General Councillors in Matola
General Councillors leave with a traditional ngoni warriors capulana souvenirs. On the 30th April, the novitiate community was bidding farewell to the General Councillors, Brother Antonio on your left and Brother Ernesto on your right and the second year novices. We welcomed them in Maputo and we also saw them off, parting company, one for Zambia and another for Zimbabwe on the 1st May, 2012, morning hours. Brother Antonio was expressing the message of his impression to us at a farewell gathering. He stressed that the novitiate is the HEART or centre of our formation stages. He said we have pre-novitiate and post-novitiate stages, hence the need for the novices to make a serious discernment and a free and conscious decision to follow the Marist way of life. He wished us well and expressed the likely possibility of visiting us in the near future. He stayed with us longer than Br. Ernesto (Br. Ernesto visited alone Nivava community, in the North). He had time to chat with us as individuals and as groups. The novices too had their turn of sharing with him. We felt brother among brother with them. We sang and danced in praise of them. Among all the evening entertainments, Novice Kingford’s dance from Zambia and Ngoma, traditional Ngoni war dance stole the show. After the final remarks from the Master of Novices, we closed the evening with the Regina Caeli. Come again our dear General Councillors and carry with you our regards to your confreres and others places you are yet to visit. Union of prayers in this month of Mary.
Simeon Banda, fms, Matola, Mozambique
