Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Workshop on "The Prophetic Dimension of Religious Life"

Friday, July 25, 2008

Workshop on "The Prophetic Dimension of Religious Life"

The workshop on “The Prophetic Dimension of Religious Life” facilitated by Br Henry enlightened some important roles of a prophet today. Through the class inputs, discussions, group work and videos watched we came to understand that as prophets we should:
*Criticize and energize
*Be innovative, corrective and provide witness to the community.
*Live with the attitudes, values and actions of Jesus, linking the old and the new covenant.
*Be in relationship with God and all Creation
*Bring the new community of God in which the rights of everyone, especially the most vulnerable, will be fully respected.

As religious, we are invited to enter into an alternative world that the vows point us to. Thus

...Challenging the male dominant understanding of sexuality through consecrated celibacy
...Challenge the self centeredness approach to material goods by evangelical poverty
...Challenge the unrestricted use of power by religious obedience.
Through this, we have come to understand and appreciate the evangelical vows.

The challenge that we as prophets have to accept and face is that, we should be ready to be rejected and persecuted by our own people for criticizing the status quo. This challenge can only be over come if we are in union and communion with the divine. (Constant awareness of the divine within and around us in all creation)

Being prophetic in relation to eco-justice is about responding to God’s will in all creation.In this age where the earth is crying for true prophets, we should see the direct link between nature and human beings. Unless we learn to understand the full meaning of the creation story as one which is still expanding, our response may NOT be EFFECTIVE. By embracing this view, it will help us to understand the image of God who is bigger and wider than we can grasp.

(Julias and Phelix)

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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?”