A time to cross-over
There is a time for everything. A time to begin and a time to end. The Order celebrates his brothers who move-on to other stages of formation. Postulants making a step into the novitiate (July 14, 2023); and novices making a step out of the novitiate through their embrace or Temporary profession of the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (July 15, 2023).
Postulants getting set to cross-over into the novitiate
The reception of the probation habit
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The novices pronouncing their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience inorder to embrace the Capuchin life as Lesser Brothers
Brothers Godlove, George and Sergius make their triumphal entery into the Order
Brother George MBUYE, before crossing-over to a new stage of life as a friar in Temporal vows , makes a flashback to his dreams as he prepared to enter the novitiate as well as share his experiences in the novitiate.
A POSTULANT’S DREAM FOR THE NOVITIATE
Every postulant’s dream at the end of the Postulancy is to put on the habit of probation. It is a sign of progression into the life from one stage to another stage but this is just the surface of what the Novitiate can impart on us and so there is need to go deep and have mature expectations or dreams for the Novitiate. To begin,
I dream to be a Holy Friar; a good capuchin brother and to follow the path of St. Francis of Assisi. I hope during the 12 months, it will help mold and build me to be God’s best friend.
Secondly, I expect to interiorize the Franciscan values, learn the capuchin way of praying and working which has given the Order and the Church many capuchin saints and blessed.
To go further, I hope I get to be a fraternal brother who can make his community livable and loving.
All in all, I expect to be initiated into the Franciscan Family, the capuchin brotherhood, so that I can be of value to the community and to the world. I pray to be a good example of Saint Francis, loving God and his creation always and everywhere.
Brother George, at the end of his novitiate year, desires to share his novitiate experience. Have his novitiate dreams been realized? He tells us more?
MY EXPERIENCE AS A NOVICE IN THE CAPUCHIN NOVITIATE FRATERNITY
In the first place experiences shape each and every one. God speaks through events, He daily communicates to all who seek his face on how particular assignment(s) should be carried for the benefit of Heaven and earth. John Main in his book “The Joy of Being” says “the church cannot effectively proclaim a past experience. It can only proclaim what it is actually experiencing. It can only proclaim what it is. Therefore, if the gap between what we believe and what we experience makes us inauthentic, our message can convince no one until it has so convinced us that we are transformed by it”. We vow to live obedience, chastity and poverty.
It is in this connection that one who is a novice and has embraced the depths of intense initiation into the truth that the capuchin spirituality and charism holds to it members, should make them all authentic in living fraternal life and observing the rule which is the gospel. In fact, fraternal life is built on prayer, manual work, recreations and visitation of the sick which helps me grow in total consciousness of the presence of God. This is to ascertain that life not based on prayer, a church that is not spiritually founded, a world that is not prayerfully sophisticated, cannot be a world, a church or life that is fully alive. Consequently, for me to be fully alive, as a novice, the foundation stone is prayer without which I am inauthentic in everything that a capuchin novice should be. Novitiate is a decisive stage in the capuchin life where one gets deep into his call to follow Christ in the footsteps of Saint Francis.
As a matter of fact, the novitiate helped me to make the longest journey of my life which is the journey of myself to my inner self. The gospel, that is, the good news I listened to at every Eucharistic celebration made me good and new as well as the journey to my inner world throughout this one year of experience made an authentic change of goodness and newness in my being. I underline this aspect because once in the novitiate, one is called to a spirit of the Holy Scripture where one doesn’t just read to digest its fundamentals but also to listen to Christ who speaks and instructs.
In a nutshell, my experience as a novice is the experience of myself which revealed to me the light that lies hidden within and the darkness of my very person which calls to total surrender of my being to the true identity of who a capuchin is and should always be.
By Mbuye George
