October 18, 2006

By the time you read this reflection, I will be very far from Newark, New Jersey. I will be in Ghana, West Africa. As some of you may remember, Brother Crispin and I went for our first visit to Africa last winter. Father Bernard, our superior, has asked us to return: “round two!” The last time we went, we escaped some snow; unfortunately this time we’ll be missing out on the autumn foliage. Weather in Ghana? HOT!

As you can imagine, our obedience to journey back to Africa is far from sacrificial; it is indeed a pleasure and a privilege. Our first visit was an eye-opening experience, although my frequent visits to our mission in Honduras did introduce me to the material poverty, and also the natural beauty and spiritual wealth often found in the Third World. Fortunately, my limited language skills, which hindered full communication in Honduras, won’t be a problem in Ghana since English is spoken by many people. Whether they understand my Brooklynese is another story!

Our community was invited to Ghana by a bishop who some years ago founded a community of religious brothers. He entrusted the spiritual formation of the community (which now numbers nine men) to two of his diocesan priests; yet while they could provide some theological instruction, they could not supply formation in religious life. This is what we can supply, especially since the mission and identity, the “charism,” of the African community is almost identical to our own. So, we will be spending one month living with this small community of brothers. We will present classes on Franciscan spirituality and CFR life; yet we suspect much of our work will be in the form of simply living and working with the brothers. In fact, we will be literally laboring side-by-side with the African brothers as they are presently renovating a building to be used as a friary. We will do our best to get some personal reflections and pictures back to Rosann who will do her magic and post them.

In the meantime, the road to Africa runs both ways, as you will see in the photos. Part of the initial formational plan is to have some brothers join us here for a year. So, a few weeks ago, Brother Emmanuel and Brother Anas made their journey over to the United Sates and are now living at the novitiate in Newark; a third African brother may be returning with us next month. Whether these brothers will some day be CFR’s, we don’t know. Our job is not to know God’s plan, but to do our best to be a part of it!

Please pray the Lord will open wide or tightly shut every door before us so we can follow His most perfect will! I pray the same for you. God bless you.

Fr. Glenn Sudano, CFR