Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: I am the Vine, you are the branches!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I am the Vine, you are the branches!

Few days ago I decided to have a bit of immersion experience in different environments here in Tamale. I decided to visit my mentally and physically challenged children in their different homes as they were on a month’s vacation. It was an experience that left me energized. But it also raised a lot of answered questions.

Some families lived with those who are challenged in a very integrated way loving unconditionally and with no hint of discrimination. While in some other families this was not the case. The question, “when are the schools re-opening again?” was indicative of the fact that for some these children with special needs were a burden.

I found myself questioning, “Am I really aware what these families are going through? Am I aware of the demands made on these families and the sacrifices they have to make daily?

Many of the families were surprised that I had taken the time to especially visit the children. They told me it had been a long while since anyone had come to visit them as friends. This only highlighted the isolation of these children for me.

I pondered Jesus’ words, “I am the vine and you the branches”. How could I make these children feel like the branches? It gave them great joy when I affirmed them that my community held them and their children in prayer. I believe it will be a greater surprise when they realize a wider world is saying a simple prayer for them as a sign of great love, friendship and unity

I request you to breathe a simple prayer today for these my friends and for the many like them, make them feel they are part of the much larger vine, the Kindom of God!

(Samuel Munyua Ngumi)

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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?”