there, and do a few other fun things.

Oh, and later this month, I have a chat with the Provincial Minister (think “Mother Provincial” … “Minister” is a Franciscan term) in preparation for … you guessed it … admission into novitiate.

I am really looking forward to going to NH. The only thing I am nervous about is traveling because I have not flown in 10 years and I have never flown alone. God will provide but being the hyper-analytical person I am, I worry. Prayers pleez.

Well, I just wanted to prove to you all that I am still here. Sorry about the lack of posts. I have just been wicked busy.

Have a blessed week!
-Allie