Interprovincial Novitiate La Valla

On 2 February five new Brothers officially entered the Interprovincial Novitiate La Valla de Medellín, Colombia. 

The formation team, consisting of Brother José MiguelCaballero (Province of Norandina), Master of Novices; Brother Alejandro Herrera (Province of Central America), Sub-Master of Novices; and Brother Enrique Ruiz (Province of Central Mexico), received them with a warm welcoming ceremony. 

The five first year Brothers came to the Novitiate to continue their Marist formation. They are: Kevin Andrés Quezada Rojas (Ecuador, Norandina), Ricardo Alfredo Mundo Dueñas (El Salvador, Central America), Cristhian Arley Sandoval Urrea and Hernán Darío Casanova Ortiz (Colombia, Norandina) and Nikolas Charikiopoulos (Greece, L´Hermitage). 

The Interprovincial Novitiate, La Valla de Medellín, comprises the Provinces of Central America, Central Mexico, Western Mexico and Norandina. However,  for these two years the Province of L´Hermitage has one novice from Greece

In the Eucharistic celebration the novices were introduced to three important elements of the Institute of the Marist Brothers: the Constitutions, the calls of the XXII General Chapter and the Marist Cross.  

Also present at the welcoming ceremony were Brothers César Rojas (Provincial of Norandina), José Sánchez (Provincial of Central Mexico), Hipólito Pérez (Provincial of Central America), Héctor Colala, Councillor for the Province of Norandina, Javier Peña(Central Mexico), the communities of Santo Domingo and the Novitiate, as well as Father Rodrigo Ortiz. 

The second year of the Novitiate of La Valla de Medellín consists of five other novices: Oscar Israel Soubervielle, Jorge Edgar Almanza and Yarib Zain Daza (Mexicans, Province of Central Mexico), Oscar Bolívar (Colombian) and Junior Vinicio Jaramillo (Ecuadorian); both from the Norandina Province.