Retreat and Workshop for
the Parish and Prayer Leaders of the Prefecture Apostolic. Theme: New
Evangelization in the Year of Faith.
This activity is
considered the most important yearly event in the Prefecture Apostolic of the
Marshall Islands. Indeed, we are very
grateful to Deacon David and Arceli Suley for helping us as Resource
Leaders. They have moved our heart, mind
and spirit as they challenged, motivated and inspired us to be resourceful and
creative evangelizers in this year of faith. They have taught us to appreciate
and love our life stories. These are the important and precious fooprints of
God in our journey of gaith. They introduced us to the beautiful "lectio
divina" in order to enrich our lives spiritually by reminding us that
there is POWER in the word of God. They also introduced the exercise of prayer basket. Every participant is requested to write on a small piece of paper a prayer request and then, this is placed on a basket. When all have submitted, every one is requested tp pick-up a prayer request and offer a prayer during the day for this intention of someone else. Then before the Holy Mass in the evening, these prayer requests are collected to form part of the offering to the altar.
Through various
exercises, they centered our retreat and workshop on the great significance of
a CUP. Our life or personhood is like a cup. It contains many things, both good
and bad elements. We need to know the things that cause and lead us to sinful ways;
to worries and pain, to anxiety and heartaches, and to anger and envy. We were
taught and encouraged to empty these spiritual garbage from our cup in order
for our loving God to fill our cup of life to the fullest with his grace of
loving kindness and inexhaustible compassion. And today, we earnestly beseech
the Holy Spirit to come down on our prayer leaders and empower them with the
fire of his love. As Scripture says: "But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8).
