CHAPTER 38 - PENNSYLVANIA
Clare looked serene in her simple gray tunic. She sat in the back of the oratory as everyone gathered there to see her received into the community as a novice. Brother Francis presided from a plain wooden chair with a worn red fabric cushion, in front of the wooden altar that the late Brother Benedict had made. Clare walked up to the almost completely healed abbot, and he, smiling broadly, stood to greet her and begin the ceremony.
Abbot Francis:
“My Sister, what do you ask?”
Postulant Clare:
“I ask to begin my novitiate, so that I may grow in following Christ in the spirit of the Salesian Monastic Community.”
Abbot Francis:
“Let us Pray: Almighty and eternal God, from whom comes vocations to every state of life, hear the prayers of your servant Clare, who wishes to become a part of our Salesian family in a deeper way. Through the intercession of our holy founders, Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, be pleased to confirm her in her desire. Reveal to her the fruitfulness and value of the hidden life with Christ in God as she lives and studies the rule and vows of the Salesian Monastic Community.”
Abbot Francis placed a white scapular and veil on the new novice and then continued:
“Cover her, Lord, with the cloak of innocence and the robe of love. My God, do not let her appear before you stripped of good works.”
Abbot Francis:
“You will be known in monastic life as ‘Sister Clare Margaret,’ after our Visitation sister saint, to whom appeared the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
Abbot Francis:
“Let us offer one another the sign of peace.”
Suaviter Sed Fortiter
(Gentle but Strong)