Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Water!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Water!

Sometime earlier i had made mention of drinking water being a huge problem especially in the north of Ghana. Many women and children spend hours walking or cycling to collect water. The yellow cans are a constant reminder of people looking for drinking water.

This year we have been blessed with some good early rains, however, it has not eased the distress of people who constantly have to go out in search of water as is the case of this boy on the cycle. And there are many more like him...

As we turn on our taps today... wash our car ... water the manicured lawns ... luxuriate in baths... and stand under showers ... spare a thought for those who daily struggle to gather water just to survive.

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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?”