Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: End of year Evaluation

Thursday, December 4, 2008

End of year Evaluation

Evaluations are opportunities to reflect on the past with opennes and honesty, with truthfulness and a genuine concern for improvement. They are times to look back at the past, see what is shaping the present and set pointers that could inform the future.

Sr Sarian led us in this process with a firm yet gentle hand. She showed that she was prepared to keep the agenda of the group at the forefront and facilitated the days very well. The days included prayer, quiet personal reflection and ample time to speak out in the group.

My belief is that all felt free and open enough to voice their own opinions from their own respective standpoints. Sometimes it was difficult to see or acknowledge the others standpoint but all listened intently and importantly all felt heard.

There were some excellent obesrvations made and some useful suggestions made to the Team for tweaking the program for the coming groups. I am sure some of those suggestions will be taken on board.

What stands out for me of the evaluation process is the honesty and openness with which things were said and received, and the quality of listening!

We thank Sr Sarian for leading us through this process.

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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?”