Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Unless You become like the 'little ones'.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Unless You become like the 'little ones'.

I saw the need of recognizing that all human beings are important in this world. During the time of our founder blessed Edmund Rice, he looked through the window and saw the reality of what was happening, and recognized the need for educating the poor street boys. In the same way when I looked around Shekinah, I saw the need of educating the young children especially the disadvantaged ones. Acknowledging that education is a fundamental basic need, I felt the importance of exploring the charism of Edmund Rice. Like Edmund I wished to bring the light of education and knowledge into the darkness of illiteracy and ignorance, and so we organized classes for the children of the neighbourhood.

A lot more children turned up than expected. This surprised me but it also encouraged me and strengthened my resolve to share my talents with the young ones. It was like the Gospel call to me … “Let the young children come to me for the kingdom of God belongs to them.”
The children came from different religious and cultural backgrounds. The way they behaved themselves was so good. Through their interaction with each other they helped me to integrate my religious beliefs with those of others. They taught me tolerance and mutual acceptance. They affirmed my belief that as brothers we should be committed to building a better world that accommodates everybody and respects all.

Belden Nselee

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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?”