Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Our Sympathies to Phelix and the Odera Family

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Our Sympathies to Phelix and the Odera Family

On the 26th of Januray we received the sad news that Mr Dickens Odera, the father of Phelix, passed away after a brief period of illness. He had suffered two strokes in January. I will let Phelix take up the account from here ...

"My dad gradually accepted his soul to join our ancestors. The first stroke effected the right side of his body and the second his left. Before he went to his final sleep, my Dad had made the necessary arrangement with the family and so when God finally called him, despite the political problems in Kenya at that moment, dad's body was laid to rest peacefully in our family compound on the 7th of Feb.
The requiem service was conducted by the Anglican church. I wish to thank the brothers, the formation team and my fellow novices for the fratenal love shown me during that time when I needed it most. Thanks to the brothers of the East Africa District for the support given to me from the time I landed in Kenya until I left back for Tamale.

The presence of Brs. Tom Kearney and Herman Odhiambo when my father was lowered back to mother earth was a great sign of brotherly love and concern."

We continue to pray that the soul of Mr Dickens Odera rest peacefully in the gentle embrace of his loving God, and we assure the Odera family especially Phelix's mother Mrs Beatrice Odera of our constant prayers and support in this time of grief.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What do we want this novitiate to be?

There is a saying that goes something like this: “If we don’t do what we believe in, then we’ll end up believing in what we do”. Without a vision that is authentic and alive to guide our actions, then we can settle for rationalizing the status quo or what is convenient and comfortable.
One of the first things the new team in Tamale did was to spend time beginning to articulate its vision of a novitiate beyond the basics laid down in our Constitutions. Here are some elements of what we came up with:
Novitiate is a journey, a process that involves KNOWING, EXPERIENCING and CHOOSING.
It is an INITIATION into Christian Brother religious life, so a “rite of passage” into a new identity, a time of learning and testing.
Novitiate confronts the novices with the Brother’s vocation as a call to brotherly solidarity and community, not to privilege, status and security.
It involves exploration of the basic values of faith and vocation, and the challenge to embrace these out of personal conviction and free choice.
Novitiate means understanding that a religious vocation makes a claim on the whole of the person and his life, including his inner life, his relationships and his professional activity (ministry). Furthermore, it challenges the novice to see the dynamic inter-relationship of these areas and to learn what their integration means.
Novitiate is a time of DISCERNMENT. The novice learns more deeply who he is, and what this Christian Brother life is. There is a constant back-and-forth movement between these two poles as an answer is sought to the question, “Is this where I am meant to be? Is this the life that will enable me to find my true self in God?”