The prenovitiate usually lasts a year, during which there is a serious programme of human and Christian formation: self-knowledge, reviewing and learning from one’s past experiences, growing to affective and sexual maturity; a life of faith, prayer, the sacraments and catechesis. Good use is made of means such as spiritual direction, autobiography, the personal plan of life, and psychology.

As before, the programme caters to both brother- and priest-candidates, and there is a brother on the staff. Both vocations continue to be presented with the help of anecdotes and examples, and some direct encounters and experiences as well. It is also important to present the figure of the layman in the Church, because if this is not done, it becomes difficult to understand the brother, who is a consecrated layman. At the same time, the prenovices should be encouraged to keep open to either form of the Salesian vocation.

The grounding in human and Christian formation received during the prenovitiate serves as a launching-pad for the spiritual, religious and Salesian formation that follows during the novitiate.

This is the time when each novice, under the guidance of his novice-master, carries out a discernment with regard to both forms of the Salesian vocation so that, before he arrives at his first profession, he has made his specific option as brother or future priest.⁵

The postnovitiate that follows is a phase lasting at least two years for both brothers and priest-candidates. In a period characterized by intellectual formation, the newly-professed Salesian interiorizes and deepens the process of maturing in his Salesian religious life and prepares himself for practical training. He learns to integrate faith, culture and life progressively; he discovers the world of culture in which he lives and confronts it with his faith and with his vocational choice of being a Salesian consecrated person. This he achieves through “the deepening of the life of faith and of the spirit of Don Bosco, together with an adequate philosophical, pedagogical and catechetical preparation that interacts with the prevailing culture”.⁶

The Ratio spells this out in practical terms when it says that “as a result of his intellectual development, the confrere gains a clear mental framework that is consistent with his fundamental options and that gives him a solid and open-ended outlook on his own life. He becomes capable of a serious encounter with culture, the world of youth, the problems of education, and the Christian viewpoint. He develops a taste for serious intellectual work, improves his method of study, and acquires an ability to reflect, objectivity in his judgements and a discerning mind.”⁷

This is the reason why “the Salesian brother too studies [philosophy] in the manner and to the extent that is appropriate to his specific vocation”.⁸ The study of the sciences of education, which properly belongs to this period of preparation for practical training, requires a reflection on Don Bosco the educator, a deep knowledge of his preventive system and an analysis of some of his pedagogical texts. At the same time, it requires a presentation of the primary elements of present-day Salesian educational and pastoral practice so that the postnovices are trained in Salesian educational and pastoral work, and absorb the values and skills needed for such work: a love for young people, an apostolic interior life, dialogue, an open-ended outlook, a sense of responsibility, self-discipline and organization.

The postnovice’s Salesian formation is also enhanced through his study of the Salesian sources and the historical development of the Salesian Congregation from Fr. Rua right up to our times, while his formation the faith continues apace with a deeper reflection on the Word of God, and his initiation to the liturgy.

All this entails that “at provincial or inter-provincial level the brothers be offered a formation programme that is serious but also flexible and adapted to the nature of their various responsibilities as well as to their actual possibilities”.⁹

The practical problem we face in postnovitiates everywhere is that the brothers are so few that it becomes really difficult, not to say impossible, to organize a separate programme (with particular accentuations) only for them, and that is the reason why in most postnovitiates the brothers follow practically the entire formation programme together with their companions who are candidates for the priesthood. Especially when the postnovitiate is of two years’ duration, it is best for the brother postnovices to carry out the same curriculum as the cleric postnovices.

It is true that the Ratio envisages the possibility of a Salesian brother in the postnovitiate beginning or continuing “other studies of a technical, scientific or professional nature”, but adds: “without compromising the fundamental value of his basic philosophical, pedagogical, pastoral and social formation”.¹⁰ The “other studies” therefore are not an absolute, and, concretely speaking, are not possible in the light of the regular curriculum that already keeps the brothers fully occupied.

What, however, should be done before the end of the postnovitiate is that the brother discern, with the help of his Rector, the profession in which he feels called to deploy his gifts and abilities in response to the needs of the Province.

After the postnovitiate, a brother should be given the opportunity to qualify himself in the profession he has chosen – unless he has already completed his qualification before entering the Congregation. It is important that the brother already begin to experience the specificity of his vocation.

It is true that the Ratio recommends that “everything possible… be done to ensure that the studies give the brothers a competence that puts them on a par with a lay person exercising the same profession in civil society”,¹¹ but this competence is to be understood in terms of attaining a basic level or degree in a profession (which may take a couple of years or so) and not necessarily a specialization in the field (which would probably require many more years of study and would therefore be excessive at this stage of a brother’s formation).

