Franciscan Footprints

Well, it’s really starting to get cold here. I turned the heat on for the first time yesterday, and my sweater has been getting lots of use. The leaves are turning too. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to share. The last few weeks have just flown by.  It’s been almost three weeks since my parents were here visiting. It seems like only a few days ago. How time flies. I’m learning a lot in my classes about the Catechism, but am at a standstill in my writing assignment on St. Paschal Baylon. Hopefully inspiration will come along shortly.

Ok, I’m going to go off on a tangent here, but maybe it will spark a conversation. It is interesting to me how society in general is geared towards measuring productivity.(which in itself isn’t bad)  It is extremely apparent to me as I have transitioned into community life, that I “measure” productivity in myself as well. It took a long time, and I can still sometimes get into this rut of thinking that because I’m not actively out working that I’m not productive. Before entering, I was so used to the 40+ hour work week, and after that was no longer a reality it was quite an adjustment.  Now I’ve realized that being “productive” is quantitatively & qualitatively different for me than it used to be. Now it’s about time management more specifically. Consequently a couple of the things I ask myself at the end of the day is- “Did I use my time effectively?” “Did I waste time today?”, etc. To me, one of the challenges of our daily schedule is that things are not so structured. We have set times for the Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary, Holy Mass, Classes, meals, etc. But things such as your spiritual reading, Scripture reading, Mental prayer, Particular Examen & General Examination of Conscience are done at the time of your choosing. So, it’s freeing in a way, but challenging at the same time.

Anyway, thats all I can think of at this moment. Thanks for the suggestions on helping my writers block.

Sister Veronica

Well, I thought I’d answer some of your questions regarding the Novitiate that were posted as a comment on another post. Here is the post by “Pladdermussen”:

“What you study, your insights, problems you stumble across and how you choose to solve them… we are many readers out here who are most interested in knowing about the novitiate formation life!”

Well, that is a fair question and I’ll answer it as best as I can.

Right now I’m studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Two sections that we’re going through are the section on prayer and life in Christ. It is very interesting. Also I have a class on Sacred Scripture and right now we’re up to the book of Wisdom. Another assignment while in this canonical year of the Novitiate is to read a book and write a paper on each of our Patron Saints. I just finished a book(written in 1908) about St. Paschal Baylon and have started to write the paper. I enjoy this sort of writing.

As far as insights and/or problems, suffice it to say that I have plenty of both but as of this moment couldn’t put them into words. I’ll try to work on that.(as I am a private person that way)

Thank you for the suggestions and I’m going to make more of an effort to write in this vein in the future.

God bless!
Sister Veronica OSF

Well, for the last several days my parents have been here visiting. But ,they left this morning for Pittsburgh.(visiting family, then will head back to FL) We had a great time. They brought us all sorts of goodies-namely Christmas cookies and chocolate. You won’t believe it, but the chocolate is going faster around here than the cookies. Unbelievable. In any case I thoroughly enjoyed their visit. God is good.