Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Farewell Jordaan and Peter Ndivo

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Farewell Jordaan and Peter Ndivo

On Friday the 23rd April, 2010 we gathered as community to pray and say good bye to Peter and Jordaan. It was really a time of sadness and some joy- sad to depart with our brothers, joy in moving on to what their hearts desire most. Members were emotional as we said our farewell messages and reflected on the friendship we had made with them. I was no exception, I could not hide my feelings, and how touching the lives of Peter and Jordaan had been.

We reflected on the poem by M. Rider:
Go to places, this new day, where your heart would.
Walk where you will and in the walking know
The way is yours. Allow for storms. At the end of the day they’ll prove
That your heart was wise and your choice was good.

With a sense of joy and of thanks for the gift of Peter and Jordaan, in the evening the community gathered for a drink and a meal. Jordaan and Peter left Tamale at dawn 24th April, 2010.

The message for Jordaan and Peter is that, as they go forth from here, confident in themselves and in God, they may achieve what their hearts desire most and remain brothers to all in their service of others in diverse ways. I Implore we continue praying for each other, each other’s happiness in the future.

May God who has companioned us up to now continue blessing us with satisfaction in life, friendship and joy, and courage in times of difficult, especially at this transitional period?

Good bye PETER, good bye JORDAAN! The Novitiate community will surely miss your presence, your numerous gifts and contributions!

All we ask of you is forever to remember us as loving you
Sydney]

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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?”