1st Advisory Meeting
Description: a brief meeting to explain the 99 Day Novena in a very general way and to initiate the Pre-Novena as a “discernment for discernment.”
Note: If the candidate approached you to serve as their Discernment Advisor, it’s possible that they’ve already completed the Pre-Novena. If so, use this page to review the purpose and content of the Pre-Novena. Then proceed the 2nd Advisory Meeting (link below).
Meeting Agenda
Make sure that both the candidate and you the Discernment Advisor (DA) have the necessary materials for the Pre-Novena. If you’re the one who recommended the Novena, ask the candidate to complete only the Pre-Novena. The rest of the Novena should wait until the decision to proceed is reached together.
Lay out basic expectations for the Pre-Novena. Tell the candidate it’s okay to decide “I’m not ready” and wait until later. This preliminary part is supposed to be low-pressure and a general flexibility should run through the whole process of the Novena. Try to avoid any sense of obligations beyond those spelled out in the Novena commitments.
You also want to make clear that you are trying to figure out if the candidate is in a good place to discern (more on this below). There is no insult or rejection in this. It’s simply a matter of listening together to discover where the Holy Spirit is leading. If the question arises, there is no need to repeat the Pre-Novena should the discernment be deferred to some point in the future.
Schedule a follow-up meeting at least ten days from this meeting to evaluate and decide whether to begin the full Novena.
Pre-Novena – Summary
The Pre-Novena is a nine-part meditation on the Old Testament story of Jacob wrestling with the angel (Gen. 32:22-30). Following the short passage in stages, the main themes of the 99 Days are touched upon and some of the “real life” concerns are addressed which a young candidate might be facing. The meditations and study material urge the candidate towards greater authenticity, trust, perseverance and courage.
There is also a practical purpose for the Pre-Novena: to save you time. For this to be effective, you’ll have to be kind and encouraging but also firm with the person seeking your assistance in discernment. In my own experience there are a good number of young people who only want to “try out” discernment, more for the purpose of saying they did it than for actually doing it. This, as I point out in the introductory documents, will likely be a waste of everybody’s time. These nine opening meditations make it clear that a process of seeking God’s will requires that the candidate be genuinely free from other pursuits and fully intending to follow God’s leading once it is known. One might assume this is obvious, but if a young candidate shows a lack of understanding about this issue, the Pre-Novena will give you, the Discernment Advisor, opportunities to raise the question directly.
For example, the person might say he or she is genuinely open to doing what God wants. It would be well to make sure there’s no boyfriend or girlfriend waiting in the wings so that the relationship can resume after the 99 days are concluded. “I told him/her that this is something I just had to do before we start getting serious.” Such a candidate is not really clearing an opening for God, but simply putting a temporary pause on plans that are already set on course. You can feel free to tell them, despite their assurances to the contrary, that you don’t see that they’re serious about this. One test I’ve used is to ask them: “If your boy-friend/girl-friend were to start dating someone else during the 99 days, are you content to let them do so?” In other words, have you really let that relationship go, or are you just keeping up appearances?
Be clear with the person who has invited you to join them in this process: the first 9 days are a co-discernment and either party can decide not to go ahead with the full 99 Day Novena if conditions do not seem right. That way, there is a much greater respect, especially on the part of the candidate, for the process. Throughout the phases of the Novena, you remain free to pause or discontinue the discernment as you see fit. Make sure this is understood from the beginning.
Beyond this, the material should help you get to know the candidate and build rapport. If it is clear to you that he/she is serious about discernment, and you decide together to set out on a journey of discovery, I hope you will find the experience as pleasing and inspiring as I have. As a companion in the discernment process, you have a front row seat to what may be an astonishing display of God’s power: the transformation of a soul opening to the Word of life and becoming more visibly conformed to the image of Christ.
