Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: "you can't connect the dots looking forward"

Monday, December 28, 2009

"you can't connect the dots looking forward" - Steve Jobs

The link below is to a great talk I came across today. Its really worth visiting even if you do not have 14 and a half minutes to spare. It is Steve Jobs commencement address in 2005 at Stanford University.

Of late we have been looking at the year past and are in many ways looking ahead to the year that will be ... that could be. The end of a year is often that time when we step back to look at the fibres of our lives that are being woven into the most extraordinary tapestry. May we find the wisdom and the insight to recognise the emerging picture as we connect the dots and weave the strands of our life.
"You can't connect the dots looking forward. You can do it by only looking backward."
I hope you enjoy this talk as you look ahead to the New Year. May you too follow your heart! And stay hungry!

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die Video on TED.com

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?”