The Pastoral Agents namely Sunday School Teachers, Religious Education teachers and Catechists of the Archdiocese of Ibadan gathered at St. Cyprian Oke-Offa on the 30th November 2024 for its annual retreat, themed “Be attentive to Gods presence”.

In the words of the Retreat Director, Our world today is filled with distractions that affect us negatively and weighs us down. It weighs us down because we often forget that there is one who is in charge. Looking into the scriptures 1sam. 3: 1- 11, he reminded all, the call of Samuel by the Lord. Samuel did not know who was calling him, he needed the help of Eli to understand the voice of the Lord. For us, we are busy watching the Television of life,  that we don’t hear when the Lord is calling us. Sometimes like Samuel, God calls us but we don’t know who is calling us.

Lessons:

Spirituality does not come on a platter, update yourself as regards the things of God.

Be attentive to the voice of the God.

Create a quite time for the Lord.

Do not be distracted with the things of life.

See God presence in all of its creation.

Sometimes we get sad and miserable, we fail to see Gods presence in his creation.

Learn to give thanks to God for what you see, it helps you to see Gods presence in your life.

Learn to See Gods presence in other people.

As a Catechist see God in your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

He presented John the Baptist as a model for Catechist in this season of Advent

In his words, John the Baptist had a call and went into the wilderness to prepare, before he embarked on the assignment of preaching. As for the Catechist, his wilderness is his training and yearning to learn and grow

When John the Baptist was preaching, people asked what shall we do?

The Catechist is the one people of God ask what to do.

John the Baptist directed the people on what to do.

Do the Catechist direct people?