African International Novitiate

On the 8th of September, the feast day of the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seven new candidates were admitted into the novitiate to start their novitiate formation. Two of them were from Cameroon and two from Liberia, and one each from Nigeria, Chad, and Cote d?Ivoire. The reception was done in a simple but symbolic way within a short meaningful ceremony with only the novitiate community members, without Holy Mass, in the evening, with the cassocks already blessed a day before in the Holy Mass. The Parish Priest came on invitation to observe the ceremony so also were two Religious Sisters in the parish. The ceremony took place in the novitiate chapel. On September the 22nd 13 novices went on Community/Apostolic Experience to different Marist Apostolic Communities in West Africa. Six of them were from the Province of Nigeria; they all went to Nigeria. The other seven belong to the West African District under the Mediterranean Province: six Cameroonians and one Ghanaian. Three of the Cameroonian novices went to the Marist Communities in Cote d?Ivoire while the remaining four joined the two apostolic Marist Communities in the city of Kumasi in Ghana.The departure for community experience comes after the canonical year. It usually lasts 10 weeks. By 10th December 2010 all the novices will return from the experience. The novices expressed joy to have this experience for they see it as a foretaste of the life they will profess to live. The experience has started to make them feel complete Marist Brothers.