Explaining Religious Formation

In my earlier post, 'Explaining Consecrated Life', I had reflected on various analogues for consecrated life that might be helpful in explaining who we are and why we do what we do. After, “What is consecrated/religious life,” the question I've faced most often is, “How long does the training last?” That is the question I'd like to reflect on today; hence we look at formation in consecrated life.

As I had written then, I found marriage the best analogy to what we are in consecrated life (the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience we make as consecrated being analogous to the exchange of vows in marriage). In fact, consecrated make two kinds of vows – simple and solemn. The former is usually a low-key affair attended by members of the consecrated institute and immediate family only; the latter is a much more public and … well... solemn affair. There are technical and canonical differences between the two in terms of how they are viewed by the institute, the Church etc. As I understand it, solemn vows have a definitive, public and permanent character (thus they are also often called perpetual or final vows). One cannot usually be dispensed from them without the approval of the General (that's the highest authority within a consecrated institute). Thus, it is actually the solemn vows that I find come closest to the definitive commitment of marriage.

What about simple vows, then? They represent a positive commitment and intent, but of a more contingent nature. A person can usually be dispensed from these by the provincial (the head of the institute in a province or region). In most institutes, consecrated first make simple vows that are temporary (say, for 3-5 years; thus simple vows are often called temporary or first vows), subsequently renewing them annually or biannually etc. until it is mutually agreed between the order and the consecrated that she or he is ready to make solemn vows. A few institutes, like the Jesuits, make perpetual simple vows so that, as far as the person making the vows is concerned, the vows have a definitive, permanent character etc. (as you can guess, there is no end of confusion caused by this, especially when interacting with members of other consecrated institutes!) To go back to my analogy, I find that it is the rite of engagement that comes closest to simple vows. (In my experience, while marriage retains its ceremonial nature in the West, a ceremony that celebrates the engagement of a couple is largely unused. That is not the case here in India, however, where an engagement ceremony is only outdone by the actual wedding itself.)

With that in mind, we can look at the process of formation itself. Formation is a two-fold process. On the one hand, it is a process of discernment: both the individual and the institute try to determine over a period of time whether it is really God's will that the person consecrate her or his life in this institute. On the other hand, it is a process of incorporation: the individual becomes part of the body of the institute and makes the charism and way of proceeding of the institute her or his own. Or, as I prefer to think of it, both the person and the institute increasingly discover that God has already endowed this person with the charism of the institute, which must be developed and nurtured so that the person becomes a gift to the concrete institute. Put another way, formation is the process of establishing connaturality between the person and the institute. Of course, the balance between discernment and incorporation normally shifts to the latter as the formation process continues.

In one sense, formation is a lifelong process as there is always room for growth. In another sense, the formal process of formation ends with the solemn profession of vows. At that point, the consecrated has judged herself or himself as possessing and has been judged to possess the gifts needed for a full and productive life in the institute.

When a person wants to join a consecrated institute, the first stage of formation is the postulancy, which is also known by other names like aspirancy, pre-noviceship, candidacy etc. This is, effectively, a “come and see” programme that is implemented variously between institutes and provinces. So, for instance, some institutes admit postulants into the house or community but accommodate them in a separate part of the house (postulants do not usually wear the habit or cassock of the institute); while others have a programme of spiritual direction and visiting of communities while the candidate continues to live and work in the professional world. Some institutes have a separate pre-novitiate house established in the province with a fixed programme of academic and spiritual formation. At the end of the process, the postulant formally applies to enter the institute. This stage of formation can take between 6 months to a few years (if the candidate continues studying or working etc.).

If accepted, the person enters the noviceship stage (also called novitiate – but I prefer to use that term for the novitiate house itself). This is a period of focussed discernment in the context of an atmosphere of prayer, work, increasing familiarity with the rules and way of proceeding of the institute one has joined etc. In terms of the analogy, this is the “serious dating” phase. Novices of many congregations wear a modified version of the habit of their institute. At the end of the noviceship, the novice makes simple vows (as described above) and becomes a consecrated proper. They subsequently receive the full habit of the order. Canonically, the noviceship must last at least 1 year; some orders (like the Jesuits) have a 2-year noviceship.

The period between simple and solemn vows is characterised by growth in the connaturality (as I wrote above) between the individual and the institute. This is usually facilitated by inserting the consecrated into the full flow of life in the institute. In an apostolic institute, this means full-time work in an approved apostolate; for contemplative institutes it is simply integration into the conventual or monastic life proper. Some institutes may have a period of reflection and study similar to the noviceship during this period (in the Jesuits, this is called tertianship as it is considered the “third year” of the noviceship). This stage of formation can take between 3 years to a decade or more.

