You are the light that enlightens others. This was the theme of the annual retreat for the catechists. The day of recollection was held on the 11 February at St. Patrick’s, La Rochelle. Around 400 catechists came from different parts of the Archdiocese to nourish their hearts with a spiritual food at the beginning of the catechetical year.
The recollection day was facilitated by Fr Boniface D’Souza and Sr Tarsycja Groblica. Fr Boniface referring to the theme of the day said: Being a catechist begins with Christ. You must look at Christ. You must seek Christ and love Christ. And when you have light of Christ within yourself and when you know Him, automatically you are able to pass the light of faith to others. You start to shine with the light of Christ to others not even knowing about it. Melyne from Eldorado Park said that it was very important for her to hear this message. I am the light and I have the light. My light needs to shine to other people’s lives. We are like a candle to light other ‘candles’ –she said.
Sr Tarsycja led the introduction to the meditation on the Gospel passage (J 8:12-20) which says that whoever follows Jesus cannot walk in the darkness. Where there is no Jesus, there is no hope. Where there is no Jesus, there is only darkness. If we would take Jesus out of Divine Mercy image, there would remain a black background. This is how our life looks like when we don’t have Jesus in it. Jesus saying “I am the Light of the world” wants to tell us that He is our guide and our protection as the pillar of fire at the desert during the exodus from Egypt. In complete silence the catechists reflected on the Word of God and those dark places in their lives where they are somehow separated from God. One catechist after meditation said: I learned about the importance of inviting God into my problems. I’m going to do it from now on –Disebo Mofokeng from Nyolohelo.
The catechists have had an opportunity to express their advantages and challenges of serving as catechists. Catechists were very happy after such a spiritually fruitful day and left with the mandate Fr Boniface gave in his homily to go and spread the light of Jesus to others and build the Kingdom of God at their parishes.
