Formation

29. Any help which the Federation may offer in the field of formation is subsidiary. (⁸⁹) The Federations should draw up a ratio formationis, containing the practical norms to be applied, (⁹⁰) which will then become part of the particular law of a monastery, after submission to the Holy See, with the prior consent of the conventual Chapter of the monastery in question.

Each monastery has of right its own Novitiate. However, while avoiding any centralization, the Federation can establish a Novitiate and other educational courses for those monasteries which, because of a lack of candidates or teachers, or for other reasons, are not self-sufficient and freely wish to avail themselves of the same; these formation programmes are to be determined in the ratio formationis and should be held in a monastery, ordinarily of the Federation, (⁹¹) with respect for the fundamental demands of the cloistered contemplative life.

Federations should aim to make Communities gradually self-sufficient, especially in regard to continuing formation, which involves a spiritual and intellectual commitment which is not intermittent but continuous, and which favours the growth in monasteries of a contemplative culture and outlook.