Meanwhile, back on the home front...

Thank goodness for social media! This was a big week for my community back in the States, and through the marvels of Twitter and Facebook (and, yes, even e-mail), I could participate with more attentiveness.

In the lead-in to the main event, the sisters in the concert choir got together to rehearse for this year's Christmas program. (Ouch.) While they were all in the sound studio, a camera crew from "Fusion.net" came for some interviews...

The really big event of the week was the first profession (vows) of two of the novices. They received their habit in a simple ceremony the day before, but couldn't actually wear it until the morning of their profession Mass. (See all the pictures here!)

First vows is also the time when a sister gets a new name. We don't actually change our name, but have the option to add a name to our Baptismal name. (After all, Baptism is the primary vocation, the sacrament in which we were already definitively "claimed for Christ.") Well, one of the novices had always gone by her first name, while her Christian name was not really used. So she decided to reclaim her very Christian name--Khristina. The other sister added a new name: Aletheia (Greek for "truth"). Her explanation was beautiful, but personal enough that I will see if she comments on it in her blog and will link you to that if the opportunity arises. Suffice it to say that since Jesus IS Truth ("I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"), both sisters appear to have taken the same name--and in a very Pauline way, since it was Paul himself who said, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

And then last night, the Fusion.net spot aired in Miami--but you can watch it here! How many nun stereotypes will the sisters blast away as they talk about what it means to be a vowed person who is active on social media?