In our rather fluid way, our process always involves a period of informal “getting to know one another,” as there are several questions which the senior members of the Order may wish to ask you and questions you may wish to ask them. I remember being asked two chief questions from the time I was a Pre-Candidate. The first was what my views on the requirement of fidelity to the Order and to the Church were. The second was what my view of the Rule and my ability to live by it were.
Next, we will need to meet. We technically need to meet 3 times prior to your being admitted as a postulant (which we call a “Brother at arms”). You will need to travel at least a little to be part of our fraternal life…
At that point, you will be ready to make your initial profession into the Order as a Brother-at-Arms. This involves a special ritual of the Order, which has been canonically approved by Mgr. Michon. Essentially, after providing us some basic paper work (copies of Certs. of baptism, confirmation, marriage), you will be asked to make the Consecration to Mary of St-Louis-Marie Grignion-de-Montfort during a mass, and then sign a handwritten pledge.
This is when the real work begins. An intensive program of reading, study and meditation (on the Lives of Saints, Social Doctrine of the Church, Apologetics, Metaphysics, key Encyclicals, etc.), where the prefect of the Order or your sponsor (under his guidance) assigns readings to you and you essentially provide us with a series of (perhaps a dozen) short essays. The process also includes a thesis on an assigned topic. This will be an important part of the process. It will be a way for you to continue to participate in frequent dialogue and sharing of ideas with the rest of us, through a structured training program and exchange of correspondence.
At some point near the end of the above training program, you will be invited to participate in a second ritual of the Order (again, canonically approved by Mgr. Michon), where you will become a Squire of the Order. The Master (or perhaps a Representative of the Order in North America or the Preceptor of the Order in Great-Britain) will then assign certain tasks to you. At some point, once you have proven your ability to contribute to the Order’s charism through works “in the City” (or, if you will, in the “Earthly Jerusalem”), you will be invited to be dubbed as a knight. This process can take anywhere between one and several years. Note that I have been saying that “you will” go through these various steps. None of this should be taken for granted. Everything depends upon your level of commitment and consistency.
The entire process, as you can see, takes several years. In theory, it can be done in five. In practice, it usually takes more. Judging by our track record, 7 years may be more realistic in countries where the Order is less well established, and where the ability to share in the Order’s communal life is more limited than it is in say France or Germany.
I hope this gives you some sense for what the process is and that you do not find this all too discouraging. I have laid it all out because you “need to know the plan.” You can now look at the end-to-end “process lifecycle” and assess its potential risks and rewards.
Jean-Paul Gauthier
Militia Sanctae Mariae
Magisterial Delegate to the United States
2011
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