What Is It Like To Be An Aspirant?

[Feankie]

A live-in? How exciting Please do keep us posted...and if you have any specific prayer requests, please post them as well.

[Ale.SOLT]

What is [i]Chapter of Faults[/i]?

[Strictlyinkblot]

[quote name='Ale.SOLT' timestamp='1320941856' post='2334323']
What is [i]Chapter of Faults[/i]?
[/quote]

A Chapter of Faults is where nuns confess ways in which they've broken the rules of their order, not sins. In some religious orders they have a Zelatrix (I think that's right) who's job is to accuse individual nuns of faults within the chapter of faults. After that they're not meant to be spoken about. An example would be if you broke a dish or whistled during the Grand Silence. Most places have got rid of it but some still have it.

Hope I haven't got anything wrong. Someone please correct me if I have.

[das8949]

I happened to be on the Salesian community website and found their policy for aspirantcy/postulancy and novitiate - they spend the first 1 yr and 10 mos in CA and then NJ for Noviatiate



[b] Steps in the Formation Process[/b]

[b]Aspirancy[/b] is a time of discernment within the community. Aspirants live in community and participate in the life of a Salesian Sister while going to intercongregational formation programs and deepening their spiritual life. Aspirancy lasts 1 year.[left][b]Postulancy[/b] last 10 months. Postulants continue to deepen their spiritual life and take classes on Salesian history, religious life, church history and theology. They work hand in hand with the Salesian Sisters in their ministry.[/left][left]Postulants:[/left]
continue their discernment of Salesian religious lif
deepen their spiritual life
become involved in the ministry of the community
participate in intercongregational formation programs
are introduced to the life of the founders, St. John Bosco and St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello[left]Novitiates:[/left]
study the vows and how they are lived in the Salesian life
attend regular meetings with the director of novices
study the history of the Congregation
live in a novitiate community and experience community living
experience working in the mission during the second year




After the completion of novitiate one professes [b]temporary vows[/b], which are renewed during a period of 6 to 9 years, ending in [b]final profession[/b] wherein one becomes a permant member of the Salesian religious family. During the time of temporary vows the sister actively participates in the work of the province and continues her religious formation and discernment. After final profession ongoing formation aids the sisters fostering their own vocation and making their ministry fruitful.


[font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"][mod]edited for personal information[/mod][/font]

Edited November 13, 2011 by Lil Red

[beatitude]

[quote name='Strictlyinkblot' timestamp='1320950559' post='2334350']

A Chapter of Faults is where nuns confess ways in which they've broken the rules of their order, not sins. In some religious orders they have a Zelatrix (I think that's right) who's job is to accuse individual nuns of faults within the chapter of faults. After that they're not meant to be spoken about. An example would be if you broke a dish or whistled during the Grand Silence. Most places have got rid of it but some still have it.

Hope I haven't got anything wrong. Someone please correct me if I have.
[/quote]

Isn't a zelatrix an assistant novice mistress? I have never heard of this custom before, and it seems a bit unmonastic, as another nun can't reliably judge her sisters' intentions.

[faithcecelia]

[quote name='beatitude' timestamp='1321003830' post='2334806']

Isn't a zelatrix an assistant novice mistress? I have never heard of this custom before, and it seems a bit unmonastic, as another nun can't reliably judge her sisters' intentions.
[/quote]

Thankfully its very, very uncommon these days. Sometimes anyone was able to accuse anyone else of a fault, publicly, before the whole community. The one at 'fault' would then have a punishment. Today there is a realisation that humility and humiliation are not the same thing and faults are dealt with privately if necessary.

