Each spiritual path is strictly connected to community life, and it is like a gym for relations, choices, sharing, collaborations, to learn and practice the evangelic values which are needed for our apostolic mission.
Community life is an integral and fundamental part of the Novitiate; to prepare for a committed “YES” to the call of Jesus in the Society.
As a consequence the Novitiate teaches us to live and work together, sharing our skills and personal gifts, sometimes discovering new personal aspects, with the commitment to overcome (not without efforts) the instinctive attitude of sympathy and antipathy, I like/dislike.
Furthermore it helps us to understand what it means to be a team of friends and fellows, chosen by the Lord to build a true relationship with him and between us, and to join forces for the evangelic mission of the Church in the Ignatian way.
On one hand community life makes it possible to carry on the entrusted mission together in a more creative way, because it is composed by the work of each of us; it is a sharing place for joys, efforts, success and failure, memories and sharing of our apostolic duties. Community life, in itself is already a mission, a proof of our deep relationship, shared and cultivated by personal experiences, discernment, sharing of goods and daily life.
It is important that novices experience the scope of the Eucharistic celebration, as a place where the relationship is created, grows, as well as in daily moments of community prayer and a monthly day of retreat. If we do not cultivate our relationship with Jesus, it does not make any sense to share our lives together for the same purpose.