The purpose of the formation period is to enable the sister to appropriate the various elements of our way of life that through them she may continually direct her life onward to that perfect love of God and neighbor which is effective in caring for and obtaining the salvation of all people. The structures of the novitiate and the content of the formation program are based on the authentic sources of Dominican monastic life and ordered to the progressive integration of the sisters into this way of life as it is defined in the Rule of Saint Augustine and the Constitutions of the Nuns of the Order of Preachers. The Dominican tradition provides a coherent vision of truth and a distinctive body of practical Christian wisdom which directs all aspects of the formation process.
It is in the person and work of Saint Dominic, who established the first nuns in their way of life, that we find the principal sources of Dominican monastic life. Saint Dominic wished that the nuns draw the inspiration for their life from the perennial source of Christian life - the word of God. Further, Saint Dominic gave these women the observances which formed the ancient tradition of monastic life in the church, imbuing them with his own apostolic spirit. Finally he associated the nuns with his 'holy preaching' in the manner proper to their way of life and carefully formed them in the spirit and mission of the Order.
Formation in Dominican monastic life, then, is based on these three principal sources: Sacred Scripture, the monastic tradition and its Dominican expression. These sources are integrally and harmoniously related, forming a way of life which is one yet manifold in its richness.