[EWIE]

[size=5][color=#800000][b]When I was in an active order, Chapter of Faults was a huge event. The curtains on the windows were drawn shut and the chairs arranged in two straight lines down each side of the room. The bell was rung, we entered the dimly lit room, The NM clapped her hand...once....and we all sat down. Mother began with a small prayer and then the battle began.....NOT TO GIGGLE![/b][/color][/size]
[size=5][color=#800000][b]Giggling is not an uncommon result of the mixture of teen age girls and really bad nerves. Plus it is contagious and nearly impossible to contain. By the time things began to quiet down, the bell would ring for the next "duty". Of course this was only the first year novices. Second year novices would never, ever giggle.[/b][/color][/size]

[Strictlyinkblot]

[quote name='beatitude' timestamp='1321003830' post='2334806']

Isn't a zelatrix an assistant novice mistress? I have never heard of this custom before, and it seems a bit unmonastic, as another nun can't reliably judge her sisters' intentions.
[/quote]

Apparently it was a Carmelite custom. I don't know if the Zelatrix had to do it in other orders. I've read about it in two or three old books

[Strictlyinkblot]

[quote name='EWIE' timestamp='1321017493' post='2334860']
[size=5][color=#800000][b]When I was in an active order, Chapter of Faults was a huge event. The curtains on the windows were drawn shut and the chairs arranged in two straight lines down each side of the room. The bell was rung, we entered the dimly lit room, The NM clapped her hand...once....and we all sat down. Mother began with a small prayer and then the battle began.....NOT TO GIGGLE![/b][/color][/size]
[size=5][color=#800000][b]Giggling is not an uncommon result of the mixture of teen age girls and really bad nerves. Plus it is contagious and nearly impossible to contain. By the time things began to quiet down, the bell would ring for the next "duty". Of course this was only the first year novices. Second year novices would never, ever giggle.[/b][/color][/size]
[/quote]

Yes, I could imagine that could be tough. I read in one book 'My Beloved' that a novice accused herself of smashing her skull on the floor. What she meant was the little skull they all kept in their bedrooms. Another was a elderly nun who accused herself of 'breaking our false teeth'. I don't think I'd survive from the giggles

Edited November 11, 2011 by Strictlyinkblot

[celticmist]

 

 

Hi long do you remain an aspirant for? I know somebody in my neighbourhood and she has been an aspirant now coming up on two years and I am wondering why it is taking at so long for at to decide?

[Lea]

17 hours ago, celticmist said:

 

 

Hi long do you remain an aspirant for? I know somebody in my neighbourhood and she has been an aspirant now coming up on two years and I am wondering why it is taking at so long for at to decide?

At least in some communities one is only allowed to enter after finishing an education or ones last job.

E.g. a friend of mine is a junior in college and entered at the end of last year. She'll not be able to move in with the community and formally start formation until she graduates, while someone she started aspirancy with who was teaching before just had to finish the school year, then quit her job and moved into the convent.  

[gloriana35]

I dearly hope that Chapter of Faults no longer exists. I did not ever witness the sort of penances one sees in "The Nun's Story" - though a friend of mine, who was with the Good Shepherd nuns, did. Chapter was only for mentioning external violations of the Rule - not sins, not thoughts. (Much as liked the Australian mini-series "Brides of Christ," and believe it captured much truth, the novice who calls out in Chapter "I wished you were dead" is unrealistic. That in the film "Novitiate" is odder still.) In the Franciscan tradition, others do not accuse their Sisters of faults - one only spoke of one's self.

One of the problems with Chapter was that it was too focused on example. If someone admitted to walking quickly, addressing a Sister without her proper title (even if both of them were 18... I'm glad the 'titles' rubbish seems largely passe), breaking a dish (thereby violating poverty...), coming late to prayers - the 'accusing one's self' was more based on setting a bad example for others than on correcting faults. Based on the nature of the person, the sorts who loved attention and being 'heroines' could get an idea of being more important to others than they were - and less concerned with whether they perhaps mistreated others than with whether the others lost the exalted opinion of them which was assumed. (... I'm thinking of a few I knew... one seemed to be seeking to imitate the teacher/superior in The Song of Bernadette.) 

Edited February 3, 2022 by gloriana35
adding a reference to OSF

[Nunsuch]

Don't get me started on "Novitiate," @gloriana35! I wanted to walk out, but I was reviewing it for a local periodical. Horrible film--full of factual and interpretive errors. 