This is a situation that calls for more reflection as consideration needs to be given to the experiences of the different Provinces, the situation and previous preparation of the brothers themselves, and the duration and modality of professional training in the various countries. This training is already a part of his professional specialization and linked with it. What is important is that the Salesian brother, who goes for his practical training, is able to have an experience of Salesian educative and pastoral action in his field of future specialization.

It would be most appropriate that in the brother’s two years of practical training he be fully involved in the profession in which he has qualified himself. It would also be helpful for him if there were a senior brother on the staff to whom he could look up and who could offer him advice when needed.

After his practical training, the brother proceeds for his two-year period of specific formation in the same way as his clerical counterpart proceeds for his four-year period of specific formation for the priesthood.

A first thing to be said about specific formation is that it is not the same as professional training. It is the completion of the brother’s basic Salesian religious formation, and is enshrined in our Constitutions which state that “in the phase which completes their initial formation following the practical training, lay Salesians must be afforded the possibility of acquiring a serious theological, Salesian and pedagogical preparation suited to their cultural level”.¹²

For what regards his intellectual formation in this period, you can see from the outline of the specific formation programme given below that the aim is to build on (not repeat) the brother’s postnovitiate formation and prepare him to meet the needs and challenges of the present day adequately:

To nourish his life on God’s Word: Scripture

To deepen his faith in God, Christ, Mary,Theology plus basics of Liturgy

the Church and her living tradition:& Church History

To face ethical issues in bioethics, sexualityMoral Theology (including a grounding

and social life: in the Church’s Social Teaching)

To be effective in his pastoral mission:Pastoral Theology (catechetics, pastoral

psychology & sociology,

missiology)

To deepen his spiritual life:Spiritual Theology (theology of conse-

crated life & of the laity)

To deepen his appreciation of the SalesianSalesian studies (Don Bosco the founder,

vocation:Salesian spirituality, Salesian

youth ministry, the vocation of

priest and brother)

To have some knowledge and skills in Human sciences (Social communication,

relation to the world of work:Basic pastoral management,

educational management,

industrial management)

In your region you have started at Manila this year a course of specific formation for the brothers of all your provinces after they finish their practical training. In keeping with the requirements of the Ratio, the brothers live as a separate group within the community, with their own formation programme (prayer, good night, Mass, conferences…) at the Seminaryo ng Don Bosco; they have a couple of staff members as their formation guides. They frequent the two-year course at the Don Bosco Center of Studies, and it is hoped that eventually other men and women religious and the laity will join the course. On completion of the course, the brothers will receive a Diploma of Theology from our Salesian University in Rome.

The brother realizes that he must continue to grow all his life – his very vocation to follow Christ more closely requires it – and the newer challenges he faces in his life and work demand his being up-to-date and ever competent. Ongoing formation therefore becomes a fact of life for him, a necessity rooted in his life and in his vocation.

Because of his close relationship with the world of work, he needs to cultivate good relationships with all and possess the powers of animation and persuasion, because it is only in this way that he can hope to change the temporal order. The young look up to him as a brother and friend who has their own good very much at heart. A deep faith maintains his constant union with God and inspires his outlook on everything. With his age and experience, he acquires wisdom and competence, and knows how to combine work with reflection. Whatever be his mission, he knows how to live it with enthusiasm and optimism because of the pastoral love that burns in his heart.

Moreover, he knows that he must be competent in the service he has to render and up-to-date in his educational and pastoral methodology; above all, he needs to advance continually in his spiritual life, particularly in that of a consecrated lay Salesian.

Constantly growing to maturity – that is the challenge he takes up every day, drawing on the resources for his own renewal and advancement available in the daily life of his community, and also making use of the opportunities afforded him by his community and the province.

Many provinces conduct the so-called “quinquennium” for their priests and brothers in the first five years after their priestly ordination or perpetual profession. Through periodical meetings, help is offered to continue the spiritual effort made during initial formation and opportunities are afforded for a sharing of experiences and reflections on their life and work.

* * *

In conclusion: The Salesian brother’s vocation is a special gift of God to the Salesian Congregation through Don Bosco. In this “hour of the laity”, its lay dimension aligns it very closely with young people everywhere and with the People of God, highlighting its beauty and relevance. But, for this richness to emerge, there is need of a high-quality formation, in much the same way as a diamond needs a whole process of cutting and polishing if it is to manifest itself in all its splendour.

This is the challenge facing us today, and it calls for the concerted endeavours of all of us and the assistance of God’s wisdom and grace.