Novitiate
Br. Patric playing the organ during Mass
Novices generally experience a greater conviction to generously give themselves completely to God through the monastic life. Over a two year period the novice faces the realities experienced in the postulancy through a more intense process of self- knowledge.
The novice is encouraged during this time to see if his consciousness with its ‘ups and downs’ can be healed through cistercian spirituality. He experiences faith in the monastic-cistercian way as he confronts problems in growth and development of his own view of and response to God. The sufferings at this stage are generally experienced as temptation beckoning the novice to find an escape (a return to the comforts of the world), increased desire for sleep, feeling greater anxiety. However, the novice is guided to use these experiences to foster maturity and openness to God's saving help.
Goal: Personal integration of cistercian life and a more intimate relationship with God.
Procedure: Clothed with the novice's white habit, continued formation.
Time: Two years
Practices and Observances (which foster the spiritual experience of the novice)
Excerpts from the Ratio Institutionis (Guidelines on Formation) on the Novitiate:
§29
The novitiate is a time for a personal integrating of the Cistercian way of life. Through prayer, ascesis, growth in self-knowledge and participation in the life of the community, the novices are led to a more intense personal experience of what is involved in the living out of the Cistercian conversatio. They should continue to develop humanly and spiritually, growing in a personal relationship with Christ.
§30
In order to profit from this period the novices will strive to develop from the very beginning an open and confident relationship with the novice director and the superior who, in their turn, will help the novices by their pastoral care, prayer and example.
§31
The novices, who normally live in a separate part of the monastery, learn through their community life to develop a realistic acceptance of and love for one another. This experience of common life within the novitiate forms the basis of their integration into the community. As they gradually learn to know the community and the community comes to know them, the novice director may have at times to act as mediator, by helping the novices to understand the community and the community to understand the novices.
§32
A program of monastic studies is begun in the novitiate. The courses of the novitiate are under the control of the novice director and are oriented to the spiritual needs of this stage of formation. They are also however coordinated with the program of the monasticate. Among the topics to be presented are the following: Sacred Scripture, in particular the Psalms; the Liturgy, especially the Liturgy of the Hours, with practical instruction in singing and public reading; the Rule of St. Benedict; Monastic History and Spirituality, especially the Cistercian Patrimony; instruction in Prayer and Lectio, on the Vows and the meaning of Religious Life; an introduction to the Christian Mystery and Christian Doctrine, and to the Constitutions and the Statutes of the Order.
§33
The novitiate remains a time of probation, and departures of novices are not abnormal. The novice director shows understanding and sympathy for the hesitations and soul-searching of those who are doubtful in their vocation, and helps them make a decision in such a way that, even if they do depart, they do not feel that they have failed but, rather, leave the monastery more determined to serve God in whatever way he indicates. When novices must be asked to leave, they should be helped to see this not as a rejection but simply as the recognition that there are not enough positive signs of their Cistercian vocation for this community at this moment. In such cases it would be false kindness and, in the long term harmful and unjust to the novices and to the community to allow them to remain too long in the monastery.
§34
At the end of the novitiate, when the novices are ready to commit themselves to Christ and to the community through monastic profession, they make a petition to the superior, who reviews each case with the novice director before presenting the novice to the vote of the conventual chapter. If the needs of the individual warrant it, profession may be delayed for up to six months after the two years of the novitiate have elapsed. According to local circumstances, the novice may also remain in the novitiate for some time after profession.
§35
Voting for profession is an important way in which the community exercises its responsibility. Therefore the superior and the novice director will do everything possible to ensure that this act of the conventual chapter is not a mere formality. While respecting the necessary confidentiality, they will keep the community informed, in a general way, of the progress of each novice. Most of all, the community must remember that its attitudes towards the novices are very important: its welcome, its acceptance of them as individuals, its affection for and understanding of each of them.
The novice is encouraged during this time to see if his consciousness with its ‘ups and downs’ can be healed through cistercian spirituality. He experiences faith in the monastic-cistercian way as he confronts problems in growth and development of his own view of and response to God. The sufferings at this stage are generally experienced as temptation beckoning the novice to find an escape (a return to the comforts of the world), increased desire for sleep, feeling greater anxiety. However, the novice is guided to use these experiences to foster maturity and openness to God's saving help.
Goal: Personal integration of cistercian life and a more intimate relationship with God.
Procedure: Clothed with the novice's white habit, continued formation.
Time: Two years
Practices and Observances (which foster the spiritual experience of the novice)
- Interaction with the patristic/monastic spiritual writings and teachings of our faith through lectio divina.
- Rather than going to observances and rules for guidance, the inner self goes to Scripture, the spiritual fathers/mothers, and insights that come from the Holy Spirit.
Excerpts from the Ratio Institutionis (Guidelines on Formation) on the Novitiate:
§29
The novitiate is a time for a personal integrating of the Cistercian way of life. Through prayer, ascesis, growth in self-knowledge and participation in the life of the community, the novices are led to a more intense personal experience of what is involved in the living out of the Cistercian conversatio. They should continue to develop humanly and spiritually, growing in a personal relationship with Christ.
§30
In order to profit from this period the novices will strive to develop from the very beginning an open and confident relationship with the novice director and the superior who, in their turn, will help the novices by their pastoral care, prayer and example.
§31
The novices, who normally live in a separate part of the monastery, learn through their community life to develop a realistic acceptance of and love for one another. This experience of common life within the novitiate forms the basis of their integration into the community. As they gradually learn to know the community and the community comes to know them, the novice director may have at times to act as mediator, by helping the novices to understand the community and the community to understand the novices.
§32
A program of monastic studies is begun in the novitiate. The courses of the novitiate are under the control of the novice director and are oriented to the spiritual needs of this stage of formation. They are also however coordinated with the program of the monasticate. Among the topics to be presented are the following: Sacred Scripture, in particular the Psalms; the Liturgy, especially the Liturgy of the Hours, with practical instruction in singing and public reading; the Rule of St. Benedict; Monastic History and Spirituality, especially the Cistercian Patrimony; instruction in Prayer and Lectio, on the Vows and the meaning of Religious Life; an introduction to the Christian Mystery and Christian Doctrine, and to the Constitutions and the Statutes of the Order.
§33
The novitiate remains a time of probation, and departures of novices are not abnormal. The novice director shows understanding and sympathy for the hesitations and soul-searching of those who are doubtful in their vocation, and helps them make a decision in such a way that, even if they do depart, they do not feel that they have failed but, rather, leave the monastery more determined to serve God in whatever way he indicates. When novices must be asked to leave, they should be helped to see this not as a rejection but simply as the recognition that there are not enough positive signs of their Cistercian vocation for this community at this moment. In such cases it would be false kindness and, in the long term harmful and unjust to the novices and to the community to allow them to remain too long in the monastery.
§34
At the end of the novitiate, when the novices are ready to commit themselves to Christ and to the community through monastic profession, they make a petition to the superior, who reviews each case with the novice director before presenting the novice to the vote of the conventual chapter. If the needs of the individual warrant it, profession may be delayed for up to six months after the two years of the novitiate have elapsed. According to local circumstances, the novice may also remain in the novitiate for some time after profession.
§35
Voting for profession is an important way in which the community exercises its responsibility. Therefore the superior and the novice director will do everything possible to ensure that this act of the conventual chapter is not a mere formality. While respecting the necessary confidentiality, they will keep the community informed, in a general way, of the progress of each novice. Most of all, the community must remember that its attitudes towards the novices are very important: its welcome, its acceptance of them as individuals, its affection for and understanding of each of them.
