I am here in Belgium and very happy. Iin the beginning it was not easy, but now I am so glad. I am speaking English. I have 8 companions from different parts of the world; it is really great to share with them. I am living an ineffable experience. It is helpful to know different cultures, because it gives me a holistic vision about the world and also about our congregation. 

I wonder every day: what am I doing here? Where am I going? What does mean to be Brother of Charity? I am here because I want to develop my relation with God, I am building it every day; there is nothing more important I can do. I think God’s presence has a specific place: my community, it means I also have to learn how to live with my brothers. 

I am going to spread God’s kingdom against individualism, materialism, hedonism the most important things in our society where God is not the center of our lives, where the human dignity is spoiled everywhere. 

I will be here for two years, I am very sure it will be an unforgettable experience in my religious life. Yes, I am over the moon here. I am happy with my companions, with my postulant master. I am building my future, my relation with God, my vocation. 

In these two years I need to create identification with my congregation and its charisma. I have put my vocation in God’s hands, He can draw it, and step by step He will become the reason of my life. I am here for him. The world changes constantly, so we also need to change as a dynamic person, obviously building our own process every day, it means: waking up, because sometimes we are sleeping. The life of the world is attractive but I think I have more to offer to the world, as a Christian, as a religious, as a person. I know it is not easy to be religious, because sometimes Jesus’ doctrine goes against our nature, for example Jesus said: love your enemies, it sounds crazy, but I understand that for I am sure religious life comes from the life, not from a book. It is fascinating. We need to build a world where human being, peace and life become the most important values.

Roli Marín Tapia, San Martin de Porrès Region.

(Yo soy el que soy)

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Second Witness:

My experience of the novitiate:

As you know there just some months left of my canonical year. I am still asking myself: what does this novitiate time mean to me? This question sounds simple, but it is not at all.

Obviously, my experience can answer that question. This novitiate time is a divine blessing, a formidable time to learn how to breathe God’s air, to learn to look at the reality with God’s eyes and with God’s perspective. This time is for me the foundation, the golden stone where to build up my relationship with God, a relation that needs an inner transformation in order to answer God exclusively towards the fulfillment of his purpose which it to love with the same incommensurable God’s love.

This period is a sacred time of transfiguration, I do not change my skin, my color, but I change my mentality, my attitudes, and my behavior in order to have a holistic vision about the life according to the values of the Gospel. In this novitiate the unfathomable God becomes visible, a concrete and palpable reality, he is very close to me personally and through my brothers as well, God helps me to live under the same roof, the roof of harmony, unity and solidarity showing to the world that it is possible to live with different people.

Sometimes I have the tendency to look just at one side of the reality, but I think it is more constructive to find and equilibrium. To develop such an attitude is also one of the aims of the novitiate. So that I am looking ahead without worries; the future is another present time to be lived, with God nothing can go wrong.

Ultimately, this novitiate prepares me to go ahead and to make present the living God and to tell other people especially to those who are neglected, excluded and abandoned that there is someone who really cares for them and to tell them that suffering has a meaning.

This novitiate is an ineffable experience which gives me an indelible mark to be a real disciple of Jesus and to contribute in the construction of his Kingdom.

Roli Marin f.c.