Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: The Bigger God!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Bigger God!

I have come to understand God can’t be possessed by one religion. God is revealed and contained equally in the Quran, the Bible and elements of African Traditional Religion.

Our Congregation Document, ‘Be my disciple’ states “I am waiting for you beyond your boundaries, your concepts, your understanding.” TICCS made me to reach here instead of criticizing all practices of Muslims, African practices, diviners and many others. I learnt I should let them say something to me.
Like one facilitator Dr Mohamed said our aim is one, Love of God and Neighbor, and there is nothing like Christian love, Muslim love or Traditional believers love of God.
With this unconditional love of God no one can define it in religions. The differences occur in vessels that we put the love of God in but the content or product is the same.
Now I have a bigger and wider image of God. As a Christian I can’t proclaim my religion to the best yet I must respect other religions and be at peace.
(Constantine)

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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?”