Dhyan Ashram (Novitiate)

The novices for the Calcutta province were sent to Sitagarha, Patna etc till the novitiate was started at Dhyan Ashram in 1975. Novitiate is the second stage of Jesuit formation (after a year of pre-Novitiate).

The novitiate marks the beginning of formal formation in the Society of Jesus, offering men discerning a Jesuit vocation the opportunity to get on a journey of profound spiritual and apostolic growth. Over two years, this foundational stage helps novices deepen their relationship with Christ, clarify their calling, and immerse themselves in the principles of Ignatian spirituality. At the end of the Novitiate the chosen ones make their first simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

This time as a novice, allows one to test first-hand the desire and choice that led him to enter the Society of Jesus. In the novitiate, the novices are helped to acquire habits of discipline about prayer, examen, community, work, and free time. What introduces each one most profoundly into the Jesuit way of living the Gospel is the experience of the Spiritual Exercises. The novices make The Thirty-Day Retreat, i.e., the full Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. First 6 months are primarily a preparation for the making of the Spiritual Exercises – a testing of one’s docility for direction, one’s openness, generosity, and readiness to look for and respond to the guidance and grace of God.