
The search for religious life with the Sisters of St.Anne - Chennai passes through different stages as it is a growing into religious life. These stages diversify in their length of time. The following are the stages we follow in forming the young girls into religious in our Congregation:
We, the Sisters of St.Anne - Chennai who listened to the voice of God as prophet Jeremiah who stood up and said in loud voice, “for surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then, when you call upon me and come and pray to me I will hear you, when you search for me, you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart”(Jer 29:11 - 13), have a mandate to invite followers for Christ.
Vocation is a gift given to us by God to be united with Him personally and bear witness to Him. Christ calls others also through us, hence it is our responsibility both as individuals and as communities to foster vocation to enable the youth to work for the Kingdom of God through our Congregation.
Aspirancy is known as a time of searching. The aspirant and the community come to know each other and together discern the aspirant’s call to Annites’ way of life. The Mistress assists the aspirant in her growth towards spiritual, social and emotional maturity. The aspirant will grow in her relationship with Christ through personal prayer, spiritual reading and discernment.
A woman applying for the aspirancy should be at least 18 years of age and normally not over the age of 30. She will have completed her secondary education with adequate points to enable her to later pursue a professional education. The period of aspirancy is one year.
This period is a time of discernment intended to help young women make their personal decision regarding God’s plan for them. The purpose of this stage is to provide young women who show signs of having a religious vocation with the necessary formation as they prepare to follow Christ with a generous spirit and purity of intention.
During this stage of formation, they are taught the value of silence, study, work, rest, etc., seeing to it that they observe these with an upright intention and exactness and considering these values to be advantageous as a disciplinary, formative and educational process for their future postulancy. Emphasis is given to maximizing the potential of all their qualities, attitudes and human and Christian capacities that allow them to discover their vocation and respond appropriately.
The formation program during Aspirancy seeks to:
Madavaram
Chennai - 600 060
Tamilnadu
India
Our candidates are trained in our formation house to have pleasant personality with character in order to bring forth committed religious to work in the vineyard of God. The spirit of our Foundress Servant of God Mother Thatipathri Gnanamma, the spirituality of our Congregation, the shepherding leadership, the systematic syllabus and the methodical training bring about a real change in their lives that they will certainly bloom into beautiful and integrated persons in our mother Congregation
The aim of pre- novitiate is to make the pre - novices fully aware of what God’s call really means in one’s life.
As we feel that the formation involves the whole person, we programme a holistic formation concentrating on
St.Anne’s Pre - Novitiate
Thambuchettypalaya
Krishnarajapuram Post
Bangalore - 560036
Karnataka, India
Novitiate holds an indispensable place in formation and in the entire religious life, into which it is to be an authentic initiation, an encounter between the love of the Lord who has called and the love of the disciple who responds with the gift of herself which embraces all the dimensions of her life. The two years of a novice’s life is spent in the novitiate programme. During the novitiate the novices experience the manner of life of our Congregation and form their minds and hearts in its spirit.
The chief aim of the novitiate is to help the novices to have a greater understanding of their divine vocation as enunciated by the Charism, Constitutions and Statutes of our Congregation. The aims of the novitiate are clearly defined by the Canon Law and our Constitutions. The novitiate aims at the formation of the candidate to be capable of real commitment to the following of Jesus for the service of His Kingdom. This implies:
The four fundamental goals during this time are
It is a time of Sabbath
In our novitiate, we initiate the first year novices gradually into the essential and primary requirements of the religious life through prayer, reflection and instruction. The first year novice’s time is devoted principally to deepening her spiritual life.
Only through radical commitment to the poor and the oppressed can one claim to follow the Lord more freely as He presents Himself in the Gospel. This model has taken a new dimension in the last few years. Radical commitment to the poor and the oppressed is seen as not merely liberating them from economic bondage, but establishing right relationship with them. It is not doing things for others. It is becoming a sister to the other. This needs a radical change in attitude to people especially the poor. This attitude can come about only if the formee is inserted in the midst of the poor, share their struggles, hopes and begin to have a heart for them. This is possible only when the heart of the person is centred on God. Formees need to be helped to realize that they are not merely social reformers rather they are transformers of society based on the Gospel values. Their concern needs to be people and not mere achievements.
(ii). Experience - reflection modeIt is experience that forms, not theory. The whole method of formation is in the experience-reflection mode. Hence various levels of experience are organized and reflection and assimilation follow. We give emphasis to experience than with theory.
(iii). Clarity about charism livingIt is experience that forms, not theory. The whole method of formation is in the experience-reflection mode. Hence various levels of experience are organized and reflection and assimilation follow. We give emphasis to experience than with theory.
(iv). Learning to be contemplative with apostolic loveThe second year novitiate stage continues to prepare the novice to combine contemplation with apostolic love in a formation that is spiritual, communal, intellectual and apostolic. The novices are guided through a more intense study of the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience in preparation for their first profession.
Madavaram
Chennai - 600 060
Tamilnadu
India
The religious is not just called and consecrated once. The call of God and the consecration by Him continues throughout life, growing and developing in mysterious ways. All through her life the religious is being formed so that she becomes more like Christ; sharing His mind, His way of loving and serving and His total gift of Himself to His Father.
This period of six years lasts from the conclusion of the Novitiate until Perpetual Vows. During this time, the junior sisters renew their temporary vows every year. The purpose of this stage is to continue, deepen and complete the formation of the Novitiate so as to help them mature in every respect.
Each religious community helps each junior to grow in knowledge of God and relationship with Him through prayer. The support of the community helps them to stay faithful to the vows and consecration to God. God’s grace is absolutely essential for the living of the consecrated life.
In our Congregation, we have different levels and varied designs of formation. The most crucial part of that formative structure is tertianship programme. For it is in this phase, we get a band of mature individuals whom the Congregation accepts as professed members committed to the mission of St.Anne’s. By this, we realize a deep sense of ownership on the part of the Congregation and commitment on the part of the formee.
The programme of the Tertianship is structured on this perspective in order to form mature, able, capable, and mission - able sisters of St.Anne - Madras. Hence, the disposition of the tertian is one of openness, total surrender, availability and magnanimity. Our Congregation wants every tertian to recall the spirit of our Mother Foundress and renew her commitment to this Congregation. This would sufficiently help the tertians to rededicate themselves to the service of God.