FULL HOUSE

Pauline Siesegh, Novice - Sisters of the Precious Blood

We all departed to our various home communities and/or to our families to celebrate the great event of the birth of Christ and the New Year. After the beautiful celebrations, we came back to ICCN on January 7, 2024. Though all of us could not come back on the same day, the majority who came carried on with the schedule. We experienced a bit of transition again to adjust back to the novitiate schedule.

We enjoyed the class on “Exploring Locus of Control” with Sr. Nancy Gerth, SCN. This was eye-opening to some of us. We did an exercise on the topic and all three of us novices failed as the scores on the rating scale were a value of one or zero. And we had many zeros! That was serious and so we were all quiet. When Sr Nancy did the analyses with us, the results shocked us. Quoting the definition of Locus Control from Julian Rotter, “It seems to be psychologically healthy to perceive that one has control over those things which one is capable of influencing.” Because of how the scale was scored we all got low marks because we perceived that we had control over things. We laughed at ourselves! The Internal Locus of Control and External Locus of Control play important roles in our lives. We also learned that people with more internal locus of control seem to be better off because they tend to be more achievement-oriented and tend to get better-paid jobs. H-u-r-r-y, look out the window. There was snow in the night which lifted our spirits from failing the exercise in class! Unfortunately, later, the weather became very cold and

windy for some of us.

In preparation for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we visited the Du Sable Museum. Du

Sable was a black Haitian who founded Chicago and he had an American Indian wife. The museum is named in honor or memory of them. It is an amazing scene, the Black History and Education center. It seems like the whole of Africa is captured in this museum. Good and bad memories ran through my veins in some parts of the museum. It is great that some people worked hard to preserve Black History. We continue to pray for unity and forgiveness.

Then came Sunday, January 14, the day we were all waiting for. We were expecting Sr. Corrina to come home around 3 pm. The weather scared us. When the plane that Sr Corrina boarded landed in O’Hare, she sent us a message. We were excited, but suddenly, we got another message that due to snow she could not come out

immediately. She waited for 4 good hours before getting out of the airport. That was

sad! But we were joyfully waiting for her and when she got home, we rejoiced. We now have a full house to continue with the second part of our program in ICCN. Thank God for the protection and journey mercies granted us all. Together, we will make it for the Kingdom of God.