Our Parish Retreat will be held on 22-24
September 2017 at two locations: our Church hall and at the adjacent Chi
Man School Hall. It is an opportunity for every parishioner to take time away
from our normal activities and to spend more time getting to know God and to
love Him; to examine our priorities in life, make concrete and practical
resolutions and to commit ourselves to a life of purpose and service. Making a good retreat can be a powerful step
towards individual conversion.
The Church in Peninsular Malaysia conducts
periodic retreats every year during the month of September requesting all bishops
and priests to make their yearly retreat for at least 5 days. We take time off
from our parish activities and pastoral duties to be in solitude with the Lord.
These past three years our parish has been organising retreats but these were
only one-day sessions. This year however the committee is organising a 3-day
Parish Retreat for all parishioners. This
time round we will be bringing distinguished speakers from a well-known retreat
centre – the Divine Retreat Centre,
Potta, Kerala. Every parishioner is encouraged to register and so to discover
how they may rekindle their relationship with Christ Jesus and learn the secret
of successful and joyful families!
In every part of the world, the Catholic
Church organisation offers many types of retreats for their members. Retreats
can be a single day or a whole week or even a month. They can be silent
retreats, preached retreats, directed or guided retreats with various spiritual
topics and daily meditations or conferences. Initially, we planned to have our
retreat for two days over the weekend but the Lord blessed us with another day
when the Muslims shifted the “Awal Muharram” from Thursday 21st to
Friday 22nd September this year. That is why we have added another
day to make it a 3-day retreat over the weekend. It will be more dynamic and
charismatic in tone with many spiritual insights, Praise and Worship and
healing sessions, Confessions and the Holy Eucharist. A special room will be
prepared for you to spend time in silent conversation in the presence of the
Blessed Sacrament during the course of the retreat. It is a time for you to
listen to the Holy Spirit and to get to know Jesus better as you get into your
truer self.
When you come for this weekend retreat with
our POTTA priests retreat masters, it will be a special time of the year for
you to get away from all your daily activities, to encounter God and to deepen
your relationship with Him. Too often, in our daily life, we are overwhelmed
with many distractions and we may fail to hear the voice of God. So we encourage
you, when you come for the retreat, please do turn off your hand phones and
unplug yourself from all social-communications. The Lord wants your full
attention in this upcoming retreat.
As your parish
priest I strongly recommend you to attend this retreat and do not give reasons
or excuses but take the trouble to register soonest. It is a retreat all about
seeking, finding and loving Christ and you too will gain many spiritual
enlightenments and insights. The Holy Spirit
will prompt you as you participate in this retreat. He will provide special
graces to lead you to true and lasting spiritual progress. As the retreat days
draw closer, we invite you to pray that the Lord, “Give success to the work of
our hands, and may His kingdom come and may His will be done!”
For more
information about the Parish Retreat 2017, do visit the Parish Retreat counter in front of our Church before and after every
weekend Mass. My best wishes!
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