Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: Mothers Day

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Mothers Day - 9th May

Today I extend best wishes to all the wonderful loving mothers in the globe. I hope and pray that on this mothers Sunday, might be for them a special and happy day. I Pray for single and abused mothers, and dead mothers too. I recommend the following reflection to all the mothers, fathers and their siblings.
‘Mothers have the holiest work in the world; like God they create life. Then, also like God, they work no-stop. They feed, transport, clean, teach, hug, bandage, love, care, protect, empower, embrace and so on. Trying to make a Job description for a mother is very much like trying to make one fro God- the Job is just too big.’
A saying often heard is as follows, “man may work from dusk to dawn, but woman’s work is never done” perhaps more accurately, the saying should read, “a mothers work is never done” instead. Women without children simply are able to stop work. Mothers can’t.
People who don’t have children are able to recognize the measure of sacrifice mothers make in ways they can’t. Having a child means sacrificing one’s self. That’s it plain and simple. From my experience at the Children’s home, I have learnt that even a mother who gives her child up for adoption sacrifices her body’s resources during pregnancy and the joys of watching that child grow to adulthood.
Most mothers who we honour today sacrifice again and again, for years and years, putting the best interests of the child ahead of their own.
Women who have children usually do realize that they make sacrifices, but they often make light of them because their sacrifices are tempered with love. Definitely it is possible for us to be more objective about the extent of mother’s sacrifice than they can.
When people say “God is like a mother” these days, one of the thoughts that come to my mind is their willingness to sacrifice and to be totally unselfish. It is an inspiring quality in God, and it is true mothers too.
‘He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!’ [paslm11:9]
(Sydney)

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?”