If the postulancy is for laying the foundation, the Novitiate is the beginning of the building process.  It might be called “bootcamp” for the religious life.  It’s required length of time is two years before being admitted to First Profession of Vows.  Once accepted, a date would be set for the Clothing ceremony.   We have retained the custom of the wearing of a bridal dress, where the bride-to-be is then clothed in the Holy Habit of Carmel during the Rite of Admission to Religious life, celebrated privately in community.  The Prioress then gives the Novice her Religious Name and title, which expresses her particular spirit and mission in Carmel.

“The novitiate marks the beginning of the religious life, properly speaking.  It allows the sister to enter into the Carmelite experience of a life lived in the desert in a small community of sisters.  In this way, the authenticity of the vocation of the novice can be tested in daily life over a prolonged period, and her capacity to commit herself by the profession of the evangelical counsels to the consecration of her entire being to God…  This is the time to lay deep foundations consisting of both living experience and spiritual teaching; it is also the time to weave existential bonds between the life and prayer of the novice and the saints of Carmel, so that each in their own way become, for her, models and companions along her journey” (Ratio Institutionis Monialium OCD #69).  Prayer and self-knowledge, a teaching of the vows and the demands of Carmel, the Liturgy and Fraternal life in community will be stressed during this period.  If there are genuine signs of a vocation and the positive fruits of growth, the novice may be admitted to First Profession of Religious Vows.