The Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo Northern Province,
Novitiate
Premanjali, Byrathi, Bangalore was the centre for all three Provinces for the formation of novices from Jan 24, 1987. Prior to that the novitiate was at St.Thomas town, Bangalore. • The number of novices became too many to be accommodated in Premanjali. Hence in 2005 the second year novices were housed in Adrien Nivas at Geddalahalli, Bangalore. The lack of space in Adrien Nivas again made it necessary to shift the second year novices from there to ‘Arpana’-Tirupattur in 2007
Sr. Virgy who was the directress of the second year novices at Adrien Nivas from June 2006 returned to Tirupattur in May 2007 along with the novices. An assistant from north Province was appointed to help her in executing the formation programme. In the year 2010 a new discernment was made regarding the formation of novices. After and her council decided to have two Novitiates – one at Premanjali, Bangalore with Sr. Josita Manavalan as the Directress of novices assisted by Sr.Wilma and Sr. Pramila D’Almeida and the other at ‘Arpana’, Tirupattur with Sr. Elizabeth Chacko as the Directress of Novices assisted by Sr. Victoria Arul Rani and Sr. Ratnakumari.
In these two novitiates, novices of both the years (1st and 2nd years) are under training. The grouping of the novices into two is done by dividing the Postulants of each Province in to two groups through casting lots.
In the year 2010- 2011 the novices in ‘Arpana’ comprised only of the first years as that was the year, this system of grouping had begun. These mixed groups of novices spend both the years of their formation in the same place but their ‘Live in Experience’ and community experience programme are to be in places of their respective provinces.
Activities
On a regular basis the second year novices have exposure programmes for a month followed by 2 months of community experience. These are very enriching experiences for them and the Directresses follow them up wherever they are. They have 3 days retreat preached by one of our Sisters and 8 days retreat by a priest. The second year novices have Charism retreat preached by our sisters.
Apart from their regular classes given by the formation team, a few of our Sisters specialized in specific topics are called to conduct courses and seminars.
The first year novices as per Canon law spend more time in seclusion and silence.
Now that the number of Novices has also decreased, we have the combined novitiate in Premanjali Byrathi assisted by Srs . Pramila D’Almeida, Sunita D’ Sousza & Abha Cicilia Shah.
School
The Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo Northern Province,St. Charles Provincialate,
