Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: St Patrick's Day Celebrations

Sunday, March 22, 2009

St Patrick's Day Celebrations

Over the last few days, we have experienced thunder storms which ensured an extraordinary blackout for a couple of days and one of the summer huts had its thatch roof blown off.
On the other hand, I realized that fresh green were sprouting in our compound and the neighbourhood and the flowers which were drying up initially were gaining their lost glory. To me all these were signs that St. Patrick’s Day was around the corner.

This day was celebrated in style and we were joined by the Presentation Brothers and the Christian Brothers from our Choggu community. We began the celebrations with an evening prayer in the chapel where the story of St. Patrick was paralleled to that of Moses. Both men lived in slavery in a country to which they would return to lead a nation towards and to God.

After prayers, we moved to the community room to nourish our physical beings by gulping down the frothy liquids which were served at the right temperature while the members of the social committee busied themselves preparing the meat on the “braai”.

I must appreciate the work that was done by Brain, Jordaan and Paul. The meal was served out in the open under fresh skies with a hint of rain in the air and I don’t think that anybody went away with an empty stomach. While the brothers served their meals, cool Irish music played in the background and for the first time, I thought I was in Ireland.

After supper we watched a bit of ‘Riverdance’ and a truly Irish night was complete!!
May God Bless Ireland, St. Patrick and all the missionaries in the world abundantly!
(David Otieno)

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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?”