Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Easter Picnic

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Easter Picnic

April the 13th was the day for the Diocesan Easter picnic which took place at the Kamina Baracks in Tamale. It was the first time I have attended such a celebration. Even though Tamale is known to be hot, on that day it appeared to be blessed because it was very cool because of the overnight rains and cloud cover during the day. It was fantastic as the novices, as did so many other people, converged there to witness it.

We started off our Easter Monday with a Eucharistic celebration led by the Archbishop Emeritus of Tamale. During the day dancing groups from different cultural backgrounds gathered to exhibit their skills. I was drunk with joy as I walked around to catch a glimpse of what was going on in the various places.

We had the thought the crowd would thin as the day went on but to our surprise the crowd only got bigger. When it came for us to return it was hard to find each other in the crowd.
It was a wonderful and joyful celebration and all had a good time. (Cornelius)

No comments:

Post a Comment

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?”