Nairobi, 20 April 2011
The popularity of the 7 Step Retreat is now on the rise. Or it is that whenever I am asked to do a retreat for young people these days, I just follow this outline. This morning I concluded another two full-day retreat for about 200 youth at the Don Bosco Boystown. The Boystown is one of the Don Bosco institutions at Karen, Nairobi. It is a technical school that was started in 1985, following the model of Boystown of Father Flanegan, Nebraska, U.S. Our Boystown also admits girls for the secretarial courses during the day programme.
Using John 1:35-42 as the key text I elaborate a 7 step retreat that trace the pathway of the Christian Life Journey: Thirst (two disciples of John the Baptist), Signs (Look there is the Lamb of God!), Search (What do you […]
Youth Ministry Resources
Youth Ministry Resources
Handling Emotions: a Workshop
Nairobi, 15 April 2011
I facilitated a two day formation seminar for the Junior Sisters of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters) on the theme “Handling Your Emotions”. It took place at the FMA Provincial house at Hurlingham from 13th to 15th April 2011.
The input part of the workshop targeted the following themes: clarifying various affective states; the difference between moods and emotions; the difference in the way men and women process emotions.
The training attempted to impart following skills: naming one’s feelings; journalling as a way of handling emotions; assertive communication of emotions; examen of conscience.
The liturgies and some prayer moments offered reflections on the role of emotions in spiritual life, namely, God moves us from within us, and we can get in touch with these movements by getting in touch with our feelings.
Youth Caught in the Web
Nairobi, 15 April 2011
A three-day symposium organised by the Institute of Youth Ministry (IYM), came to an end today at Tangaza College. On three afternoons different experts shared their ideas to a large audience on the theme of www.youthcaughtintheweb.com The symposium is an annual event, and this year’s one was specially planned by Fr Hubert Pinto. On the first day, Mr Ronald Omboto, an IT-expert, led a three hour session on the history of Internet and the World wide web (WWW). He spoke also of the tremendous possibilities that exist due to this relatively new development. He also enumerated the socio economic political and cultural impact of the internet.
On the 2nd day, Fr Sahaya G. Selvam, SDB led the discussion on three sub-themes related to ‘youth caught in the web’. He began […]
Come and See: 7-Step Retreat
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 12 April 2011
Last weekend (8th to 10th April) 52 youth gathered at the Mbagala Spiritual Centre for a weekend retreat that I was privileged to animate together with Mr Prosper Dionis. Prosper has been my faithful companion in several training programmes and retreats since the year 2000. The retreat, that is part of the annual programme of the Chuo Cha Maisha programme, was organised by the Don Bosco Youth Educational Services (DBYES-Tanzania) that I had lauched in 2005. Chuo Cha Maisha programme is a Christian lifeskills training programme run by DBYES-TZ in the Archdiocese of Dar es Salaam. Every year the programme reaches out to about 300 youth from 6 to 7 parishes; it runs from July to May every year with 20 days of training. The training is offered by a voluntary youth group: Don Bosco Youth […]
Via Lucis – Version 2
A pious exercise called the Via Lucis has developed and spread to many regions in recent years. Following the model of the Via Crucis, the faithful process while meditating on the various appearances of Jesus – from his Resurrection to his Ascension – in which he showed his glory to the disciples who awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14, 26; 16, 13-15; Lk 24, 49), strengthened their faith, brought to completion his teaching on the Kingdom and more closely defined the sacramental and hierarchical structure of the Church.
Through the Via Lucis, the faithful recall the central event of the faith – the resurrection of Christ – and their discipleship in virtue of Baptism, the paschal sacrament by which they have passed from the darkness of sin to the bright radiance of the light of grace (cf. Col 1, 13; Eph 5, 8).
For centuries the Via Crucis involved the faithful in […]