Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: One day at a time

Thursday, February 26, 2009

One day at a time

Time belongs to God. Now is all we are sure of. There may not be a tomorrow. Use today, live today. Don’t borrow sorrow from tomorrow. The troubles that never come are the ones that fret and worry us most. Take one step at a time. The steps that wound us most are the ones we imagine. Be patient and tolerant and uncomplaining, just today. Do todays duty, fight today’s temptations as bravely as you can. Don’t try to see the things of tomorrow because even if you could see, you might not understand. We cannot see beyond these short horizons, which make life so much easier. The secret I brave, good happy living, is to get through one day at a time and be grateful. Just one day, nothing more.

(Sydney Muponda)

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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?”