Part III

Part III: Spiritual Formation of Novices #

CN PART III CHAPTER 1 #

[39] #

1If it can be done, a novitiate house should be established in each province.12The novitiate house should, as far as possible, be located in a place where the novices probation can be conducted according to the manner of life and mission proper to the Society.2

[40] #

The novitiate begins on the day when the candidate, by the authority of the provincial or some other authorized person, is admitted into the novitiate house to begin probation, even first probation.3

[41] #

The novitiate is to continue for two complete years,4nor can the general licitly dispense from this except for reasons of serious moment and after observing the prescriptions of universal law.5

[42] #

Except for the time required by universal law, the novitiate can validly be undergone in any house of the Society.6

[43] #

1Ordinarily the novitiate should be common for all candidates.7The only differences in method introduced are those required by the different modes of one and the same service to which all are called.82In this spirit, from the beginning a suitable sharing of life and work should be fostered among all the novices, whereby they can be thoroughly known to one another and helped to esteem and realize each one’s own vocation. In external matters such as food, clothing, and lodging, there should be complete equality.9

CN PART III CHAPTER 2 #

[44] #

1The novitiate is a time at once of formation and of probation, during which the grace of vocation should be cultivated and during which it should already manifest its fruitfulness.102But for those who entered as indifferents, it is also an opportune time to discern their future vocation to brotherhood or priesthood.11

[45] #

1The apostolic purpose is to be considered the principle that regulates the entire formation of our members.12Therefore, the whole formation of our members from the novitiate on must be understood and promoted as a process of integration into the apostolic body of the Society, as a formation in mission.132What is later set down in Part IV about the formation of our members after the novitiate in general and about their spiritual formation and community life is also to be applied appropriately to the novices.

[46] #

1A vocation is to be tested by various experiments that, in St. Ignatius’s view, constitute the specific characteristic of the novitiate; these must place the novices in those circumstances wherein they can give evidence of what they really are and show how they have made their own the spiritual attitudes proper to our vocation. New experiments, of the sort that would fulfill this purpose today, ought to be prudently and boldly pursued.2Primacy in the novices’ formation should be given to the Spiritual Exercises, since of all the experiments they are the chief and fundamental one. Let them, therefore, be well prepared for, made at the most advantageous time, and presented in all their force and spiritual vigor.14

[47] #

1Education towards familiarity with God in prayer should be carried out in the apostolic atmosphere of the Exercises. The daily exercises of piety should tend to arouse personal love for Christ and teach the seeking of familiar communion with God in all things. Care should also be taken that the novices clearly understand how the different means presented in the Constitutions themselves (examination of conscience, prayer, meditation, reading, and so forth) serve to complement one another.152Besides the time of prayer prescribed for all in probation (see), novices should give themselves to prayer for another half hour daily. The length of this time of prayer can be discreetly prolonged or lessened for each one according to the judgment of the director.16

[48] #

1All the novices during the time of the novitiate should receive both a deeper initiation into the mystery of Christ and a fuller knowledge of the sources of the Society’s spiritual doctrine and manner of life, chiefly to be drawn from the Society’s history and the examples of the saints.2Hence all should be instructed from the outset concerning the religious and apostolic character of our common vocation, and of the different ways of sharing in it, according to the proper identity of a priest and a brother in the one mission of the Society.3Instruction should be given from the outset to the scholastic novices concerning the priestly character of their vocation,17and to the brothers concerning the meaning and value of their works and activities for promoting the objective of the Society.18

[49] #

Let self-denial be primarily exercised humbly and simply in the everyday demands of our vocation. Particular mortifications should, however, be undertaken, under the guidance of obedience, as indicated by the individual’s requirements, the Church’s call, and the world’s needs. Moreover, let the novices learn, in theory and by practice, to shape their life by austerity and sobriety.19

[50] #

The practice of community life should both develop the brotherhood of our members and benefit the affective maturity of the novices.20

[51] #

Human virtues are to be fostered, because they make the apostolate more fruitful and religious life happier; among these virtues are goodness of heart, sincerity, strength of mind and constancy, diligent care for justice, openness of mind and respect for differing beliefs of others, politeness, and other similar qualities.21

[52] #

The novices are to be stimulated to assume responsibilities with prudent and discerning charity, so that they may more successfully acquire spiritual maturity and more freely adhere to their vocation.22

[53] #

Although entrance into the novitiate should entail a real separation from the life previously led in the world, superiors should nevertheless provide that the novices, while consistently maintaining a spirit of recollection, should have sufficient social contact with their contemporaries (both within and outside the Society). Likewise the necessary separation from parents and friends should take place in such a way that genuine progress in affective balance and supernatural love is not impeded.23

[54] #

1Education towards a discerning charity by means of spiritual direction and obedience presupposes complete trust and freedom between Father Master and the novices.242It will benefit the spiritual, apostolic, intellectual, and affective formation of the novices if they are associated with some other selected men besides the director, who at certain times can assist him in his work, in order to provide the novices with a richer and fuller image of the Ignatian vocation.25

