Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Vocation Sunday and Edmund

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Vocation Sunday and Edmund

“Were we to know the merit And value of only going from one street to another to serve a neighbour for the love God, we should prize it more than Silver and Gold.” Bl. Edmund Rice.

On the 25th April, the church celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday. It is a day set aside each year to pray for Vocations in the church to the priesthood and religious life. It is also a day for us to consider the vocation others also have as single or married people to enhance our world by making it a better place for all.

A Saturday before the day some novices joined the young people who gathered at the Catholic Youth centre, the occasion organized by the Diocesan vocation promotion team to share with the young on vocations. Since then the life of the Founder started dawning in my mind and I thought it was appropriate to reflect on it and share with others till the Feast Day.

On this vocational Sunday I had a different experience all together. In haste I prepared myself to go to Kamina Barracks were I was to meet the new Catholics who I had escorted in their faith journey during CPP. I found myself at the Catholic-Methodist joint service organized by the soldiers; ‘celebrating vocations and a call to peace keeping’.

I was touched by the Commanding Officers reflection on the Good Shepherd gospel passage, where Jesus was emphasizing on the self-sacrificing element in his own life: “The Good Shepherd is the one who lays down his life for his sheep” He contrasts the good shepherd who owns the sheep to someone who is simply hired to look after them. The hired man thinks primarily of his own welfare and, if he sees the wolf coming, he takes off, leaving the sheep to be attacked and scatter in fear and terror. Jesus, on the other hand, will not be like a hired person: “I lay down my life for the sheep.” The Officer concluded his reflection by saying; ‘The parable today speaks directly to us all on how we should live out our lives and our callings, as we serve God and humanity.’

After the service I had a group of young men who wanted to hear about the founder of the ‘Kanvili Roman Catholic school Brothers’, meaning the Christian Brothers. In the sharing I tried to summarize the life of Edmund as – honest and successful businessman, husband, father, widower, religious brother, compassionate friend of the poor, teacher, Servant Leader and founder.

“Edmund was moved by the Holy spirit to open his whole heart to Christ present and appealing to him in the poor”. (1984 congregation General Chapter) I suppose Edmund was someone who helped the poor, he did not only know the poor by their poverty but he knew them as people and through knowing them he came to ever deepening realizations of his mission in life.

Thus he founded the congregation of Christian Brothers to carry out the work he first started in Ireland for the poor who needed someone to shepherd them. Edmund knew the value in the words he offers to us at the start of this article.

Blessed Edmund Rice was given the grace to respond to the call of Christ by identifying with the poor. His example evoked a deep awareness of God’s loving presence in all with whom he came in contact. He also awakened within them the consciousnesses of their dignity as children of God. He invited his followers to share the Gospel insight to reach out to the needy, especially the materially poor.

How are we today ‘flying free’ with Edmund? What type of shepherds are we?
(Sydney)

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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?”