Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: World Environment Day

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

World Environment Day

This is the day that holds water only to the likes of Wangare Mathai. That is what I used to think before, why? Because I was born and brought up in an already contaminated/polluted environment where nobody cared whether it was taken care of or not.

The issue of taking care of the environment clicked in my mind a few years ago when I realized that a beautiful stream in my village dried up. That particular stream was not only a source of drinking water for the villagers but served as the habitat of the aquatic creatures. All cattle were alike watered by the same stream.
That is when I realized that the nature should be dignified and treated with maximum respect that it deserves.

As a community, we marked the day by centering our prayers around the nature. We followed it closely by keeping our little compound clean. May God bless our mother earth!!
(Otieno)

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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?”