Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Celebrating life

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Celebrating life - Remembering Pauline

As Chinua Achebe said in his book 'A man of the people', a frog will never move in broad day light unless something is after it's life.

This expression made sense to me as we sat around in the chapel on 9th September, 2009 to express our sorrow and sympathy to Paul who had lost his eldest sister, Pauline a fortnight ago. Pauline who was only 33 years old leaves behind a young husband and two children. She died giving birth to her third child who also passed away.
This was a different day altogether and quite unfamiliar as we assembled to be in solidarity with Paul as back in Kenya his family gathered to lay to rest their beloved daughter, sister, wife and mother.
We were joined by the Brothers from Choggu and the visiting representatives of West African DLT, Brs Benedict and Alex, and Samuel. It was a moving experience since we have never celebrated life under that dimension. Many a time we celebrate Birthdays but not promotion to glory.

I would also like to commend Paul on how he conducted himself during this time of sorrow and agony. It is my conviction that in one way or the other, we the novices have learnt something from him. And as a community, we extend our sincere condolences to the entire Mbithi family and assure them that we will remember them in our prayer. (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?”