EVENTS:

Annual retreat for St. Dominic Parishioners

The retreat for the parishioners of St. Dominic Church was organized from the 4th - 7th of April 2019.

A team of Capuchin fathers consisting of Fr. Derek Dsouza- Director of the Divine Retreat centre, Fr. Joel Lobo- Editor of Sevak, Fr. Lancy Rebello and Fr. Jawahar Noronha gave the word of God and preached on these days.

“We are all here to treat ourselves of our ailments which can be psychological, spiritual, emotional or physical” was said and we were encouraged to take a decision to “change” the way we think.

Jesus has shown his love for us and we need to grow in faith and this is what He wants from us. In our daily lives we need to put into practice this faith and rekindle it so that we lead others to Christ.

We were explained the importance of relationships in our life and that should be our focus to improve and sustain our relationships in family and the outside world through the manner in how we speak and behave.

How sin came into this world and in modern times the greatest sin is to say “There is no sin at all”. Man has disobeyed God from the time of Adam and Eve and we all sin in different ways which was also explained to us.

In the parable of the Prodigal son, we were told that every time we focus on the second son who came back to His father and asked for forgiveness. But what about the eldest son? In many ways can we not relate to the eldest son in our day to day lives.

Whatever lives we have led in the past, we were called to leave it behind and they prepared us to make a good confession. We have been born with a sinful nature and we sin but our God who so loves always welcomes us in His loving arms and forgets the past, so we too should not dwell on our sins or the past but look towards living a holy life.

The healing session at the end of the retreat with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was very effective as we were led to look into our lives and renounce the superstitious beliefs which can affect us in our lives and instead we were encouraged to depend on the love of God and His mighty healing power in our lives.

About 600 parishioners attended the retreat which has enabled us to grow spiritually and lead fruitful lives.