Emphasis Preaching Journal

When a woman decides to become a nun, she is invited into the order for a period of time as a novitiate, to try on the role of sister, and for the other sisters to see how she will fit in with their understanding of their calling as a group.

After some period of settling in and training, the novice is taken into the order on "temporary vows"; that is, she is now bound to behave like and take on the duties of a regular sister of the order, on the understanding that she is free to go if she finds herself unsuited, or if the order feels the same way.