Stages on the Way to Becoming a Daughter of the Holy Spirit

Stage 1 - The Aspirancy Stage

This is the stage when an aspirant gets into contact with a sister of the Congregation who will welcome and help her to discern her vocation.

The aspirant will be helped:

to deepen her relationship with Jesus Christ;
to clarify her motives, which ones are the strongest and to identify those which are in keeping with a call to community in religious life;
to acquire a general basic formation and a professional formation;
if need be to re-instruct them in the basic elements of the Christian faith;
to commit themselves to a Church ministry and to undertake concrete actions at the service of others;
to become aware of the presence of the Spirit in their lives and in the world;
to introduce them in a simple way to the Congregation’s history and its charism.

Stage 2 - The Postulancy Stage

This is a time when the candidate and the congregation get to know one another better. It is a stage which helps the person in formation to discern more truly her vocation. Above all, it is important that during this period the person in formation should progress towards real interior freedom, deepen her discovery of Jesus Christ through sharing the life of a Christian community, become more sensitive to the Spirit at work in the creative forces within herself and in her environment and meet some communities of the Congregation.

Stage 3 - The Noviciate

‘Life in the Congregation begins with the novitiate. This is a very special time during which the novice is initiated into the essential elements of the apostolic religious life of the DHS, a time of more conscious apprenticeship in the following of Jesus Christ, lived in attentiveness and availability to the calls of his Spirit.
Individually and in community the novice should live an authentic human and spiritual experience, discovering apostolic prayer, the evangelical counsels, and community life in their two-fold dimension: personal discipleship of Jesus Christ, Good news for the world’ Rule of Life art 47

The noviciate lasts for two years. The Provincial may prolong it by six months.

Stage 4 - The Period of Temporary Commitment

At the time of her first profession the novice makes vows of chastity, poverty and obedience for three years. This commitment may be renewed for one, two or for three years. However, a sister who wishes to make final vows before the end of this period may ask to do so. Rule of Life art 54.3

Final Stage - Perpetual Vows

This is the stage of a lifetime on-going formation as member of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit as we fulfill our mission entrusted to us by God through the Congregation.