FSPA welcomes Amy Taylor into the novitiate

Sister Amy Taylor was welcomed into the FSPA novitiate on Aug. 7. During the afternoon ceremony, Sister Amy, surrounded by her parents, sister, friends and her FSPA community, asked to enter the novitiate of the FSPA “following Jesus Christ after the example of Francis” (TOR Rule 1) and Clare.

In her welcome, Sister Marlene Weisenbeck said, “By entering into the novitiate you take your thirst for loving to a time of retreat—to a time to withdraw. Spiritual masters the world over will ask ‘what is this precious love budding in your heart?’ It is the glorious sound of your soul waking up. Embrace this life with unlimited wisdom and love so that you can find your heart infinite and everywhere. This is a time when your heart, and our hearts, become friends.”

Sister Paulynn Instenes summed up the ceremony’s first three readings; “It is very evident today that all of our readings speak to us about relationships and our responsibility to love, to help each other according to need, to pray, to work, to encourage and challenge each other, to grow in holiness and to celebrate and be Eucharist for each other.” Sister Paulynn chose to reflect on the relationships in the stories. “These stories,” she began, “have special meaning for us today. Is the story of Ruth and Naomi telling us that life is a journey and we all, like Naomi, are drawn to home? To that home that is more than a physical place but a very place that we find God. Maybe the stories tell us that like Naomi and Ruth, God is found in relationships. Just as God is relational, three in one, so we are called to be relational. These relationships of life will call and challenge us. Today, Amy, you will continue your journey for 320 FSPA. You will say to the FSPA community, ‘wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people shall be my people. Your God, my God.’ May our relationships help you to grow in fullness.”

In a uniquely designed ceremony program that honored the relationships Sister Amy has formed with her local community, housemates, companion sisters, incorporation minister, fellow women in formation and the FSPA schola, she acknowledged that from her first contact with FSPA more than two years ago she has “been welcomed and invited to feel at home and a part of this community.” She continued, “It is with great joy that I celebrate today, the next step in my journey following my call from God and in relationship with each of you.”

Today, Sister Amy is living in community at FSPA’s Chiara formation house in La Crosse. Her novitiate time is one of intense prayer and study, preparing her for first vows with the FSPA. Sister Amy will volunteer in the IT department at St. Rose and in the La Crosse community.