Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Resurfacing ... emerging from the cocoon!!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Resurfacing ... emerging from the cocoon!!

Its been so long now it sure feels like coming up for a gulp of air or like emerging from the cocoon or even like the first blossom of spring!!

The novitiate is well and truly over. All our 12 novices have returned safley to their home countries having professed their vows here on the 22nd of November.

The month of november was dedicated to bringing closure to the year and spending some time evaluating how the year had been for us. Sr Sarian, a Presentation of Mary sister from the Gambia assisted us in our evaluation and closure process.

Following the professions the PLT of the African province had their four day meeting here.

Now after all that rush of activity in November the house is all quiet, emptied of men who lived here for two years and made it their home. The dust has settled on their time here.

Now we look forward to the new group of 15 young men coming here in January 2009. The next group will have men from Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Namibia and Sierra Leone.

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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?”