Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Amaraaba Dennis!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Amaraaba Dennis!

“Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” As the story enfolds in the book of Genesis, Abram went as the Lord had directed him. He was forced to leave the place he had established his home, the people he had got used to and many other things you can name. I see the person of Abram in the eyes of Br. Denis Vaughan who openly accepted the call to come to the novitiate here in Tamale, Ghana.
Friday 14thAugust was a wonderful day in our community to receive Br. Denis safely from Nairobi. Special welcoming prayers were organized in the evening to welcome him whereby we shared water served in a calabash, a symbol for hospitality here in Ghana, and bread, a symbol for acceptance. It was great for Br. Denis to join the community of fourteen novices and two team members.

The novices too were pleased to see the gap left by Br. Prince, who is now in Ireland, filled.
We hope that we and the people of Tamale in general, will enjoy the fruits of Br. Denis’ taken risk of coming over to assist us in our spiritual journey. Amaraaba Denis!
(Chrispinus)

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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?”