Life in the Novitiate
February 22nd, 2006 by Father Bill Garrott, OP
Br. Austin Litke (far left) provides a testimony to his life in the Novitate.
“I have been in the Dominican Novitiate almost nine months now, so I wanted to send out an update… We had a beautiful Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) and Easter here. Since the Novitiate is connected to our parish of St. Gertrude, we celebrated the office and the liturgies of Holy Week in the parish. It was a grace-filled opportunity to live in community and celebrate the Triduum in community and then also to celebrate the liturgies of Holy Week with the people in the parish.
These past months have been full of blessings and God’s graces. I become more and more grateful to God for bringing me here to this beautiful way of life. It occurs to me that many of you may not have any idea about what our life is like, so if you will allow me, I will tell you about our typical day here.
We usually begin with a half hour of common meditation in our chapel. We then have morning office which includes Morning Prayer (Lauds) and the Office of Readings (Matins) from the Liturgy of the Hours. Celebrating the “Prayer of the Church” which is the Liturgy of the Hours is a large part of our life and spirituality.
We then move to breakfast followed by saying the Rosary together and then having class, where we study many things including the history of religious life and the Dominicans in general, the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and the Constitutions of the Order.
After class we have time for Lectio Divina, which is a prayerful reading of Scripture and is also a part of our spirituality as preachers of the Word of God. After this, we pray Daytime Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours and the Angelus.
The afternoons many days are free for prayer, exercise, reading, doing laundry, or even napping. At 5 o’clock, we have Mass followed by Evening Prayer (Vespers) in our chapel. This is followed by a half hour of recreation, which basically means sitting and talking with each other and then we move to dinner.
After dinner we have a period of sacred study until Night Prayer (Compline) after which we retire for the day. There are variations to this schedule. For instance, on Saturday’s, we clean the house in the mornings. On Thursday’s, we take the morning for retreat time, which means we have silence and time for personal prayer as well as a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration. As you can see, our life is very full, and it is a wonderful life that I am blessed to be a part of.”
