The aspirant traversing the Way to Holy Orders completes various instructional and educational experiences. The instructional portion provides for data that the aspirant integrates and advances one's intellectual acumen. The educational portion draws out of the aspirant's sensate acumen information the aspirant has already synthesized within one's identity matrix.

• Instructional and Educational experiences are recounted succinctly and concisely (no dissertations, i.e., when possible 300-500 words more or less) in a written format as the protocol for each experience suggests. The written format is as follows:

  Page Set-up:
  Paper Size: 8.5 x 11
  Margins: L and B .75", T and R .50"
  Footer: .25" with Pagination: On, center, bottom

  Format:
  

  Top Upper Left LAST NAME, First Aspirant ID number Aspirant e-mail address

  Top Upper Right Course Number Course Name Date of Submission

• Aspirant will then COPY/PASTE — in the order asked — each question being answered to a word processor. The question will serve as the heading for each answer. The aspirant makes one submission for all answers to all questions asked in a particular Way Station.

• When paper is completed, aspirant submits paper as a .doc attachment to an e-mail addressed:

  TO: TBD
  SUBJECT: Ord Paper LASTNAME Course Number (ex: Ord Paper DOE CS105)

• Aspirant will have checked paper for grammar, syntax and spelling.
  Aspirant will have used standard footnoting and bibliographic procedures as put forth in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fourth Edition Manual of Style

• Each Way Station requests that the aspirant discuss, compare and contrast, relate, or reflect (among other opportunities). For clarity and coherency, the aspirant will have employed the following understandings as per Webster's Seventh Collegiate Dictionary:

  to compare:

  implies as its aim the showing of relative values or excellences by bringing our characteristic qualities, whether similar or divergent.

  to contrast:

  implies as its aim an emphasis upon the differences.

  to discuss:

  to investigate, as that which is uncertain; especially a) to argue by presenting the various sides of, as a question; debate. A discussion implies, for purposes of this program, the drawing of a conclusion, preferably a synthesis of the pro and con positions.

  to relate:

  to connect or bring into relation.

  to reflect:

  to throw or turn back the thoughts upon oneself; meditate, contemplate.

• The aspirant will have moved beyond the linked information presented for each Way Station. The aspirant will have read, referenced in paper, and noted in bibliography at least one (1) additional book relating to the subject matter of the Way Station and reflecting the aspirant's particular interest for a 1 Mile Stone course, two (2) books for a 2 Mile Stone course, and three (3) three for a 3 Mile Stone course.

• Upon submission, the aspirant's paper will be read by the Director of Vocations and two other clerics at random. The aspirant's identity will not be made know to the random readers. The readers will score the aspirant's paper based upon the content and context of the paper in terms of the questions asked.

  The readers will witness the writer's grasp of the material from the content presented and the context from which the writer drafts responds. The content reflects the author's intellectual and/or cognitive grasp of the material. The context that the writer generates the response reflects the author's phenomenological presence with the material. Hence, the reader will witness the written response through the prism of Applied Phenomenology and its various facets. We repeat here the linked information for clarity and completeness.

  0.1300		Applied Phenomenology
  0.1310		Phenomenology is "the descriptive science of pure experience without intended theoretical or practical applications. The phenomenological approach is to examine an object or situation as it appears to the senses, as it is experienced, or as it is symbolized. It is the study of what a person experiences or perceives about something else; such study does not demand that pure experience fit any known law or 'truth.'" Beloff, 177)
  0.1311		Descriptive Phenomenology intuits, analyzes, and describes data of direct experience in a new and systematic way, according to patterns of intentionality, how we "want" to do it.
  0.1312		Essential (Eidetic) Phenomenology makes an exploration of essential structures on based on creative or imaginative variations of the data.
  0.1313		The Phenomenology of Appearance takes special notice of the different properties and modes in which various phenomena present themselves.
  0.1314		Constitutional Phenomenology makes an investigation of the way or ways phenomena establish themselves in human consciousness.
  0.1315		Hermeneutic Phenomenology interprets the meaning of the phenomena in terms of the human Dasein. Stewart, xxix)
  0.1316		Applied Phenomenology makes use of each of the above disciplines in phenomenology when explicating a particular phenomenon.

  To reiterate, the reader will witness the author's paper from each of the phenomenological facets noted above. For a review of the phenomenology, please refer to Prelude: Thought Creation and subsequent links.

• The reader will rank the paper as follows:
  1. (1.5) Pass with Distinction
  2. (1.0) Pass
  3. (0.5) Pass Deferred with recommendations
  4. (0.0) No Pass

• Director of Vocations informs aspirant of result. To satisfactorily traverse a Way Station, the rankings must average at least 1.0. If a Deferred Pass is the total result, aspirant may complete recommendations requested by the two or three readers and upon resubmission and each reader's acceptance, then the aspirant may note a Pass.
  If No Pass, the aspirant may make a totally new submission.

• Additional Resources:
  ARTFL Project: Multi-Lingual Bibles
  Catholic Links from and Around the World
  Catholic Research Resources Alliance
  Encyclicals and Other Papal Documents
  Christian Classics Ethereal Library
  Early Church Fathers
  Guide to Early Church Documents
  Hill Monastic Manuscript Library
  International Conference on the Historical Jesus
  Exploring Music as Worship and Theology
  New Advent
  On-Line Bibles
  Philosophy (Reference)
  St. Pachomius Library
  The Ecole Initiative
  The Nazarene Way of Essenic Studies
  Ecumenical Trends Online
  Theological Resources
  Vatican II Documents

• The aspirant can complete the entire program in a three to four year period. The aspirant may work in several Way Stations as grouped at a time. We suggest that the traveler pass through Way Stations groups in order presented.

Peace and joy!

White Robed Monks of St. Benedict