Vocations
When a person becomes interested in the spiritual journey and a life of prayer, it is not uncommon for him or her to consider ways in which to live this out in a more complete and integrated manner. Sometimes such a person may experience an inner attraction to a monastic contemplative life, and wonder what is involved in becoming a monk, nun or companion, and whether such a life might be for them. Our communities welcome vocational inquiries, and the following are a set of general guidelines for becoming a member of New Skete.
Perhaps the single most important characteristic for an individual considering monastic life is both the desire and willingness to seek God by embracing a life of ongoing change. Monastic life is about transformation, and it requires a spirit of flexibility and openness.
In general, candidates for our life should be between the ages of twenty-one and fifty. They should be in good health, and should have finished whatever formal education they might desire before entering the monastery. They should also like people, and be willing to work closely with a tightly-knit community of brothers and sisters. Our life is radically communal; thus a person attracted to living alone will find our life problematic.
The first step a candidate to our life should undertake is to contact the vocation director (Brother Ambrose-monks, Sister Patricia-nuns, Sister Melanie-companions) and arrange to make an initial visit. Candidates who are interested in our life need to develop a positive relationship with us through several visits. These visits are usually three days to a week in length (depending on individual circumstances), and help the candidate get to know the community and how we live. It also provides the opportunity to speak with individual members and begin the process of discerning whether New Skete is the best place to grow and mature.
Once accepted by the community, the candidate enters the community for a pre-novitiate phase that can last up to six months. During this time the candidate lives and works with the community, is assigned a mentor, and receives initial formation. At the conclusion of this period, presuming positive discernment by both candidate and community, is received as a novice (or the candidate becomes a novice). The novitiate is usually a three year trial period, in which the novice lives the monastic life with the community and learns its principles. This is a vital period of formation. At the conclusion of the novitiate, presuming the novice wishes to deepen the commitment to New Skete and the community agrees, he/she becomes a riasaphor, and assumes greater responsibilities in the community. This is a commitment of several years and concludes with monastic tonsure, when the monk/nun/companion makes life vows and becomes a professed member. By this profession, the person renounces secular life for good in order to embrace the monastic virtues of obedience, poverty, chastity, and stability: i.e., the evangelical life of work and prayer.