This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
1. For serious inquirers, visits - of up to a couple of weeks - are suggested to discern if this is the right vocation.
2. If it seems a good fit, the brother enters the monastery as a postulant. For about a year, he observes the life of the brothers, studies and engages in a time of intense discernment. The postulant wears a habit, but not the full habit, nor does he shave his head.
3. Dressed for the ceremony in the suit he wore when he first walked into the monastery, the brother enters the novitiate. The novice monk receives his formal religious name, dons a full habit, shaves his head (a sign of consecration to God) and spends two years preparing to profess his temporary vows of obedience, chastity and poverty.
4. For three years, the monk lives following these temporary vows. When these vows are professed, the monk receives a crucifix that is worn on his tunic, over his heart. Only after this three-year period is he ready to take the final step.
5. Before a monk makes perpetual vows, he goes on a 40-day retreat in solitude, as Christ did in the desert. Perpetual vows of obedience, chastity and poverty are taken and observed until death. When these vows are taken, the monk receives a corona, a thin ring of hair encircling the bald head, which signifies the crown of glory and the crown of martyrdom.
6. A monk can go on to be ordained a priest in the Carmelite order after taking perpetual vows.
7. Five years after a monk's perpetual vows, he can aspire to live as a hermit. After a three-year trial during which he lives as a hermit, he can be a hermit for life.
- Jessica Ravitz