Dance, rhythm, song and exuberant colours
The taut skin of the ?ngoma? beat out the celebration of the birthday of Brother Seán Sammon at MIC, Nairobi. On the same day we closed the liturgical year with the feast of Christ the King. The two events delighted the spirits of the participants. The chapel at MIC was full with the presence of the five Marist fraternities of student brothers, neighbours and friends. The group of young people who were participating in the ?Meeting of young people of Africa with the Superior General and his Council?, having come from eleven distinct countries where the brothers are present, were also present. They assured their activities with the General Council in the D:B: YES, a house run by the Salesians a few kilometres from MIC at Nairobi.
The student brothers from the ?Marist International Centre (MIC)? led the chants of the liturgical assembly with rhythms of African folklore and its magnificent polyphony and with the liturgical dance that the Church in Africa incorporates so splendidly in its liturgy. It was Sunday. A few dozen white soutanes contrasted with the festive clothing of the different ethnic groups represented at MIC. Dance, rhythm, song, exuberant colours! It was the feast of the Lord and the birthday of Brother Seán.
At the end of the Mass, Brother Seán thanked everyone for the prayers that this Marist community had offered to the Lord for him, in union with all the members of the Institute. And he thanked the Lord ?for having arrived at the end of his fifty years.?
The General Council continued the meeting with the young people of Africa and at the end of the afternoon, brothers and young people gathered around Brother Seán to offer him, on the day of his birthday, a baton of command representative of the authority in the tribe, while the more skilful danced to the rhythms of their own countries.
Brother Luis Garcia Sobrado, Vicar General, thanked Brother Seán, on behalf of the entire Institute, for his work, his service and his love of the brothers, ?marvellous companions?, that the Lord had placed on our pathway.