On Wednesday, August 24th, senior Robert Droel was welcomed by the Iona College Community of Christian Brothers into the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers of North America Initial Formation Program, the first in a series of series of steps toward becoming a vowed Christian Brother. In a small prayer service and reception attended by dozens friends and Brothers from the Iona Community as well as others from New York, New Jersey, Chicago, India, and South America, Droel was formally introduced and welcomed into the formation program. Droel, a member of the Honors Program majoring in Psychology and Religious Studies, will be given many opportunities this year to explore and grow in his faith and awareness of God.

As a Candidate, he will attend several retreats this year with younger members of the Congregation and will meet regularly with a spiritual director and with the Congregation’s Director of Initial Formation. Additionally, he will be spending lengths of time visiting other Brothers’ communities including All Hallows High School in the Bronx and Archbishop Curley High School in Miami. He will also continue to participate in volunteer service as a Student Campus Minister and will be studying the Congregation’s Constitutions and history as well as the life and spirituality of Blessed Edmund Rice. Upon completion of this year of Non-Residential Candidacy, Droel will live and continue formation in the Brother’s formation house in Chicago and will then be placed outside of North America in a mission community for a year before entering what is called the Novitiate year. Then, for six years he will take an annual profession of vows before becoming a perpetually professed member of the Congregation.

Droel is a graduate of Brother Rice High School in Chicago and through Iona College’s Iona in Mission program, he has been given the opportunity to serve in Brothers’ communities in Bonita Springs, Florida and this past summer in Zambia, Africa. He will return to Zambia this summer as a student leader on that trip and very much credits these experiences with helping him in discernment and faith formation. As a member of the Congregation, Droel hopes to someday be a high school teacher. Said Droel, “I am very thankful for my friends, family, and the countless Brothers who have inspired me and brought me this far. I very much look forward to this year of continued discernment and