[55] #

1Except for the time prescribed by universal law for the validity of the novitiate, the provincial can permit the novices, but not beyond one semester, the type of study, especially theological and philosophical, needed for obtaining a diploma or for completing that sort of formation by which one is prepared to take up duties. But if study of this sort is to be prolonged beyond a semester, the matter is to be referred to the general. Let this permission be given only to those to whom it can be granted without spiritual harm, taking into consideration persons and places, as will be judged in the Lord.262After fulfilling the canonical time required by universal law, no one who is not a priest is to be sent to colleges of extern students to act as a teacher there or a prefect of boys; nor should he be occupied in other services outside the novitiate unless these are undertaken as experiments.27

[56] #

When the time of the noviceship is ended, if some of the novices, well endowed with the qualities requisite for this vocation, still have not shown sufficient maturity and there is hope that within a reasonable period of time they will have attained it, major superiors, using our privilege,28may postpone the taking of first vows or even extend the novitiate for a time by introducing some longer experiment; but without permission of the general this should not be prolonged beyond a semester.29

CN PART III CHAPTER 3 #

[57] #

1As far as concerns all goods that they actually possess, novices should, from the time they first enter and for the duration of the novitiate,1 1yield the administration of these goods to whomever they choose; only the general can dispense them from this obligation;1 2make disposition of both the use and the usufruct of these goods; this can be used for paying debts, if there are any, or otherwise for the benefit of the poor or other pious causes (unless just reasons suggest some other course), inside the Society or outside it, as the one making the disposition shall wish, but with the consent of the provincial. Those making the disposition may, to be sure, decide that the gain will accrue to the principal; but they may not use these goods in any other way for their own advantage.2Before first vows they should, for the entire period before renunciation,2 1yield the administration of these same goods to whomever they wish;2 2dispose of the use and the usufruct as in; but they may not decide that after the novitiate the gain should accrue to the principal beyond the amount necessary to ensure that the purchasing power of the capital remains undiminished.3If they wish, they may by means of a single act of disposition at the beginning of the novitiate satisfy the requirements of bothand.30

[58] #

Any private vows that novices may have pronounced prior to their entrance are suspended for as long as they remain in the Society.31

  1. GC 27, CollDecr d. 35; see Canon 64; Canon 522. ↩︎

  2. See GC 31, d. 8, no. 22. ↩︎

  3. See GC 27, CollDecr d. 37. ↩︎

  4. Clarified ( GC 31, d. 20, no. 1, entrusted to the superior general prudently to provide what should be done about reading at table in each province or region.). ↩︎

  5. GC 27, CollDecr d. 36, §1; P. V, c. 1, C C_5-515; see Canon 64; Canon 523. ↩︎

  6. See CollDecr d. 36, §2 ( GC 7, d. 98); Canon 647-649; Canon 522. ↩︎

  7. See GC 32, d. 6, no. 12. ↩︎

  8. GC 31, d. 8, II, toward the beginning. ↩︎

  9. GC 31, d. 8, no. 18. ↩︎

  10. GC 31, d. 8, II, toward the beginning; see Canon 646. ↩︎

  11. See GC 34, d. 7, no. 15. ↩︎

  12. GC 31, d. 8, no. 4. ↩︎

  13. See GC 32, d. 6, no. 7; see GC 32, d. 6, nos. 12-13. ↩︎

  14. See GC 31, d. 8, nos. 14-15; see Examen, c. 4, nos. 910 C_0-64- C_0-65; no 16 C_0-71; c. 7, no. 6 C_0-127; P. IX, c. 3, no. 8, E C 746; 748. ↩︎

  15. GC 31, d. 8, no. 16. ↩︎

  16. CollDecr d. 41 ( GC 1, d. 97; GC 4, d. 59; GC 31, d. 56, no. 1). ↩︎

  17. See GC 34, d. 6, no. 23. ↩︎

  18. See GC 31, d. 8, no. 21. ↩︎

  19. GC 31, d. 8, no. 20. ↩︎

  20. GC 31, d. 8, no. 18. ↩︎

  21. See GC 31, d. 8, no. 10. ↩︎

  22. See GC 31, d. 8, no. 23. ↩︎

  23. GC 31, d. 8, no. 22; see P. III, c. 1, no. 2, A, B; no. 3, C C_3-244- C_3-248. ↩︎

  24. GC 31, d. 8, no. 19. ↩︎

  25. GC 31, d. 8, no. 25; see Canon 651, §§2-3; Canon 524, §2. ↩︎

  26. See CollDecr d. 38, §1 ( GC 2, d. 14; GC 20, d. 12, 2°). ↩︎

  27. See CollDecr d. 38, §2 ( GC 20, d. 12, 3°). ↩︎

  28. Council of Trent, sess. 25, Concerning Regulars, c. 16 (Dec. 3, 1563). ↩︎

  29. See GC 31, d. 8, no. 24. See Examen, c. 4, no. 43 C_0-100; P. V, c. 1, no. 3 C_5-514. ↩︎

  30. CollDecr d. 40 (see GC 7, d. 17, nos. 1-3, GC 7, d. 17, no. 6; GC 10, d. 2; GC 11, d. 15; GC 12, d. 36; GC 17, d. 11); see interpretation of Fr. General for the practical conduct of good governance, March 8, 1984 (ActRSI 19:184); see Canon 668, §§1-2; Canon 525, §2. ↩︎

  31. CollDecr d. 39 ( GC 1, d. 132); see Canon 1198and Canon 894, concerning private vows taken before profession. ↩︎