Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: SHARING CHRISTMAS WITH THE POOR

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

SHARING CHRISTMAS WITH THE POOR

Christmas in Tamale, a predominantly Muslim city, has a different feel to it. One of the features of Christmas here is the way in which Dr. David Abdulai shares Christmas with thousands of others. Dr. Abdulai is famous as the founder of the Shekhinah clinics and Food Programme. The two clinics offer free basic medical treatment to anyone who comes. In a similar spirit, the Food Programme provides a meal every day of the year for hundreds of prisoners and destitute and mentally challenged people in Tamale.

On Christmas Day several thousand of the poor in Tamale are invited to come to Dr. Abdulai’s residence where every person receives food and drink, as well as a gift of clothing items. The logistics of distributing the food, drink and gifts are formidable. Volunteers start the cooking well before dawn. Many others help out during the day with transport, crowd control, giving out food and so on.

Once again this Christmas the novices had the privilege of spending over three hours helping as part of the volunteer force, which included local people, as well as friends of Shekhinah from other parts of Ghana and other parts of the world – including Canada, the UK and Europe. It was a very special and touching way to share Christmas with others, and it made the meaning of Christmas very real for us all.

Br Tony, with keen eyes. checks out the clothes for girls before giving out.

Francis checks out the boys' clothes before handing out.


Big Martin tries on the hats before recommending them to the young boys.

Desmond checks out the long que to make sure everyone has a sachet of water while waiting to be served.

Lawrence looks on as little Charlie waits to be served.

From left: Philip, Cephas and Paul giving out lunch packs.

Desmond distributes water as sign of welcome.

Other Volunteers from Ghana and Netherlands - giving a helping hand.


From left: Philip, Dominic and Volunteer, Margaret serving lunch packs.

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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?”