AND THEN… THE NOVITIATE BEGAN!
It says in the book of Ecclesiastes “Everything has its season, and everything has its time under the sun” and I can affirm that in recent years I have been able to experience how this word of the Lord has been making sense in the events of my life, but above all in my vocational history.
Time has flown, there is no doubt about it. I began my postulancy on May 14, 2023, in Huacho and on March 31, 2024, on Easter, I was able to confirm my following of Jesus with the passage to the Novitiate; in a simple Eucharistic celebration in the community of “Our Lady of Patrocinio”, where our Father Founder rests. It is for me a gift from God to have begun my formation stages in these places so significant for the Congregation, especially because my Province bears the name of our Father Founder: “Ramón Zubieta y Les”. During this time I am discovering that it is true that “his spirit always accompanies me” and that in life “everything is a gift and also a task”. Therefore, this presence challenges me to live my missionary vocation with my eyes on the Lord and my feet firmly planted on the ground, welcoming the reality of pain and marginalization of the people of our times and committing myself to be a prophetic voice involved in the change. I will live this charism in which our Father Founder and the Mother Foundress have bequeathed to us and that will only be possible if I have my foundations deeply rooted in the experience of God-with-us.
There are steps that are taken only once in a lifetime and that is why it is important to prepare the heart. Like any young person, my emotions have been on edge; I have moved between curiosity, nervousness, joy, gratitude, nervousness again, joy and happiness… it has been crazy! It has been crazy, but one of those beautiful craziness that can only be understood when the Lord is at the center. I don’t think my heart had ever vibrated so much as when I received the Constitutions from the hands of the Provincial Coordinator, in the presence of my parents and my sisters of the community. Undoubtedly, the Lord has been great with me and has given me the best of Easter gifts.
At the end of the postulancy stage I realize that this has been a time to know myself more deeply, a time to put my personal history on the table, to accept it and be reconciled with it. But, above all, it has been a time to see how God has walked by my side and has supported me in every step, in every joy and in every pain. To see how from the beginning of my life, He has loved me and how today He calls me to a commitment with him and with his people, in the search and construction of a just, dignified and gospel-flavored society. For this reason I decided to affirm my commitment to follow Him as I start my Novitiate.
My sisters say that this is the most beautiful stage of religious life, that it is a time of grace, of sailing in the boat with the Lord and reaching dry land. They also said that I should take advantage and enjoy this moment very much because it is going to be unique in my life, that I should know in depth the Congregation from where I want to give my definitive “YES”, so that my vocation will be solid, firm and lasting.
Today, in the midst of the paperwork and documentation to get on that “boat” with Jesus that will take me to my new mission in Santiago de Chile, I receive the Novitiate with illusion, expectation and hope. See you in two years to find out “Where else, Lord?
Mariscela Alvarez
Novice
Isabel Araus Community
Lima – Peru
