Join Us

The process of becoming a Brother follows this path:

First Contacts

If you want to question yourself about your vocation and to know the Brothers better before going further and deciding your life choice, get in touch with a Brother.

Taking your work and studies into consideration, you will be proposed to live with a community. A Brother will be in charge of accompanying you during a period of experience.

At the end of this period, the length of which differs according to your personal and professional situations, your age, and the advice of the welcoming community, if your vocation to the brotherhood seems to be real, you ask for entrance to the Postulate.

Postulate

The Postulate lasts between 6 and 12 months. It allows you to experience the community life and the Brothers’ mission.

You live entirely with the community and share its mission. The year can be spent with a community in a mission (for example, in Western Africa).

Novitiate

Accompanied by a Brother who has received from the Superior General a special mission as “Novice Master,” you will take the means to deepen your life as a baptized person, while getting ready to take a decision regarding your actual commitment in the Congregation of the Brothers by taking religious vows.

It is suggested :

To live in a quiet place, at your own pace, accompanied by the Brother in charge, and in connection with a community of Brothers.
To know yourself better, through a more personal encounter with Christ, and to feel, during that time, the inner freedom generated from your dedication.
To make the experience of God and Christ’s following the way the Founders of the Congregation, Jean-Marie de la Mennais and Gabriel Deshayes, and the first Brothers did.
To deepen the Brother’s vocation, while learning about community life and the educational mission for the youth.
To live daily according to the Rule of Life of the Brothers, as a way of evangelizing yourself, under the inspiration of the Spirit.
Finally, to choose Christ and your mission, and ask, or not ask to join in the Congregation of the Brothers of Plöermel.

First Years of Religious Life

During the first years of religious life (temporary vows), the following are proposed to young religious:

A course of theological and professional studies (leading to a profession in education and/or teaching), as a first step.
An insertion in a community of Brothers committed to an educational mission, as a second step.

Perpetual Profession

At the end of a period that can vary from five to nine years of temporary commitment, you, as a new Brother, make the definitive choice to join the Congregation, taking your final vows.

To prepare, you are proposed a course of specific Formation that can be followed in connection with other Brothers who have also taken temporary vows.

Becoming a Brother of Christian Instruction contains instructions and passages from the Rule of Life concerning the process of becoming a Brother.