Naughton House, a Novitiate House, Blessing

Members of the Melbourne Community gathered at 71 Central Rd Blackburn (which has served in recent years for student residence). The occasion was the Blessing of the house (which belongs to the parish) as a Novitiate House. Chris McPhee blessed the house, assisted by Khoi Nguyen who has the role of Novice Director.

There was some hope for an outdoor ceremony. Instead, rain and some lightning and thunder.

The decision was made to name the house, Naughton House in honour of Terry Naughton. Terry was pre-Novitiate director at Croydon, then Novice Master, then at the Retreat House at St Mary’s Towers. Terry was Chris McPhee’s Novice Director and his mentor for the years Chris was Novice Director.

As a tribute to Terry’s spirit, your site editor puts in his two penneth. Terry succeeded me as pre-Novitiate Director.  Some thought me too soft in the role. Then Terry arrived with his affirmations, cheerfulness and ‘Goodonya, champ, making me seem like Hitler.

Province thanks to Terry.

Peter Hendriks sent out the following explanation:  Naughton House will be the second Novitiate House for our Province for a time. Why do we need a second novitiate house? Khoi, who is the Novice Director, has failing eyesight which can’t be remedied. He, Chris and the Council had a conversation and as a result, with permission from the General, we were allowed to nominate the house at Blackburn as an additional Novitiate. That means that Khoi remains in familiar surroundings as his sight worsens, and the property at Blackburn is a lot smaller and more manageable than St Mary’s Towers. The Novitiate will eventually return to St Mary’s Towers.

We took the opportunity to farewell Anh who will return to Vietnam this week.