What Is It Like To Be An Aspirant?

[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

[Nunsuch]

1 hour ago, GraceUk said:

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The skull thing certainly doesn't apply in all Carmels anymore (it may in some very traditional ones). In the two Carmels where I've visited (not as a candidate, but as a friend who entered the "enclosure"), there were no skulls.