Nav Sadhana offers two courses for Novices every year: one is on Scripture and another on Church History or Christology every alternate year. This year the course on Church History was conducted from Feb. 17 to 24.
Like the birds of different places, sixty Novices of six congregations – FMM, HC, OSF of Dilingan or Bilaspur, OSF of Raipur, and UMI – joined in the campus of Nav Sadhana on Feb. 14, 2018 to attend the class on the Church History, given by Rev.Fr. Aquin Noronha OP, Parish Priest of Ashok Nagar Parish and the visiting professor of St. Charles Seminary, Nagpur.
From his wealth of knowledge on the Church History, he shed light on the origin of Christianity and on formation of the Christian (Catholic) Church. The Novices realized that though the church was persecuted in the initial period, faith of Christians was strong, stable, firm, undeterred. A Novice said, “After knowing the past centuries of our Church, the zeal and love for the Church in us has increased and we felt one with our Universal Church. We are grateful to Fr. Aquin for his systematic and well planned teaching with power point presentation.” Another Novice said, “A deeper insight into the history of the Church and zeal of the early Christians enkindled in us the love for the Church and increased our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
They realized the power of God operative in the Church in spite of human weakness and frailty. However, Jesus sustains the Church by raising men and women of exemplary life as per need of the time and age. At the end of the class, they realized their responsibility of holding up the charism of the congregation and of the Church in collaboration with the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The novices expressed their gratitude to the Nav Sadhana Staff for making their stay comfortable and for providing sumptuous meals and congenial atmosphere.