RELIGIOUS FORMATION
The essence of religious life consists in radically imitating and following Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that leads to Jesus each candidate wanting to embrace religious life so as to steadily integrate her with the religious congregation through the person of Jesus. It is the same Spirit that makes her conformed to Jesus so as to lead her continuously to the Father and His People together with himself. Thus religious formation is God’s work carried out in each candidate, a work that the Holy Spirit accomplishes through Jesus and one’s own religious community.
The duty of the formators is to help the candidates through instructions, guidance and encouragement, realizing the role which Christ the Formator and Holy Spirit the Guide have to play in their formation
Our Founding Father had a clear conviction and vision as to how each candidate was to realize the imitation and following of Jesus in the SJC Community
Like Jesus, we too are, without seeking our own praise or glory in anything whatsoever, to do everything for the praise and glory of God, by fully denying ourselves as well as by constantly singing praises to God ‘in words and deeds’
It is above all through a holy, consecrated and sinless life that we have to make ourselves instruments of divine praise and glory. Our journey of life should be one of a close following of Jesus, in which we steadily move together with him to the Father and His people. This entails that each one of us live, participating daily in his self-sacrifice on the cross, by taking one’s own cross. Such a life of sacrifice, founded on prayer, suffering and service, will make us persons procuring God’s glory by offering themselves, together with Jesus, fully to the Father; persons receiving in their own souls the merciful love he shed on the cross for the redemption of the world; persons transmitting that love to the entire world, especially to the orphaned and supportless.
Goals of Formation
An SJC religious has to be one having personal relationship with Jesus achieved through prayer and complete openness to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit
She has to be one regarding her vocation as an invaluable gift of God, one finding joy and fulfillment in living in the SJC community and in spending oneself totally to the glory of God and service of the poor, by dedicating oneself totally to God, by relishing the sisterliness of the community
The candidate should be helped and trained to discern the blessedness and value of prayer life, vowed life and community life as well as to bear the sacrifices and difficulties they entail, with emotional and mental serenity and charm.
The following are the religious qualities to be deepened and confirmed in the candidates by means of formation: submission to superiors, fidelity to the rules of the Congregation, and a habit of co-operation with the members of the community.
The candidates should be given proper knowledge, guidance and spiritual help so that they may steadily grow into the depths of a prayer life, founded on the Word of God, contemplative, and centred on the Eucharist.
Care should be taken that they develop a heart endowed with compassion and mercy towards the sorrowful, afflicted and supportless and acquire an ability to find fulfillment proper to a SJC Sister, in living a life of serving them with a spirit of sacrifice and Jesus-consciousness
Meekness of heart and humility, as they are the two virtues which Jesus has asked us to learn of him particularly, should pre-eminently shine forth in religious who are specially called to imitate and follow him.
The blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph are the two excellent models who are to deeply influence our religious formation and life. Both of them are sublime examples for all that are fundamental in religious life such as prayer, submission to God’s will, family spirit, service-mindedness, holiness of life, love of poverty, taste for hard work, inner fulfillment, life of reparation etc.
Various Stages
Formation is not a process of blind conditioning from outside. It has rather to aim at the spontaneous, Spirit-inspired and religious growth of the candidate. Growth entails a passing through various stages. These stages are classified as pre-novitiate, novitiate, juniorate and continuing formation
I. Pre-Novitiate
i. Candidacy
The purpose of this stage is to provide a preliminary knowledge and experience about their vocation to the girls coming to us with a desire to join our Congregation, by offering them an occasion to familiarize themselves with the SJC life style and activities of mercy.
ii. Aspirancy
The particular purpose of this stage is to provide the candidate with an initial training and experience in matters pertaining to the fundamental elements of religious life such as prayer, community fraternity, orderly life, readiness for service, etc. During this period the candidates as well as the community evaluate their fitness for living and working in the SJC community; the community helps them so that they may be able to strengthen their desire to dedicate themselves generously to the service of God and His people.
iii. Postulancy
The principal goals of postulancy are the following: to help the candidates gain more knowledge and experience regarding the doctrinal, spiritual and apostolic dimensions of religious life as well as the SJC life-style; to help them to take a clear decision about their religious vocation; to help them to acquire the human and spiritual maturity required for their entry into the novitiate. This is also an occasion to deepen their inclination to a life of meditation, community living and apostolic services in conformity with the spirit of SJC, together with developing their intellectual talents and tastes.
II. Novitiate
The training given the candidates in the novitiate shall be so integral and solid that they steadily grow into the discipleship of Jesus, practice of evangelical counsels, life of prayer, community fraternity, religious virtues, apostolate of merciful love and the spirit of renunciation
In order that these goals may be achieved:
The novices shall be progressively led into the depths of a prayer life rooted in the Word of God and the mystery of the Holy Eucharist
A deep knowledge of and a firm commitment to the SJC spirituality, charism of the Founding Father, history of the Congregation and its apostolic style shall be developed in the novices
Care should be taken that they acquire such emotional maturity, sense of consecration and resoluteness of decision as are required so that they are enabled to clearly discern the spiritual, religious and apostolic values of vowed life so as to live up to them perfectly;
The growth to be obtained through formation calls for the continued effort and responsibility both of the formators and formees. The novitiate formation will be fruitful and helpful, only if the novice, with an openness to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and guidance of the mistress, and with a spirit of love, faith and interior freedom, is keen on responsibly and purposefully making use of all the helps and opportunities, spiritual and intellectual, offered by the community
Canonical Novitiate
The duration of the novitiate is two years of which the first year is the canonical one. During this period the novices receive religious training, living together in the novitiate house under the Novice Mistress
Second Year Novitiate
The purpose of the second year novitiate is to further deepen the religious training received during the canonical novitiate through prayer, reflection and through such continuing formation progammes as regency to be conducted according to the regulation of the Institute.
Vestition and Temporary Profession of Vows
At the completion of the Novitiate, the Superior General with the consent of her Council admits the suitable candidates for the first profession. Those not found fit are dismissed with the consent of her Council. If a doubt remains regarding the aptness of a candidate, her novitiate may be extended for a period not exceeding one year.
III. Juniorate
The period of juniorate covers the years from the first profession to the final profession. The purpose of this period is to deepen the spirituality and religious experience obtained during the novitiate, through prayer, study, practical lifeexperience, familiarity with apostolic services and community living. Through this the young religious is integrated and unified with the SJC Community style of living more deeply and with grater resoluteness of decision. As a result of this she is strengthened and enabled to live in the SJC Community and in the midst of God’s people as a living symbol of divine praise and glory and as a self sacrificing apostle of His merciful love.
IV. Continuing Formation
Religious life, from its beginning to the end, is a growth into Jesus, and through Jesus towards the Father and His People. It being so, each member of the SJC Community is bound to maintain and develop herself unto the end as an instrument of God’s praise35 and transmitter of His love.36 It is the bounden duty of the General Synaxis and the General Council to evolve and actualize suitable programmes so that the members may obtain adequate inspiration and instruction towards materializing the above-said goals.
The goal to be realized through our religious formation is to form, sustain and enhance the SJC as a community that continually grows in the spirit of the Founding Father so as to find its fulfillment in total consecration to God, in our community life with mutual love and fraternity as well as in our firm commitment to the service of His merciful love. This will be made possible only through a sincere, 64 responsible and continued endeavour of the superiors, formators and the formees - nay, of the entire community.
