Fr. Blasius Tete SDB –
Manipur: Youth Retreat Conducted at St. John Bosco Parish, Senapati. With the thought of a spiritual wellbeing of every youth of the Parish and putting their trust in the granaries and treasures of divine providence, Rev. Fr. George, the Parish Priest of St. John Bosco Parish Senapati arranged for a three-day Youth Retreat which was conducted from 08 to 10 of July 2022 at St.John Bosco Parish, Senapati.
The preachers were Rev. Fr. Blasius Tete, SDB from St. Joseph’s High School Shajouba and Sr. Agnes MSMHC from St. Mary’s High School Marenmai. They were assisted by a group of three Catechism teachers, three religious sisters and four other members of the church. They were: Sr. Rashmi Kullu MSMHC, Sr. Margret SCCG, Sr. Alphonsa SCCG, Ma’am Lotus, Ma’am Fiona, Miss Teresa, Miss Salomi, Miss Athini, Miss Maria, Sir Nathan. Altogether, 263 youths attended the retreat from different centres of the Parish.
The themes that were dealt during the retreat were: “The Importance of Prayer in the Life of a Christian”, “Love the Catholic Church”, “Sacraments: Holy Eucharist and Confession”, “Love your Bible: The Importance of Word of God in our Life”, “Marian Devotion”, “The Ten Commandments”, “The Importance of Sunday School and Catechism Class”, Christian Spirituality: How to Live our Christian Life Well”, “Holiness: We are called to be Saints: St. Dominic Savio and Maria Goretti”, “We are called to be Intercessors”, “The Purpose of our Life is to Give Glory to God”, “My Soul: Borrowed from God.”
There were six talks per day each talk consisting of 45 minutes which were well regulated by the preachers and the retreat team and were devoutly and prayerfully animated using the audio-visual media, praise and worship sessions and religious action songs to break the monotony of being engaged with topics of serious nature.
The talks were jam-packed with examples, interactions, action songs, questions and clarifications. The evening sessions mainly concentrated on prayer moments like: Adoration, Rosary, and Divine Mercy Chaplet.
From the convenience point of view, the sisters animated all the prayer moments of each day after having an understanding with Fr. Blasius Tete SDB. Participants were lavished with ample time and conducive atmosphere for personal prayer and reflection.
Being introduced in the process of cultivating in themselves the capacity to sense the fading spiritual health of their own soul and after having carefully prepared the youths, on 9th afternoon the Sacrament of confession–an antidote to sin, was celebrated in an atmosphere of welcome and trust in the fatherly love and mercy.
Four confessors–the coaches of human hearts viz., Fr. James the Assistant Parish Priest of St. John Bosco Parish Senapati, Fr. Ephrem, Principal of Don Bosco Hr. Secondary School Senaparti, Fr. Daas from Divine Glory Prayer Tower Senapati (retreat centre) and Fr. Blasius sat for the ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18) believing in the power flowing from divine grace and helped light up the space of personal conscience of the youths with God’s infinite love (cf. 1 Jn 3:20) and thus, every youth taking part in the retreat was afforded with the opportunity of experiencing the liberating power of forgiveness in view of living a new life in Christ after the youth Retreat.
The youth retreat came to an end on 10th July (Sunday) with Holy Mass celebrated along with the faithful of the parish.
After having an attentive listening to the talks on the Sacraments and other relevant topics and having reflected much, related joyfully and prayed in depth, each of the participants left the parish refreshed and renewed with new spiritual energy to enrich themselves and heal others in their daily life without putting in the cold storage the blessings and insight received in those grace-filled days of the retreat.