Everything I've written so far applies to all consecrated institutes – of men and women. Whether one joins an institute as a brother, a sister, a monk or a nun, this is the basic process of consecrated formation. If you've been doing your maths, the process will be seen to take about 7-9 years on average.

The alert reader now asks, “But what about priestly studies?” I've not included it in my description of formation so far. Canonically, the candidate for the priesthood in the Catholic Church must have studied for a minimum of 6 years full-time or equivalent – 2 years of Philosophy and 4 years of Theology. All priests – diocesan (also called secular) or consecrated – have the same 6 years of study as a requirement.

Different institutes integrate priestly studies into their overall process of formation in different ways. Many institutes will have the two run concurrently; in such cases the consecrated makes his solemn profession before ordination to the priesthood. Some institutes effectively alternate between the two; e.g. having a 2-4 years full-time apostolic work between philosophy and theology (this is usually called regency). In this case, depending on the length of formation stipulated between simple and solemn vows, the consecrated may be ordained before or after solemn profession. In most cases, it is the latter but, with the Jesuits for instance, ordination always precedes solemn profession.

To summarise, formation in a religious institute has the following stages – postulancy, noviceship, (simple vows), “on-the-job” (my term) formation, (solemn vows). Priestly studies (philosophy and theology) can run either concurrently or interspersed with these.

A final note: I've seen that many diocesan seminaries (that's where a diocese trains men for the priesthood) have adopted elements from religious formation. For instance, some seminaries in England have a pre-seminary year (analogous to the noviceship) in Valladolid. Similarly, many seminaries in India have adopted the regency as a period of personal integration of one's studies with pastoral work.

Explaining Consecrated Life

Preliminary Note: In common parlance, members of Christian orders like the Jesuits (or Benedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Salesians etc.) are called ‘religious’; such orders are called ‘religious orders’ and this mode of life is called the ‘religious life’. In the reflection which follows, I have chosen to use the terms ‘consecrated’, ‘institutes of consecrated life’ (shortened to ‘consecrated institutes’ or ‘institutes’) and ‘consecrated life’ respectively instead. I do not wish to imply that we consecrated are holier or more religious than other Christians (every baptised Christian has a universal vocation to holiness, as Vatican II taught). What defines consecrated is the concrete self-dedication or consecration to the praise and service of Christ in the Church.

When I first announced my intention a few years back to enter consecrated life, I received a lot of confused looks and earnest questions from family, friends and well-wishers (some Catholic themselves!) who wanted to understand this way of life better. On and off since then, I’ve been thinking about ways or models of explaining consecrated life to people (perhaps not Christian) for whom such a way of life is outside their range of direct experience. Even lay Catholics whose vocation lies in the married life often have difficulty relating to the internal motivation and external mode of living that consecrated experience and could benefit from an explanation.

A clarification: there are significant differences between the vocation of a Catholic priest in an institute of consecrated life and that of a ‘secular’ or diocesan priest. We take vows of poverty, celibacy/chastity and obedience; diocesan clergy do not take a vow of poverty (and in some eastern Catholic disciplines, celibacy as well). While we are both motivated by the desire to give our lives in Christ’s service, members of consecrated institutes make that commitment in the context of a specific spirituality and spiritual charism (a way of living that spirituality as a gift to the Church) and also in the context of a concrete consecrated family of people who have taken similar vows. A diocesan serves the Church in a particular geographic area under the local bishop; the consecrated’s area of service can be as small as within a monastery (e.g. with a monastic institute like the Benedictines) or the whole world (e.g. with a missionary institute like the Jesuits or a contemplative institute like the Carmelites). In some ways, the consecrated called to be a priest has two distinct but related vocations – to the priesthood and to that specific consecrated institute.

I have a special liking for analogy (or models) as a pedagogic tool; after all, even Christ taught in parables! I will present three models (plus one sub-model) of consecrated life – two of them are (in my opinion) flawed and uninspiring; one I have found helpful. This is not a definitive or academic account of consecrated life – it is simply the personal reflection of one member of an apostolic institute of consecrated life. As a person of Indian origin writing in an Indian context, naturally, these models will draw largely from the Indian experience. Nevertheless, I hope you will find them helpful whether you are lay or consecrated, non-Catholic or Catholic.

