Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Celebrating Namibia Day in ‘elamaT’

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Celebrating Namibia Day in ‘elamaT’

This sound weird, isn’t it? For most I’m sure your eyes are as big as doughnuts but hey it’s normal. It’s good to be astonished at times.
This year marked the first time for me to celebrate the independence of my motherland outside the country. For the fist time in my one and a half month stay I felt home sick, but thanks to the company of the ‘elamaT’ novitiate community the day was so extra-ordinary and special.

“Namibia - land of the brave”, once a colony of Germany and later occupied by South Africa's apartheid government, gained full independence on 21st March 1990 in conjunction with South Africa's withdrawal from Angola with Dr Sam Nujoma as the first President.

Namibia is one of Africa's most developed and stable countries, with a stable multiparty parliamentary democracy and an estimated population of 1,820,916. “Glory to their bravery whose blood waters our Freedom”.
Thanks to Br. Vivek for the lovely background

music from the Mascato Choir, it really made me feel at home as the novices were enjoying the ‘clicks’. It made me enjoy the night even more as I was the last person to go to bed. “Contrasting beautiful Namibia…Beloved land of savannahs” may God bless you abundantly together with the sons and daughters of all Africa.

Jesusubab sada #gaogu !na ha….. /amos kose
(Live Jesus in our hearts….Forever)
(Jordaan)

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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?”