The Jubilee is imminent and we can compare it to the novitiate, a year during which work commitments and professional study are suspended. Relationships with relatives, friends and acquaintances also deepen rather than become more crowded. The novitiate, like the Jubilee, is an act of trust in the Lord that, during this suspension of things though indispensable, He will dispose His blessing on our behalf and the land will bear fruit (Leviticus, v. 21).
God proves himself capable of abundance precisely where, according to the logic of things, there should be greater scarcity. This is the experience Israel already had in the desert with regard to the manna, not to be gathered on the Sabbath (cf. Exodus 16:5, 27-30), but still sufficient for two days. God’s work, however, is only visible if one remains in trust, only if one believes that there will also be enough tomorrow. Through the institution of the jubilee year, Israel must periodically relive such trust. And so the novice is called to do.
And so we are all called to do during the Jubilee:
a year of sabbatical rest to rediscover the sense of time and space in God.
On the occasion of the liturgical feast of Blessed Enrichetta, 26 November 2024, we would like to get to know Maria Angela Domenica Alfieri’s novitiate better, following the acquaintance of her parents, to whom we dedicated the previous article.
Maria Angela Domenica was wisely brought up by her parents – Giovanni and Rosa Compagnoni – who were deeply Christian. She spent a peaceful childhood and attended primary school, while during her adolescence she alternated between housework and work in the fields to help the family.
As was common at the time, he specialised in the art of embroidery. She thus formed a character that was both gentle and strong at the same time.
The religious vocation manifested itself in her around the age of 17. But her parents urged her to wait. The years of waiting strengthened in her the decision to give herself entirely to God.
On 20 December 1911, by now 20 years old, she crossed the threshold of the Santa Margherita Monastery in Vercelli, as a postulant in the congregation of the Sisters of Charity, a religious family in which two aunts and a cousin were already present.
Maria Angela Domenica was admitted to the novitiate on 2 April 1912. About a year later, on 25 March 1913, she put on the religious habit for the first time and received the name that would accompany her all her life: Sr Enrichetta.
In the novitiate, at daybreak: a universal heart
The novices got up at five o’clock in the morning, praising God: ‘Long live Jesus, may He always live in our hearts. May his holy name be blessed for ever!’. Then the sisters would go down to the chapel for morning prayers: no category of people was forgotten, so that the hearts of the novices expanded to the very size of the world.
In the novitiate, the focus of the day: consuming oneself for the love of God in the service of the brethren
Immediately after breakfast, each novice went to her own ‘job’: laundry, ironing, sacristy, kitchen, general cleaning…The Litany of the Patron Saints, recited during lunch, summarised the service performed, recalling the need to consume oneself unsparingly in peace, for the love of God, in the service of the brethren, especially the neediest: immediately after Mary Most Holy, Saint Vincent de Paul was invoked, who also preceded Saints Peter and Paul. The conclusion of each day’s spiritual reading at two o’clock in the afternoon – God is charity, he who lives in charity abides in God and God abides in him – would also help the novices to always have in mind for Whom they lived their days.
In the novitiate, at nightfall: contemplating Jesus in order to take on, like him, the needs of humanity
The daily Rosary had a strong Christocentric intonation: ‘We offer You, O Lord, this crown of the Holy Rosary, which we recite for the purpose of adoring and glorifying You, of honouring Your most holy Mother, of thanking You for Your benefits’. The novices prayed as they felt involved in humanity’s yearning for God.
On 17 December 1917, Sr Enrichetta made her first religious profession, ready to begin the adventure of her vocation to charity.
The novitiate for us today
On the eve of the Jubilee 2025, it is impossible not to compare the experience of the novitiate in religious life to that of the Holy Year:
In the life of every man and woman – of whatever religious or political faith – there is a crucial moment when it is necessary to stop, create a pause for silence in the chaotic life and reflect on the meaning of one’s destiny and place in the world.
