Mount St. Joseph Novitiate, Bengaluru

Mount St Joseph Novitiate is located on the Bannerghatta road, 14 km away from Bengaluru city. It was established in 1959 with Fr. J. C. Pereira as its first Rector and Fr. Apoline as its first Novice Master. MSJ was initially established for the formation of Novices and Juniors. Today it has diverse ministries such as retreat, education, technical education, Ignatian spirituality, novitiate etc. However the Novitiate is the main apostolate of MSJ. It is the two-year stage at the beginning of a man’s life as a Jesuit during which he lives and studies what it means to be a Jesuit. This time as a novice, allows one to test firsthand the desire and choice that led him to enter the Society of Jesus. In the novitiate, the novices are helped to acquire habits of discipline about prayer, examen, community, work, and free time. What introduces each one most profoundly into the Jesuit way of living the Gospel is the experience of the Spiritual Exercises. The Spiritual Exercises are the initiating experience and the most important experiment with respect to Jesuit vocation. The first 6 months are primarily a preparation for the making of the Spiritual Exercises - a testing of one’s docility for direction, one’s openness, generosity, and readiness to look for and respond to the guidance and grace of God.