You must live your
whole life according to the Christ you have received, Jesus the
Lord; you must be rooted in him and built on him
- (Col. 2: 6-7)
Vocation/Formation
A sister who enters the Congregation is called by Christ's love and seeks to answer that call. She tries to live by this love within a community, a sign of god's mercy and faithfulness, together with other sisters who have discovered the source of their strength and the meaning and goal of all their lives in Jesus Christ. Her choice of Dominican life corresponds to the sister's aptitudes and her personal attraction to the service of the faith; it invites her to journey with an entire people, summoning her to discipleship.POSTULATE
The postulate is the period of mutual acquaintance and discovery. During this first experience, a postulant deepens her faith and begins growing into common life; the sisters help her discern the significance of her vocation.NOVITIATE
The novitiate is the most intense period of initiation and probation, it lays the foundations of Dominican religious life. It requires a certain retreat so that it may elicit a deepening attachment to the person of Jesus Christ from the novice. The directress of novices explains the Order's history and its spirit, and the history of the Congregation to her.JUNIORATE
Temporary profession marks a novice's first public commitment within the church as a follower of Christ, according to the charism of Dominic. It reciprocally binds her and the Congregation for a specified period. Through the ministry of the Church, it consecrates her to God, granting her all the rights and duties defined in the constitutions.(Constututions, # 43, 46, 48 and 51)