Using the document “Evangeli Gaudium” as the main focus of the content for the inputs in our retreat, the retreat director, Fr Gerard, accompanied us through 7 days of spiritual journey to rediscover and renew our appreciation of the Joy of the Gospel that we are called to bring to the world as it was given to us by Jesus Christ. The inputs helped to journey through the source, content and challenges of this mission especially in our world of today.
I would like to represent our retreat journey with these pictures below:
1. Called from different corners of the world, we have spent years proclaiming the good news in our different missions. This renewal program however can be seen like a journey of pilgrims – some exhausted, some seeking more meaning, some seeking renewed vigor, some seeking reaffirmation – and all choosing the one place to get answers, from Jesus himself. So we come, not discouraged but with hope, to the source and author of all, represented by his servants in this program, and especially the priest who is to accompany us in this retreat.
2. We all stretch out our physical hands, representing our hearts and our lives, to Jesus, whose presence is represented by the lit candle, held by his servant. In his turn, the priest accompanies and guides us to be enlightened anew and renews that light of Christ in our hearts to renew our zeal to go back to our various missions.
3. We receive the light of Christ, symbol of his full outpouring of the spirit into our hearts, each according to our different gifts and strengths.
4. Full of joy, we go out. Like eagles, rejuvenated in the spirit, TOGETHER WE SOAR out to the world, ready to brave and rise above every storm of challenges and/or weaknesses, bringing the joy of the gospel to every corner of the earth, with Mary our mother constantly interceding for us and soaring side by side with us.
Fidelis Shola, SMA