of Detroit on weekends.
Capuchin brothers, also in residence at the monastery, shouldered the jobs of food preparation. They were also responsible for making, repairing, and cleaning clothes, maintaining the building and grounds, running the printing press, and performing office jobs, such as serving as doorkeepers and the like.
The novices — both the clerical novices and those headed for the brotherhood — had classes to attend during the day. The novices who hoped to be priests also had other readings to do. They had to learn to say and participate in the reading of the Liturgy of the Hours and helped a great deal with liturgical services throughout the year. The novices, including Frater Solanus, could receive letters from home, but they were not allowed either to have visitors or to visit home during this novitiate period.
In the refectory, benches and narrow tables lined the walls of the large room. Friars therefore sat on the benches with no one seated across the table from them. At noon, while dinner was served and eaten, one of the fathers read aloud from one of the Gospels. Other readings were also taken from the lives of the saints, a devotional work, or one of the papal encyclicals. One priest would read for a while and then hand the reading on to another priest. This reading during both dinner and supper emphasized that no time was to be given to aimless socializing. The rule of silence was therefore observed during the meal but was lifted for Thursday meals, Sunday meals, and feast days.
After the noonday meal, the friars spent a half-hour in recreation while the novices spent some time individually in their rooms. Still later in the afternoon — from three to five o’clock — the novices engaged in manual labor. Generally, this was outdoor work which gave the young men some needed fresh air and an outlet for stored-up physical energy. Whether in the garden or inside the monastery in the kitchen or chapel, the novices worked under careful supervision.
Back in the chapel, the whole community gathered to read the Liturgy of the Hours before supper. Then there was recreation time, followed by some private time and the Hours again. The day was ended at 9:30 p.m. At that point, all the friars were in bed following a full day of prayer, physical exercise, and — for the novices — classroom work and study.
If Frater Solanus was not always asleep just as his head hit the pillow during these long novitiate days, his thoughts turned to his novitiate experience and what he was learning about himself. Like the other Capuchins, he kept a private notebook and recorded his thoughts about his life at St. Bonaventure. This practice of keeping a journal, with the guidance of his novice director, enabled Solanus to experience a growing understanding of his own personality and spirit.
In his journal, it is clear that Frater Solanus was struggling to purify his motives and his heart. He began to see that he operated out of a single-minded intensity in accomplishing tasks. There was certainly no moral or spiritual fault to this tendency. But it was accompanied, he came to see, by a leaning toward perfectionism that was too rigid — a spiritual scrupulosity. Gradually, he loosened up, learning to lean more on God and less on himself.
Solanus also discovered, through his journal and almost-daily conversations with his superiors, how very emotional and impetuous he was by nature. Perhaps, in the context of a large, well-disciplined Irish Catholic family, such personality traits are invariably submerged or played down, especially in boys. Few of his fellow novices recognized these traits. From what they could see, Solanus was an understanding, considerate, friendly fellow very intent on growing in holiness as a Capuchin.
As hard as he worked at his studies, he worked even harder on himself. He understood that the purpose of the novitiate was not to remake him but to take the personality and gifts already there and to develop them further for service to God and others. That was the idea behind the disciplines of the monastery. Capuchin spirituality, or Franciscan spirituality, means attempting to clear away some of the clutter of self-interest and self-indulgence that almost naturally attach to men and women who live life as though it were a right and not a gift.
During this novitiate year, the young man penned in his notebook a sort of plan of action for learning to love God. It reflected the analytical, precise side of his nature. But the five-part plan showed great spiritual maturity as well. The twenty-six-year-old counseled himself to adopt:
1. Detachment of oneself from earthly affections: singleness of purpose.
2. Meditation on the Passion of Jesus Christ.
3. Uniformity of will within the divine will.
4. Mental prayer, meditation, and contemplation.
5. Prayer: “Ask and it shall be given to you” (Matthew 7:7).
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