Before someone makes their first religious profession, they have to go through one or two years of novitiate. This is the most important time for a religious because the process of discernment takes place in one's life. Vocation to priestly or religious life is not like a fine morning when God calls someone as He called Samuel in the Old Testament. It is not a vision like the prophet Isaiah had. It is a continued experience within oneself that God is calling. Some people respond to this call, but some do not. Once the person responds to the call of God, and this call is intense, then God Himself puts inspirations into one's heart. This inspiration causes a person to seek the help of Church leaders and to decide whether to be a seminarian or a religious. Then begins the formation program.
For religious, the novitiate is the time when the novice discerns about religious life with the help of a novitiate master. For me, and for every religious, it is the time when we realize that God has called us to live a religious life. This is the time for renewing the commitments promised at the time of Baptism and Confirmation. It is a Spirit-filled time when a person deeply enters into a personal relationship with the Father, accepting His Son as the Savior and master of life, and perceiving the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This experience of personal relationship with the Holy Trinity provides the indispensable foundation for truly Christian prayer.
A year of prayer and discernment is very necessary for the religious life. For me, it was the time I learned to pray. A lot of time is given to personal prayer during the novitiate. What did Christ do after His Baptism? "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights." (Mt. 4:1-2) It was a novitiate experience for Him before he took His ministry! It was for a time for Him to establish full communion with His Father. The power of the Spirit was with Him. After that forty days of prayer and fasting, he was hungry and the tempter approached him. (Mt. 4:3) Though He was tempted like any of us, He did not sin. He was strong and withstood the tempter. The Spirit of the Father was with Him. So Christ tells us to pray, that we may not fall into temptation.
Why does prayer become a burden for many Christians?  Is it a time wasted? The experience of burden and dryness in prayer comes from the fact that we failed to establish a right relationship with God. It is a relationship that is not supposed to be the mysterious end product of a groping prayer effort, but the clear promise of God offered to Christians at the beginning of life with Him. By coming into Him, or renewing our life commitment to Him, and receiving His power in our lives, is by no means the endpoint of our relationship with Him, but rather the beginning.
When Christ spoke from the cross before His death, "I thirst," is he talking about the physical thirst which we often feel?  No, He is talking about spiritual thirst; He is talking about His thirst for our soul and our thirst for Him. When one enters into the Chapel of the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, we see the words at the right side of the crucifix above the altar, "I thirst." What exactly do these words mean? I  believe that Mother Teresa was inspired by Jesus Christ and asked the sisters to write the words "I thirst" on the walls at the right side of the crucifix in every chapel. There is a thirst in every human being to be led into the Kingdom. But there is also a thirst in every human being that leads on to the Kingdom.

There are many Christians in the world who are thirsty for the 'first thirst' and want to turn to Jesus the Savior and receive the initial fullness of His Spirit. This thirst is not lasting and it is limited and short lived. Christ speaks about it in the Gospel on the parable of the seeds. These seeds fell on the thorns and rocky ground. The second thirst that helps everyone on to the Kingdom is a thirst that will lead us into the depths of the knowledge and love of God. Here we are filled with the Holy Spirit as the completion of one process, a full Christian initiation, but this is the beginning of another process: growth in the richness and fullness of love and knowledge of God. This thirst for the love and knowledge of God leads us into the heartland of the Kingdom of God. St. Teresa of Avila calls this process "one to seven mansions of the indwelling experience of God in our life."
This is exactly what the Holy Scriptures say: One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: to dwell in the LORD'S house all the days of my life, to gaze on the LORD'S beauty, to visit his temple. For God will hide me in his shelter in time of trouble, will conceal me in the cover of his tent; and set me high upon a rock. Even now my head is held high above my enemies on every side! I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and chant praise to the LORD. I hear your voice, LORD, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me. "Come," says my heart, "seek God's face;" your face, LORD, do I seek! Do not hide your face from me; do not repel your servant in anger. You are my help; do not cast me off; do not forsake me, God my savior! (Psalm 27:4-9)
When we experience the indwelling presence of God in us, traditionally we call it prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is a communication with God. It is a conversation with God. It is an awareness of Him. It is consciously being with Him, or being present to Him, and His being present to us. As communication and conversation are essential for the development of human relationships, so too with God. In prayer, God communicates to us who  He really is, and we communicate with Him through conversations. In order to develop a healthy relationship, whether it is a parent-child relationship or a husband-wife relationship, a good deal of being with one another, talking to one another, or just simply being aware of one another in daily life is necessary. This is also true with God. The God-human being relationship is developed through communication, conversation, being with one another; just being simply aware of one another in daily life is called prayer. St. Teresa of Avila puts it rightly, "For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends: it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us."
My life as priest has been marked by a recognition of being aware of God's presence in me and I in Him. This way, I know Him and I am aware of the fact that He is calling me. It keeps me going, and it seems everything turns out to be bright and beautiful. When I miss personal prayer, my enthusiasm for the Christian life diminishes, God seems to be less close and personal, it becomes harder to relate lovingly to people, and my desire to serve others doesn't take priority. Personal prayer is important to us as Christians: it helps us to live our lives as committed Christians, and it opens us up to know Him and, in turn, love Him in loving one another. "When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret: and your father who sees in secret will reward you." (Matthew 6:6)