FORMATION

Formation is the period of time that candidates spend under the guidance and supervision of expert educators; first in discerning their calling and then preparing themselves for the final consecration or ordination.

The formation period includes the following steps:

Personal Discernment

While living at home, under the guidance of their parents or spiritual directors, the candidates periodically visit the community or are visited by the vocation director. We expand their knowledge of what a vocation entails and are assisted in the process of being accepted by the LSE in the diocese or other religious community.

Aspirancy

Once the candidates show definite signs of a vocation and interest in our religious family they enter the LSE community as aspirants, and thus they are introduced to community life and are allowed to experience some aspects of the life.

Postulancy

This is a period of training prior to the novitiate; it is for the aspirants who find appealing the LSE spirituality and charism and want to become members of the congregation. Throughout the Postulancy the candidates are trained to practice virtuous habits through a healthy enthusiasm for religious life. It is about the duration of one year.

Novitiate

This is the most important period of formation and with it starts religious life in the LSE congregation. The novitiate usually lasts for one year. The novices, under the guidance of the Novice Master, study and assimilate the spirituality, history, charism, and ministry of the congregation. The novitiate ends with the first profession of vows through which one becomes a member of the community.

Vows

Religious vows of chastity, poverty and obedience are renewed every year, for at least three years, or for the duration of philosophical studies if longer.