Undergraduate Projects/Long Essays
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Item Comboni Witnesses Among the Pokot(Tangaza University College, 2004) Balosbalos, Euclid D.Originally, I did not intent to do a research work on Pokot until my second visit to Amakuriat Parish, Alale Division, located in Western Part of Kenya. It was December break. I was with a first year scholastic who journeyed back to where I had my first encounter with the polcot community. The journey by public transport to the mission took two days. The journey was long and difficult. However, we managed to arrive safe and sound. A few days into our stay, one of the Comboni fathers asked my companion about his stay. It was his first. His direct response caught directly my attention: "The place is quite beautiful but I have no desire to come back." He then continued: "The place is very far and the mission is tough!" His answer prompted me to reflect upon the presence of the Comboni missionaries especially in this remote area. I was bothered by a succession of questions: To whom are they witnessing? What's the content of their witness? What kind of missionary attitude do the Comboni Missionaries need today in Amakuriat mission? Are their methods of witnessing relevant to the people to whom they serve? What does it means to be witness of Christ? My questions were primarily of importance for the Comboni presence among the Polcat and the way they carry out their missionary effort in Amakuriat today. However, I will also address questions of life and identity. In chapter II, I will address the identity and the life of the Pokot in Amalcuriat on which I based my research. In chapter m, I will present the charism, identity and life of the Comboni missionaries, both the community of the priests and brothers and the community of the Comboni sisters working in that area. I will use descriptive and critical analysis applied to the kind of work in which they are engaged and their witness within the Pokot community. In chapter IV, I will examine the human witnesses in the Gospel of Luke and, how their identity and life witnessed of God's profound love in the person of Jesus Christ. In Chapter V. I will attempt to suggest new theological and missionary insights which I considers useful in the Comboni Mission, in particular the mission in Amalcuriat.Item The Silent Witnesses A Spirituality of the Contemplative Life in Reference to the Cottolengo Monasteries(Tangaza University College, 2003) Mwalachl, Agatha"Tell us something about your life". This request that has been often addressed to me either by the small groups of Christians who visit our monastery or the young people attending the prayer meetings that I used to animate, prompted my choice to do this research so as to deepen my understanding of the spirituality of the contemplative life in the Catholic Church and in our monasteries. To explain what contemplative form of religious life is today, especially to a young searching soul, as is the case of the ladies contemplating to make a choice for our monastery, a theoretical basis that is compelling and energising presented coherently is of crucial importance. This essay attempts to answer four questions. First, what is contemplative life and which are its roots in the scriptures and in the history of religious life? Second, what is the Church's teaching on the contemplative life and which are the principal elements that distinguish it from other forms of religious life? Third, what is the mission of the contemplatives? And fourth, what are the challenges facing this form of religious life and what could be the most appropriate response of the contemplatives to these challenges? The essay has four chapters. Chapter one is an elucidation of the terms spirituality, Christian spirituality and contemplative life. We found it of crucial importance to understand well the meaning and use of these terms in order to grasp the message of the whole essay. Chapter two explores the biblical and historical basis of the contemplative life in the Catholic Church. Chapter three is a discussion on the contemplative life in the economy of salvation and chapter four focuses specifically on the Cottolengo monasteries. The Cottolengo monasteries discussed in the last chapter serve as a concrete example of the reality of the contemplative life in the Catholic Church; hence completing the picture of what this style of religious life is all about. The essay closes with a general conclusion, which is a summary of whatever is discussed in the four chapters. The essay draws ideas from the already existing rich literature on the spirituality of the contemplative life and history of religious life. It is also enriched by ideas from the critical reflections gleaned from my personal experience of more than a decade in the Cottolengo Monastery in Tuuru — Kenya, together with living testimonies of my fellow sisters through discussions and interviews reported in appendix I and VII. Due to space and time limits, the essay goes straight to the point. It does not dwell much on the details about the customs and practices in the contemplative life. We have focused on the above-mentioned key themes in order to make the reader get to know what contemplative life is in a brief but complete way. Even if I am a Cottolengo contemplative, I purposely chose to develop this topic in a broad way without confining my research on the Cottolengo monasteries alone for two reasons: one, because I strongly feel cum ecclesiae, that is, I am a Cottolengo contemplative operating in the large reality of the universal Church. Secondly, although the Cottolengo Monasteries do not belong to the ancient monastic Orders such as the Augustinians, Benedictines and others, they have all the essential characteristics of any authentic contemplative community and their vocation places them at the heart of the Church. Therefore, I too can confidently say with St. Therese of Lisieux: "in my mother, the Church, I shall be love."