Qualities and Formation Stages

The qualities required of candidates are:

1. A desire to enter the religious life, which is based on a supernatural motive, for example, to save her soul, to make Christ known in the world

2. Endowment with qualities of mind, body and personality required to live and work in a happy, well adjusted way in the Congregation. Generally, these qualities are good health, sufficient strength and intelligence to carry on the work of the Congregation; and psychological balance needed to live in a religious community. There should also be evidence that she is a person of good moral character.

Admission to the Pre-Novitiate Programme:
Each candidate, before admission to this programme, shall be interviewed by the Admissions Board, whose members are: Vocation Directress, Pre-Novitiate Directress and Directress of Novices.

Two months before this interview, the candidates shall have presented the following documents, to be examined by the Admissions Board before the actual interview:

a) Baptismal and Confirmation certificates.
b) Certificate of health recently obtained from a Medical Doctor.
c) A recent testimonial of good moral character from the Parish Priest.
d) Certificate of birth, or sworn declaration of age.
e) If the candidate has been a pre-novitiate candidate, novice or professed religious in another Congregation, testimonial letter from the Superior General of that Congregation.
f) Other testimonials

Pre-Novitiate - One Year:
Candidates for admission into the pre-novitiate programme shall have three days Retreat before reception. This ceremony is private and within the Community. The candidates for the Pre-Novitiate programme will spend this period in a house of the Congregation designated for this purpose under the care and competence of the Pre-Novitiate Programme directress.

The aims of the Pre-Novitiate Programme in the Congregation are:
n To make sure that the candidate has a sound understanding of Christian doctrine and morality.
n To give the candidate and experience of living a more intense kind of Christian life within a Christian Community.
n To provide the candidate with a clear knowledge of what the religious life means.
n To afford the candidate basic instruction in prayer and the Liturgy.
n To teach the candidate how the apostolate fits into the religious life.
n To help the candidate make the transition from lay on religious life.
n To give the candidate and the Congregation a chance to discover whether she has a vocation as a

   Sister of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.

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