Officially Pre-Novices!!!

Yesterday morning, during our daily mass as a community, six of us were formally inducted into the pre-novitiate. It was a time of great joy for us, to make the formal profession of our desire to study more about the Salesian spirituality, and dedicate this upcoming year towards our spiritual growth towards Christ, and discernment of our vocations.

The pre-novitiate is a special year in formation, described as follows in our Salesian Constitutions (our rules as Salesians):

“To anyone who is thinking of becoming a Salesian, an environment and suitable conditions are offered to enable him to discern his own vocation and to mature as a man and a Christian…A period of special preparation is required immediately prior to the novitiate to deepen the candidate’s vocational choice, and verify his suitability for beginning the novitiate. This preparation is made through an experience of Salesian community and apostolic life.” (Constitution 109)

This upcoming year is sure to be filled with many graces. I myself am blessed to have lived in our house in Orange for the past two years as a candidate, and am now very eager to see what this year has in store. Aside from being able to continue our experience in community life, community prayer, apostolic work, teaching catechism and running youth centers, we also take classes in Salesian spirituality and history, as well as theology. These classes are taught by Salesians, who are living examples of Salesianity.

In addition to all of this, we are blessed to go on weekly outings (mostly on Wednesdays) as a group, many times to visit Salesian works in the province. Most recently we visited Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, NJ. We spent the day giving vocation talks in theology classes, eating lunch with the students, having a faith sharing with the students that attended the October Leadership Retreat, and shared in prayer and meal with these men and the Salesian community. Every Thursday the blog will be dedicated to a reflection on our most recent outing, or on another part of our pre-novitiate year, so BE ON THE LOOKOUT!

As we prepare to embark on this journey, we ask all of you for your prayers. We pray for you always. Know that your prayers make an impact on our discernment, and for that we are eternally grateful.

(From L-R) Lenny Carlino, Mark O'Dea, Matt Marchand,

Fr. Steve Leake, SDB (Director), Greg McClung,

Craig Spence, Stephen Eguino

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.