THE YEAR OF ASPIRANCY Helpful Formation Resources for Aspirants

[graciandelamadrededios]

by Mother Therese and Sr. Joseph Maria of the Carmel of Rochester, with a special word of thanks to Mother John and Sr. Celine of the Carmel of Loretto for the resources they suggested, as well as for their very helpful insights!

With the Instruction, Cor Orans, the Church has put in place many new things for the contemplative life of nuns. At first sight these “new things” can seem rather daunting because what is new may also be perceived as foreign to our experience. There is a great temptation to sigh over it (at best) or reject it outright as impossible (at worst)! One of these “new things” is the year of Aspirancy. Of course, several Institutes of active consecrated life have an Aspirancy as part of their formation program, so in this sense it is not something foreign to Religious life. For us in Carmel, however, this year is a new addition to the traditional three formative periods of postulancy, novitiate and juniorate.

Several numbers of Cor Orans nn. 262 – 268 describe this new reality. The very first paragraph situates the mind of the Church concerning the Aspirancy:

“The aspirancy, considered as a first knowledge of the monastery by the candidate and the candidate by the monastery community, involves a series of contacts and times of community experience, even prolonged. This knowledge will also be useful to fill any gaps on the path of human and religious formation at this stage.” (CO n. 262)

There are some noteworthy points that are particularly impressive in this entire section on the Aspirancy.

First, the year of Aspirancy is the first of the nine years of formation; it is not a period to just “kill-time” before an aspirant can enter the Monastery as a postulant. The Church expects the nuns to accompany the aspirant and to provide formation by way of preparation to formal entrance. This calls for each Monastery to put together some kind of program for aspirants.

Second, the Church highlights certain aspects of formation upon which to focus with the aspirant: vocational discernment, faith-formation and human development; of this latter aspect the Instruction states that “particular attention must be paid to the human dimension.” (cf. CO n. 266)

Third, the Aspirancy offers time to the candidate to personally verify the authenticity of her call to the contemplative life and to grow in her understanding of the cost of the sequela Christi.

Fourth, the new norms for papal enclosure (cf. n. 203) in the Instruction make allowance for entry into the cloister “to their aspirants”, “subject to the permission of the Superior” (i.e. the Bishop or Provincial). This new norm excludes the additional point from the previous legislation of Verbi Sponsa, “…should this be provided for in particular law.” Many Carmels that follow the 1991 Constitutions have long had in place an “Observership” or “Live-in” permitting a candidate to experience Carmelite life from the inside “for a period of time not exceeding three months”. Allowing an aspirant entry into the enclosure can be very beneficial for discernment on two levels: On the one hand, it would help the aspirant to know through experience what life is like within the Monastery, as well as to acquire a better knowledge of the Community itself; some who have had this preliminary step have stated quite definitely that they would not have been ready for the more official step of Postulancy without the live-in Observership. On the other hand, it gives the Community, especially those responsible for formation, the opportunity to assess the vocation of the aspirant within the context of life in the Monastery and to make a better judgement if she has the qualities for our life in Carmel. When used correctly, the Observership can be a tremendous help for discernment of vocations.

The above points presuppose that a Community has clearly interpreted the meaning of a first knowledge of the monastery by the candidate and the candidate by the monastery community as stated in number 262 of CO. It seems prudent that a candidate to our life would become an aspirant only after some experience in getting to know the Community, that she is intent on pursuing a vocation to Carmel (i.e. she is not still “shopping around” for contemplative Orders), and that she manifests a desire to become a member of a particular Carmelite Community. Without this “purposefulness” on the part of the candidate, much time, energy and resources could be fruitlessly expended by a Community.

Since the Aspirancy will take place mostly outside of the Monastery it may seem somewhat difficult to direct and regulate. However, there are several practices that can be put into place to deal with this new challenge. These include: regular and periodic contacts through email and phone calls. For example, it is a lovely idea to send aspirants a little greeting on Carmelite feast days as an informal “tidbit” of Carmelite formation. Through these means, both the formator and aspirant are able to develop an open, confident and formative communication. Another possible and effective means of communication could be the use of video-conferencing websites, such as ZOOM. Here in our Carmel of Rochester, we have tried this method with our two aspirants. Together with them, we are listening to the conferences on Discernment of Spirits by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV (see the listed resources below) and discussing it with them. The Church encourages these means of communication for “reasons of formation”. (cf. CO n. 170)

In an effort to provide those who have begun their Aspirancy with the necessary “human and religious formation” as well as formation on discernment, the following is offered as possible sources to draw upon.