Spiritual Well-Being and Its Role on the Sociality of Selected Catholic Religious Novices

Abstract

Religion and spirituality are difficult to define and elusive to capture by standard scientific methods. Despite these challenges, the researchers aim to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the psychology of religion by investigating the religious experience of Catholic novices and their spiritual well-being. Using the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) developed by John Fisher, objective data was gathered from selected individuals going through religious formation. The aim was to determine the spiritual well-being of Catholic religious novices and its implication to their sociality. The results show that there was a significant difference in the quality of relationships of each novice with themselves, other people, the environment and God. Thus, there is dissonance between the ideals of the persons in the novitiate and their lived experience.