The first model is that of the sanyāsi or hermit. In classical Indian thought, human life was described as the passage through four stages (or āshrama) – brahmacharya (youth), grihasthya (adult family life), vanāshrama (retired life) and sanyās (renouncing the world in search of enlightenment or perfection). One person asked me why I was entering sanyās this early in life before enjoying the other stages. This is a natural question, and completely understandable in the Indian context (the questioner was not a Christian). The origins of Christian consecrated life lie in the desert hermits of the first few centuries AD – people like St. Antony of the Desert and other Desert Fathers (and mothers!) Undoubtedly, the idea of renunciation towards perfection was an important factor in their thinking. For much of the history of consecrated life in the Church, this thinking persisted and consecrated life was seen as a higher mode of perfection than ordinary [lay] Christian life. Further, the idea of renunciation towards perfection and enlightenment is manifest in non-Christian traditions as well: Buddhist monastic life and Hindu ashrams, for instance.

Nevertheless, this model does not correspond to my experience of the call to religious life. We do not seek to renounce the world, but to embrace it. In September, whilst on holiday with my (then) fellow-novices in Wales, we had the opportunity to meet the (enclosed) Carmel nuns at Dolgellau. What surprised us was that, not only were the nuns not uninformed of world events, instead they seemed to know more of what happened in the far reaches of the globe than even we apostolic Jesuits did! St. Therése of Liseux (the Little Flower) chose the Carmelite life because she saw prayer itself as an apostolate for and in the world (the famous incident where she prays for a condemned prisoner’s conversion being a case in point). If this is true of contemplative consecrated, how far renunciation must be from the mind of those engaged in apostolic work for the Kingdom!

The second model is that of the social worker or reformer. Bl. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) and the congregation she founded, the Missionaries of Charity, have come to epitomise the conjunction of consecrated life and social work. "But why join a consecrated institute if one desires to serve the poor, the marginalised, and the oppressed? Surely one can do the same as a [married] layperson," I was asked several times. Certainly, before Vatican II, consecrated were seen as the front line of the Church’s social action – as teachers, nurses, development workers etc. But the last half-century or so has brought the realisation that the laity have no less responsibility and capability (more, according to many) in this area. A well-paid and highly trained professional can do more good for the world (financially, politically, and intellectually) in his/her position than a lone missionary in a shanty town somewhere in Central America.

This argument has much to commend it; but it is simply not why I entered consecrated life. Of course, the desire to serve people and combat social evils is an integral part of my calling as a Jesuit, but it is not my prime motivation.

The third, and most helpful model, is (paradoxically) that of a married person. Traditionally, many women’s institutes (aka congregations) celebrated their final profession of vows (i.e. when the consecrated makes a final, definitive commitment to life under the vows in that institute – usually 5-9 years after entering) analogically to a wedding. The sisters would be dressed as brides and the profession was seen as a nuptial union with Christ. Post Vatican II, almost all institutes I’ve seen have retained the practice of profession rings even if some of the bridal imagery has been toned down.

Marriage is characterised by an exclusive, mutual self-giving of two persons made explicit by the exchange of vows and gifts. Analogically, the consecrated person gives herself/himself completely to Jesus Christ who has already made a complete self-gift of himself to us in the Paschal Sacrifice; this consecration is marked by the making of vows. Different institutes, then, represent different ways of living out this union with Christ: contemplative orders represent union with Christ praying on the mountain; monastic orders represent union with Christ living with his disciples; apostolic orders represent union with Christ working and preaching among the people.

In the Indian context, the daughter-in-law (bahu in Hindi, mařumakaļ in my native Malayāļam) is expected to part from her own family and enter the household of her husband. She does not thereby completely sever her ties with her own family, but it is understood that the family of her husband is her primary kinship circle now. She becomes a daughter to her parents-in-law. In fact, I have noticed that many of my married friends refer to their parents-in-law with the same terms as their husbands ("Papa", "Mummy" etc.) Whatever one might think of the gender/power relations inherent in such a conception of marriage, I have found it helpful to draw comparisons with the commitment of the consecrated to his/her own institute, its rules and ways of life, superiors etc. Being a member of a new family transforms the prior relationships of the bride; so too does being a member of a consecrated institute for the consecrated.

In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius has an exercise where the exercitant mediates on three ways of humble service of Christ. The third way is to "desire and choose poverty with Christ poor rather than wealth; contempt with Christ laden with it rather than honours." Ultimately, I think that the commitment of the consecrated is not to a way of perfection or service or an ideal, but a person – Christ.