 Places
where religious and priestly vocations can mature
On this page we will present
a series of articles on the itinerary of formation followed
by our young Conventual Franciscan friars. We will begin
at the Postulate House in Brescia.
There, for some years now, a
small group is journeying towards their vocation at
the small friary which dates back to the twelve-hundreds.
It is comprised of young men who are asking themselves
what God's will for them might be.
They have glimpsed an answer to their questions in
Francis of Assisi. At the moment they are living a
period of discernment together with the friars at this community.
This journey towards a vocation
is called the "Postulate". It is a period of
formation before beginning the "Novitiate". It is
characterized by two steps:
- the first step is dedicated
to discernment of God's will and to the beginnings of the
Franciscan vocation, a mutual getting to know one another
for the friars of the community and those aspiring to religious
life;
- the second step is dedicated
to preparing for the novitiate.
The postulate usually lasts
two years. It is a time of grace during which the
candidate for religious life is helped to grow in his personal
relationship with God and with his brothers through communal
and personal prayer, an open and sincere dialogues with his
educators, as well as through communal life, the experience
of manual labour, etc. It is a time for conversion of the
heart and for growing to trust in God's providence and
abandon oneself to it, following the example of St. Francis.
It is also a time of cultural formation: in light of
religious life which is about to be undertaken, in order to
understand the hope to which we are all called (cfr 1Pt 3,
15).
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