a) A sufficient period of contact with the community for no less than 6 months. The purpose of this stage is that the applicant might become more familiar with the community, and the style of life and service to the Church proper in the Secular Order of the Teresian Carmel. This period also gives the community the opportunity to make an adequate discernment. The Provincial Statutes will specify this period.
b) After the initial period of contact, the council of the community may admit the applicant to a more serious period of formation that usually lasts for two years leading up to the first promise. At the beginning of this period of formation, the scapular is given to the applicant. This is an outward symbol of membership the Order and the sign that Mary is both Mother and Model on this journey.
c) At the end of this stage, with the approval of the Council of the Community, the applicant may be invited to make the First Promise to follow the evangelical counsels of (Chastity, Poverty, Obedience) and to live in the spirit of the beatitudes for a period of three years.
d) In the last three years of initial formation there is a deeper study of prayer, the Scriptures, the Documents of the Church, the Saints of the Order and formation in the apostolate of the Order. At the end of these three years the applicant may be invited by the council to make the Definitive Promise to live the spirit of the evangelical counsels and of the beatitudes for life.
Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites 