Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Advent

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Advent

“Something in me is stirring; I think it’s the part of me that waits in lonely exile and yearns for a homeland. It’s the hidden part of me that wanders aimlessly, stumbling in the dark, crying to be found. O God of exiles and strangers, find the homeless parts of me; Guide them toward yourself, for you are my promised land. Take the stranger inside of me and find familiar soil for it. Keep me mindful of the Emmanuel, whose sojourn brought a glimpse of home.” – Joyce Rupp

Advent is the season for exiles, it is a time of waiting, a time for yearning for the light to dispel the darkness.

It is time to reclaim what we have lost in our hearts. It is not meant to be a cozy, self-satisfied time in which we wait for ‘baby Jesus’ to be born. Rather than focus on the historical event of Jesus’ birth, this season challenges us to attend to our own place of exile and whether or not this savior who has been born and lived on our earth has made a difference in our lives.

Have we taken to heart the promises of hope that he holds out to us? Do we have a great yearning in our heart for the sacred?

Let us pray for each other and implore the God of All Exiles to reveal to us the part of ourselves in exile, the part that is wandering and needs to come home. As we experience this Advent, we trust that You will guide us to our true self where You dwell.

“In you may the light and darkness,
the wilderness and the wastelands,
the stream in the desert and the flowers in the wildness
Co-exist!
And may the light and the shadow deep within the cave of your heart
Be the place for Jesus to be born anew.”

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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?”