In some communities, what used to be called "postulants" are now called "candidates," or even aspirants. In others, an "aspirant" is someone thinking about applying to the community, but not officially accepted (that can go on for some time). In others, it is a formal part of the formation process.

To know what it means to be an aspirant, then, one would really have to ask a particular community. There are few generalizations (and some communities don't have them at all).

[gloriana35]

3 hours ago, Nunsuch said:

Don't get me started on "Novitiate," @gloriana35! I wanted to walk out, but I was reviewing it for a local periodical. Horrible film--full of factual and interpretive errors. 

:D It was beyond bizarre. Especially with the two main characters, there were times that I was wondering, since they were shown in situations which could not possibly happen, 'is this supposed to be intense emotion expressed in imagination, or are they psychotic and having hallucinations?"

[Isabella]

"Novitiate" could have been very good - if they knew the first thing about religious life and contemplative versus active ministry.  It could have been an interesting story - a young girl entering in a time of change when the superior holds

onto the old ways but, of course, it ended up nonsensical and obscene

[gloriana35]

I must need a trip to Specsavers... though I've been on this forum for awhile, I do not always notice that some threads were resurrected after 11 years. This is just a bit of a thought from one who remembers the 'old days.'  (I was a 'late vocation', by the standards of the time - most of this does not apply to me.)

It still is very true that one must check the requirements of a particular community. Terminology varies - and some of it did, even years back. (It has been many years since anyone I knew personally entered religious life.) Most communities used the term 'postulant,' though some said 'candidate' to mean the same thing - where, in other communities, a 'candidate' was someone in the process of application. It was unusual for those who were old enough to enter convents to have to live with the communities before they could apply or enter postulancy.

I don't know if this is done today, but it used to be possible (only in some communities - I believe the Salesians among them) for those who weren't old enough to be postulants to be 'aspirants'. They lived with the community, had the same schedule and rules as postulants, and usually wore postulant garb - and they were given secondary education. I believe one could not enter novitiate, according to canon law, until age 16, but I've known both friars and Sisters who were aspirants at as young an age as 12. Not all communities which had such programmes called the youngest 'aspirants' - I recall hearing such terms as 'pre-postulant.'  Some aspirancies for the very young were called 'juniorates,' though, in other communities, the 'juniorate' referred to Sisters who had made first vows. (Even that category was confusing! The period of first vows was called 'scholasticate' by Dominicans, and I believe the Carmel called those in first vows novices.)

[Nunsuch]

@gloriana35, most high school aspirancies ended around the time of Vatican II (along with high school seminaries for teens considering the secular priesthood). It was believed that these teenagers were too young and immature to make responsible decisions. Also, they were very expensive to operate! 

Meanwhile, "Juniorate" became the sort of official term for sisters in temporary vows who were still in school and not out in the apostolate. This change began in the 1950s, at least in much of the US, with the development of the Sister Formation Movement.

[NadaTeTurbe]

On 2/4/2022 at 7:58 PM, Nunsuch said:

@gloriana35, most high school aspirancies ended around the time of Vatican II (along with high school seminaries for teens considering the secular priesthood). It was believed that these teenagers were too young and immature to make responsible decisions. Also, they were very expensive to operate!

In Europe/North America ! I know of a good number of program like this in Sénégal, Côte d'Ivoire, etc... on the African continent.

[Nunsuch]

2 hours ago, NadaTeTurbe said:

In Europe/North America ! I know of a good number of program like this in Sénégal, Côte d'Ivoire, etc... on the African continent.

Yes--I should have qualified what I said as applying to the West (Europe, North America, etc.).

[GraceUk]

I remember in my My Beloved  where the skull present in the cell was mentioned. One postulant or novice didn't like it and was encouraged to pat   it on the head to get her used to it.  I wouldn't have liked this either. Hope the skull thing has been abolished. Anyone know?

As regards penances I read that poor Clares have never accused each other in the Chapter of Faults. I agree with this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by GraceUk
Typing errors