Invitation: Those who are willing to join the Postulancy and to prepare for the

novitiate in order to follow the Divine Word in the Society of the Divine Word come
forward.

Rector’s Call: Dear Brothers, your presence here at this ceremony is a pledge of
your desire to join the Society of the Divine Word. There are thousands of youth in
the world today but you have listened to the call of the Divine Master, Jesus inspite
of so many challenges and allurements and have come forward to be a Postulant in
our Society. We feel happy for each one of you because you have realized in your
life that loving and living for your God is the most precious and important thing in
this world.

Your postulancy is the last phase of your formation in this community and it is a
chance to know yourselves and your God in a deeper way and thus prepare
yourselves for your novitiate. It is a precious chance to make your response to the
ultimate meaning of life in the kingdom of God. God invites you today to open your
minds and hearts to the person of Lord Jesus and through Him to be open to the
Father and the Holy Spirit. God will continue to reveal Himself to you in the
Sacraments, the Eucharist, in the Sacred Scripture and in this community. It is
within your power individually and as a group to grow in your trust and faith by
positively responding to the revelations of God. Through your generous response
God invites you to give yourselves to Him in the way of the Religious and
Missionary Life.

You are to us a sign of God’s blessings and our hope for the future. We open to you
the Spirit of the Society of the Divine Word, which we have received, our heritage,
our traditions and our challenges. We know that you will respect and revere what
we offer to share with you. We expect you, to continue to move towards religious
discipleship of the Lord. Together we are to experience continuing conversion and
sanctification as we attempt to grow in fidelity to Jesus and the particular call to be
a religious missionary in our Society.

Let sin and selfishness, loneliness and despair, aimlessness and discontent die.
Bring forth within yourselves a new hope, a new charity, and let this new life be
reflected in your day today living. Strive to be honest with yourselves, with one
another and with the community. God calls you to live the truth in charity and thus
be brothers of the Lord. From our part, we believe that the Lord is with you, and
that He will continue to give new life to the world, to the Church and to our Society
through young persons like you. We hope that your group with its unique strengths
and weaknesses will bring forth new and deeper growth both in yourselves and in
the rest of the community. We hope your closeness to the Lord in prayer, your
holiness worked out through personal conversion and your love for this community
will inflame the hearts of each member of this community to love the Lord above
all things and walk in the path that the Lord shows us in His divine plan.
And you dear brothers, fear not! For the Lord loves you and He is by your side as
you enter into a new phase of your religious formation. Together with the members
of this community you march ahead with courage keeping your gaze fixed on the
Lord and attain the goal of your life.

My dear brothers,
We welcome you into Postulancy. May it be an opportunity for you to spend more
time with the Lord and so come to know more clearly your vocation within the
Church. May it offer you the opportunity to experience the missionary – religious
life in the Society of the Divine Word and to discern your place within it. We pray
that the Lord God may bless you and be your constant help. May the Spirit of God
increase your generosity and grace you with inner peace and contentment. We ask
this through Christ our Lord.
Hymn to the Holy Spirit-

C : Let us pray :
O God, before whom every heart lies open and to whom every desire
speaks and from whom no secret lies hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by
the pouring fourth of your Holy Spirit, so that we may be worthy to love you
perfectly and to praise you worthily. Most merciful God, who by the infusion of your
Holy Spirit has wonderfully concentrated all the gifts of your grace in the most
heart of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, grant to these students that they may find in
her a powerful example and a trusty safeguard against every danger and crisis in
their vocation. We pray this through Christ our Lord.
: Offering of gifts by the candidates

After communion : The candidates recite together the prayer of a postulant.