This is a two-year programme of prayer, work and learning about the Society of Jesus, which includes making the Thirty-Day Retreat, i.e., the full Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola, in their first year. Novices live in a novitiate under the direction of a novice master. They also engage in a variety of “experiments”, that see them working in various ministries, usually with the poor or the sick, sometimes in a less developed country. In their second year, novices go on a long experiment, spending several months in a Jesuit apostolate.

In some provinces the novices also make a pilgrimage across the country with little money. At the end of his novitiate, a Jesuit pronounces his First Vows (of poverty, chastity and obedience).