Novitiate Page #2

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would have been quite as fulfilling.

Oh, I gotta go. I've got class.

Are you coming?

I think I'll stay for a little while,

if that's okay with you, sister.

Of course.

Good night, cathleen.

Good night, miss Williams.

Hi.

Cathleeni who is he?

He's just a friend of mine, that's all.

Another one?

What are you doing up so early, anyway?

I set my alarm

so I can go to mass before school.

Oh. Okay.

You need a ride?

That's okay.

Hey, cathleen?

You're not getting too into god

and all that stuff, are you?

What do you mean?

L just mean there's more to life

than god and church and praying.

You're serious, cathleen?

I honestly didn't even realize

you'd been considering this.

I want to give my life to god.

You're such a passionate girl.

You remind me of myself at your age.

I think you're making

the right decision.

A nun? What are you talking about?

That's just f***ing crazy, cathleen.

I knew you wouldn't understand,

but you don't have to understand.

I didn't...

It's not that I don't understand,

it's just that it's the stupidest idea

I've ever heard!

You throw your life away

in some convent...

But I'm not throwing my life away.

I don't know how you can

even say that...

You're absolutely

throwing your life away!

Well, I don't get it.

Do you think I wanted this?

Do you think I wanted

to be a single mother?

But it's not about that.

It has nothing to do with you.

Then what is it?

-L'm in love, mom!

- You're in love with who?

What?

God?

Oh, my god, that's crazy!

That is f***ing crazy!

That doesn't even make sense,

"in love with god."

I don't know how to explain this,

but I was called,

and I'm gonna become a nun.

And there's really nothing

that you can say

that's gonna make me change my mind.

Oh, cathleen.

You're a 17-year-old girl.

You don't know anything about religion.

And you sure as hell

don't know anything about love.

Where are you?

It's not right.

It's not fair.

Someone gives you their whole life...

Where are you?

Good afternoon, all of you.

My name is reverend

mother Marie St. Clair.

You can call me "reverend mother,"

or simply "mother," if you prefer it.

I am the mother superior, or abbess

of this particular order

of sisters of beloved rose.

I myself have been a rose

for nearly 40 years.

Meaning, some 40 years ago,

I first came through those gates

as a postulant,

same as all of you.

And now, 40 years later,

I have not once set foot

outside those gates.

So, as far as all of you are concerned,

you might consider me

like the voice of god around here.

Meaning, since unfortunately

god can't be here

to run this convent himself,

my voice will serve

as a stand-in for his.

And you can expect

that whenever you hear me speak,

it is on behalf of his wishes.

And over the next two years,

I personally will be separating

the wheat from the chaff,

determining which of you

actually belong,

as opposed to which of you

are simply victims

of a childish imagination.

Because in this monastery,

god is not a fantasy to us.

Not a fantasy, not a daydream,

and certainly

not your invisible best friend.

To the contrary, god is work. Hard work.

The work of a very special kind of love,

which you'll all be trained in.

You'll be spending

the next six months as postulants.

After that, and for those of you

who make it,

you'll take your very first vows

and enter the novitiate.

And as a rule, we make it a point

to never discuss the novitiate

until we've been through it ourselves.

So for now, you'll just have to wait.

Finally, I'd like to talk about silence.

We observe two kinds of silence here,

regular silence and grand silence.

During regular silence,

if you feel you have

the need to speak, it's permissible.

But when you hear that bell

at 9:
00 at night,

signifying the beginning

of grand silence,

that means you don't talk.

Any questions?

Put your hand down, sister.

Postulants don't have questions.

And you are free to go home.

Good afternoon, mother. Praise the lord.

Now and forever. God bless.

- Praise the lord.

- Now and forever. God bless.

Good afternoon, mother. Praise the lord.

Now and forever. God bless, sister.

Totally love him, who gave himself

totally for your love.

He, Christ, is the splendor

of eternal glory,

the brightness of eternal light

and the mirror without cloud.

I haven't had the chance

to formally introduce myself yet.

I'm sister Mary grace.

I will be your postulant mistress

for the next six months,

perhaps your novice mistress after that.

This is sister Anne.

Sister Catherine, Kate.

Both professed nuns.

Both just took their final vows.

We're very proud of them.

Now, it is our job to help guide you

as you try to adapt to our way of life.

I'm sure at the beginning,

it will feel very different.

That's normal.

I remember when I first came here,

everything seemed so strange.

I didn't know if I'd ever

truly make it as a nun.

Please don't worry about that.

I'm sure you all will be great.

Now, we should probably

go over the schedule.

Postulants usually have

the same schedule every single day.

The most important thing

to pay attention to is the bell.

Pretty much everything we do here,

all day long,

all comes down to the bell.

The first bell you'll hear

each morning is the 5:00 A.M. bell.

That bell lets everyone know

it's time to wake up,

get ready for morning mass.

Mass begins once father Luca arrives.

Father Luca always keeps his back to us

the whole time,

and he always reads the liturgy

in Latin.

Sometimes it's hard to keep up.

After daily chores,

you'll hear the third bell

of the morning.

That lets us know

that grand silence is over.

Good afternoon, mother. Praise the lord.

Now and forever. God bless.

Good afternoon, mother.

Praise the lord.

As you probably noticed,

all our meals begin with a reading.

Even though it's after grand silence,

we should all try

and remain as quiet as possible.

Sometimes you might see

some of the novices

doing their own penances

in the refectory.

Probably best to just ignore it

until you're novices yourselves.

Every day after the 3:00 P.M. bell,

we'll have our lessons together.

As you probably remember,

reverend mother made it absolutely clear

that we are not to speak

during grand silence,

so let's practice a little bit

of sign language.

Slowly, that is, "what...

"Job...

"Right now?"

Sorry to interrupt, mother,

but you just got another package

from the archdiocese.

What?

They can't be serious.

Thank you, sister.

What are they asking of us?

My mother always said

at least one child should be sacrificed.

And even though

i come from a big family,

I'm the only girl with five brothers,

so I guess it was pretty obvious

who was going to become a nun.

Honestly, though,

I'm really happy to be here.

And I know that it's

supposed to be so hard,

but I really can't wait

until we get to novitiate

and we get to wear those white veils.

Who wants to go next?

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