Novitiate
As a novice Br. Justin reads during Sunday Mass (2010).
Once a candidate has been accepted into the community, he is ready to begin his Postulancy. This is a three-week period usually beginning on the 1st of August which a candidate must complete before formally entering the Novitiate. From the day he moves into the monastery, the postulant begins to participate in the community life, with all his responsibilities outside the monastery having been brought to a conclusion. On the 19th of August, the Novitiate begins during Vespers, where the candidate divests himself of the clothing of the “old man” (cf. Eph 4:22-24) and dons the white habit of a novice. At his investiture, the novice also receives his new monastic name.
Br. John talks to the Form IV Retreatants (2008).
The Novitiate is a focused period of formation and discernment normally lasting one year. During the Novitiate, the novice withdraws from all relationships outside the monastery for the sake of drawing closer to God and his new community. This step in “religious life” ends on the feast of St. Bernard (August 20th), upon which the novice enters the Juniorate by making his temporary profession, which commits him to the community and the monastic way of life for three years.
Br. Anthony (left) plays with Form IV Retreatants (2008).
During the Novitiate, he participates in the prayer life of the community, works at his assigned “house-hold” chores and attends a variety of classes offered by the fathers of the community. The classes are on a wide range of topics relevant for a novice’s discernment and formation: Cistercian History, Rule of St. Benedict, Biblical Prayer and the Psalms, Church History, Latin, Theology of the Spiritual Life, Theology of St. Bernard, Gregorian Chant, Theology of Liturgy and the Constitutions of the Cistercian Order. The classes are intended to educate the novice about monastic spirituality and the Cistercian order, but they are not designed to simulate the pressures of graduate studies. Indeed, efforts are taken to ensure that the novice lives in a relatively free environment that promotes the clarity of mind and availability of heart necessary for such a time of discernment.
A novice’s most important task is to join his brother monks in prayer for the daily celebration of the Mass and Divine Office, which are the special ways that monks are called to continue the prayer of Christ in the Church. Through his participation in the most ancient traditions of the Church, he joins not only his brothers in the monastery, but also the countless other monks who have gone before, all following Christ in the “labor of obedience” (Prologue to the Rule of St. Benedict), and together offering their bodies and lives as a living sacrifice to God, the Almighty Father (cf. Romans 12:1-2).
For more information on the Novitiate program, please see the Novitiate Guidelines.