Novitiate
May it please the Lord that all be to His glory and praise and to that of the glorious Virgin Mary whose habit we wear. Amen.
– St. Teresa of Avila
The Novitiate begins with a ceremony in which the postulant receives the monastic habit and a new name. It is a period of formation in human virtue and the monastic life.
Topics of study include Carmelite spirituality of Our Holy Parents St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross and our saints of Carmel, monastic history, monastic and religious life, the Holy Rule, the psalms, Scripture, chant, and an introduction to doctrine. For at this point the concern should be whether the novice is “truly seeking God.”
Each day should mean progress in the realization of one’s vocation, until not a single fiber of the soul remains which does not belong entirely to God. There is nothings static about vocation, not even on God’s part, because, adapting Himself to our nature, He calls us in a progressive way. If we are faithful to His first inviation, others, increasingly pressing and definite, will follow, which will bind us more and more to our Divine Master…If the soul is faithful, and answers these progressive calls generously, God will continue to send new invitations, which will open up wider and more luminous horizons, until the soul lives its consecration in a perpetual renewal of fervor and love.
– Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, OCD