Come and See 2012
Come and See!” was the answer Jesus gave to two young men who wanted to know where he lived. To young people in Bangladesh wishing and willing to join us, we gave the same answer: “Come and See!” We had a Come and See programme from 11th April to 18th April. Fourteen candidates were in attendance.
The following topics were presented to them: What is Vocation, Vocation and Motivation, What is Prayer, Personal experience as a Religious, Marriage as a vocation, Our Catholic Faith, History of the Church in Bangladesh, Mary and Our Founder St. Marcellin. Among those who presented the above topics were the Vicar General of the Diocese, two Taize Brothers, two Priests and three Salesian Sisters. Due to language limitations, two of our Marist Brothers gave talks on Mary (Br. Marti) and St. Marcelin our Founder (Br. Eugenio).
The rest of us showed our affective and effective Marist Presence in leading the prayers in Bangla (Br. Vigilio), teaching Common prayers (Br. Mark), teaching English songs (Br. George) and taking pictures (Br. Hilario). We ate, washed plates and did house chores together with them. This is what touched them most. They were inspired and edified seeing us eating with them and doing house chores together. Our Simple Life is what many of them gave as the main reason for their continued desire to become Marist Brothers. They want to share our Multicultural Marist Life as evidenced by our being 6 Brothers from all the five continents: Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. This is what they “Came and Saw”, our Marist Community Life characterized by Internationality and simplicity – a new reality they want to be part of.
Nous avons mangé, fait la vaisselle et les corvées domestiques ensemble avec eux. C’est ce à quoi ils ont été le plus sensibles. Ils ont été surpris et édifiés en nous voyant manger avec eux et prendre part avec eux aux corvées domestiques. Notre vie simple est ce que plusieurs d’entre eux ont signalé comme motif principal de poursuivre leur désir de devenir Frères maristes.
Ils veulent partager notre vie maristemulticulturelle comme en témoigne notre communauté de 6 Frères venant des cinq continents : les Amériques, l’Europe, l’Afrique, l’Asie et l’Océanie. Voilà ce qu’ils sont « venus voir » : la vie de notre communauté mariste marquée par l’internationalité et la simplicité, une réalité nouvelle dont ils veulent faire partie.