October 12, 2020

20 days till National Vocation Awareness Week

#5 in a series of 25

Before officially entering a community, a woman will spend 6 months to a few years while she and the membership get to know one another.  Our community calls this stage “candidacy,” while when I entered it was called “postulancy.”

I entered in February of 1980 and wrote a handwritten letter prior to August 15, 1980 to request admission into the novitiate.  Sister Fidelis Kreutzer was Superior General (leader) of our community at that time and was a very special person to me.

As a “candidate” I spent the next 6 months helping out wherever needed, was given a schedule of projects to accomplish and started at the very basic level of getting to know what this life was all about.  I started wearing a black skirt and a white blouse.  I did not wear a veil and I was not called, “Sister.” 

I had a classmate, who joined with me and we were a team figuring things out together.  She had just graduated from high school and me from college.  Little did we know the exciting things that lay ahead for us.  I was ready!