The Novitiate year begins in Tlalpizáhuac, State of Mexico. The novices came from the units of Mexico, Denver, Extra-Patria, Baltimore, and Canada.
This year is the third group to live this experience. For this cycle, they have five novices from the Provinces of Denver, Baltimore, and Mexico: Dang Nguyen, Son Lai, Andrew Tran-Chung, Efrain Bergsai, and Cody Hill. The novice master is Fr. Javier Moran, and the associates are Fr. Matthew Hallman and Br. Tito Cartagena.
The novitiate is a period that congregations and religious orders put as immediate preparation before the temporary profession. It is usually between one or two years, depending on the constitutions of each community. It is the period in which a candidate, following the path of religious life, acquires foundations that will sustain his commitment. After this period, the religious profession is made. It also constitutes a time for the person aspiring to religious life to know the congregation well and also that, with the help of his novice master, he can freely decide to take religious vows or choose another path.
The formation of the Redemptorist Novitiate of North America is in English, although some activities, such as the eucharist with the people, are in Spanish.
“A key experience in the Training Process is the Novitiate Year. As it is written in the Ratio for the Formation of our General Government, “The novice, with whom life begins in the institute, is ordered to this, that the novices better recognize their divine vocation and on which it is, moreover, proprietary of the institute, to experience the way of life from the institute, to be formed in the mind and in the heart by their spirit, and to be tested their intention and suitability. ” (#112)
