Gaining a Brother: The Novitiate

- On Saturday, May 1, the Portsmouth community will welcome into its novitiate a new member. The day is auspicious, as it celebrates not only St. Joseph, but serves as the National Day for Religious Brothers. It also completes a week that started with Good Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Elsewhere in this issue, we provide more information on both the inspiration of the “World Day of Vocations”, as well as some of the specific character and process in entering into Benedictine life.
  
  Jonathan in the monastery garden
  
  After several visits to the monastery and ongoing discernment and discussion, Jonathan Piette became a “postulant” of Portsmouth Abbey on April 1, 2021. And at the beginning of the month of May, he will be clothed as a novice. Below, Jonathan introduces himself to us with a brief biographical sketch that retraces some of his journey to Portsmouth. He prefaces this with a biblical verse of particular significance to him: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Mt 9:37). So it is appropriate, on the feast day of Joseph the Worker, he begins his work within the what Saint Benedict calls the “workshop” of the enclosure of the monastery.
  
  “Born in Providence, Rhode Island to Richard and Claire Piette, I grew up in Woonsocket alongside my three siblings and began my primary education in the Catholic school system. I transitioned into the Woonsocket public school system starting in the 1^st grade through high school. I graduated in 2007 and attended Stonehill College in Easton MA, where I completed my undergraduate studies cum laude in Religious Studies with a minor in Philosophy in 2011. Following graduation, I volunteered for a number of years with Franciscan friars in the Midwest, primarily in the Chicago area. I then returned to New England in 2014 to pursue a religious vocation. After dabbling in retail work and discerning as a novice at Glastonbury Abbey in Hingham MA, I have arrived at Portsmouth Abbey.
  
  “Now that’s a whole lot of biography packed into a single paragraph, but what does it mean? How did that journey lead me to Portsmouth Abbey? Certainly, the Abbey’s scenic location on the shores of Narragansett Bay was a major draw for me. Another point in the Abbey’s favor is its location in my beloved home state of Rhode Island. However, these are some of the things that attracted me to the Abbey, but they aren’t the reasons why I petitioned to join the monastery. Truth be told, it’s still a bit of a mystery to me why God has brought me here in such a roundabout way, back to where I started. Back where I started in the physical sense, it feels like a lifetime has occurred in the 10 years since I graduated from college. I’ve experienced the struggle of religious men and women trying to teach the faith in a culture that has not been prepared to hear what they have to say. I’ve come to see the need for a truly Catholic education and I believe that the Portsmouth Abbey School is a place that is sensitive to that struggle.”
  
  With gratitude, and with the joy Pope Francis places at the heart of God’s call, in his message for this year's World Day of Prayer for Vocations, we welcome Jonathan and join in the prayers that inspire and support his monastic life.
  
  The church in the evening (photograph by Jonathan Piette)
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