“The ideal of consecrated life is to be conformed to the Lord Jesus and to His total self-sacrifice. All formation should aim above all at achieving this goal”. Saint John Paul II, Vita consecrata, 65.
The primary aim of formation is to imitate and become like Christ.
The unique feature of the spirituality of the Congregation is given by the Founder – Blessed Father Ignacy Kłopotowski. This faithful son of the Church set as the goal of his own action, as well as that of the congregation, responding to the most urgent needs of the Church. He himself set an example by his extremely zealous and pioneering commitment to the materially and spiritually poor and to Catholic press which, in the face of the enormous deluge of the godless press, was once and is now an urgent need of the Church.
“Sentire cum Ecclesia” – to feel with the Church is the legacy that Blessed Kłopotowski left to his spiritual daughters. It finds expression in the formation for the apostolate in the congregation.
Another characteristic feature of the formation is Benedictine spirituality due to their adoption of the Rule of St. Benedict. The Benedictine “pray and work” undertaken in a monastic community becomes an important formative tool. This is realised through the ordinary daily life of the sisters where everything finds its source and ultimately tends towards the prayer. In this way, we realise the congregation’s motto: “Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus” – that in everything God may be glorified.
STAGES OF FORMATION
The congregation forms the sisters through successive stages:
-
Beginning with initial formation (candidature, postulancy),
- through the two-year novitiate (which is the main period of spiritual formation),
- then a five-year period of juniorate which is a temporary profession made for one year and renewed for another five years.
- The final stage is permanent formation which lasts until the consecrated person’s death, as she makes a lifelong effort to cooperate with the grace that creates in us a new person.
Religious formation aims at:
- human and Christian development of the person
- development of the prayer life
- life immersed in the Liturgy
- life in community
- fruitful undertaking of apostolic work.
All this effort must be imbued with a spirit of faith and animated by a strong bond with Jesus Christ, leading to a conscious giving of one’s life (with strengths and limitations) to the service of the Church in this particular religious family.
