Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: The Challenge of Ministry

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Challenge of Ministry

I have realized ministry is not merely giving what I have but also sharing who I am. I was working in my usual ministry site despite the strike of the teachers. However during my interaction with the blind and deaf and dumb I realized the presence of one teacher who was teaching despite the government's delay with the payment of his salary.

I was not only moved with his worth while attitude to work, but also the answer he gave me when I asked him “what makes him different that he comes for work despite the strike?". The teacher said you know you can work for many hours with big payments but if whatever you do is of no certain life giving value to others, it is not worth doing it nor being paid for it.

The question that remains in me is what attitude do I take to ministry with me? Do I merely give what I have or do I share with others who I am?
(Sunday)

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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?”