Formation
Aspirancy
The initial period of formation is Aspirancy. The aim of the Aspirancy is to give our candidates an opportunity to come in direct contact with our way of life and apostolate so as to discern their vocation to our congregation. The period of Aspirancy is for one year. The candidates are given special classes for improving their language and Catechetical knowledge. The basic element which characterizes the formative journey is the vocational experience, or that experience which in the life of the person has become the fundamental event which reorganizes her entire existence. The vocational experience that the young woman lives leads her to redefine her entire life in reference to the evangelical values of discipleship to which she feels called. This implies a redefinition of her relationship with herself, her history, the others and the world. For this year we have our Aspirants in St.Ann’s Animation Centre Melamiyur.
Postulancy is a phase of preparation for the Noviciate. The young woman who has completed the orientation itinerary, and desires tobegin a more specific formative journey, makes an explicit request to the Provincial Superior whose competence it is to admit the young girl into the next stage of formation.
The formative process of this stage aims at ensuring a deeper vocational experience and takes on a more explicit charismatic character; it has its own form and consistency: during the time the young women, inserted in a juridically constituted Community “are helped to grow in human and Christian maturity and to acquire greater awareness of their vocational choice” through a serious journey of discernment under the guidance of the formator put in charge for this purpose.
According to the Constitutions and the Directory, it lasts for a period neither less than nine months nor more than twenty – four.
During this time the young woman is called to deepen her knowledge through the religious studies mentioned in the Plan of Studies and has the possibility to continue the secular ones that she may have already started.
Noviciate is the formative phase that prepares the young woman for the Profession of the Evangelical Counsels and therefore is very important within the formative cycle. In it the novices “gain greater understanding of their vocation as Sisters of St. Ann, discover the beauty of following Christ and the demands inherent to the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience”.
The Noviciate lasts for two years. In the first year in order to allow greater concentration, any sort of external activity is discontinued, so that the young woman is able to dedicate herself totally to the theological preparation and reflection on the spirituality of the Sisters of St. Ann.
During the 2nd year, instead, the Novice has the opportunity to exercise herself in brief and well-planned experiences of mission in our apostolic communities.
- The Juniorate consists of the period of Temporary vows which normally covers a period of six years.
In our Institute the Juniorate consists of two phases:
- the first phase, consists of two consecutive years, not necessarily soon after the First Profession, to be carried out in a juridically constituted Formation House with a Mistress of Juniors appointed for this purpose. Where the local situations require it, it is possible to spilt the two years in two separate periods.
- the second phase, of four years, is to be carried out in the apostolic communities. During this time the Juniors are followed up in their human, spiritual and apostolic journey by the Superior of the Community in which they are inserted; the one in-charge of formation (a Sister or the Provincial/Delegate Superior herself) keeps constant contact with them for whom she periodically organizes formative moments. In this formative phase “In continuing their human and spiritual growth the juniors become more committed in the total gift of themselves to God. This is the period in which the Junior insert themselves in a gradual, responsible and active manner in the mission of the Institute”.
Though the commitment which the Junior undertakes through the project of life to which she feels called is of a temporary nature, it entails seriousness which the temporariness of the commitment should not impair.
Therefore, it is the time of life in which the young woman personally assumes the responsibility for the formation by being open to be challenged by reality, the Community and the mission.
