Lenten Recollection 2015

On Sunday 22 March 2015, a full-day Lenten Recollection was held at St. Gerard’s Church for two Filipino communities from Upper Hutt and Paraparaumu respectively. It was a time to prepare themselves in this great season of grace.

Three separate programmes were conducted simultaneously with the Cenacle sisters animating the recollection for the adult group, while the ICPE Mission team animated the sessions for 2 groups children and youth, age ranging between 6 and 25 years old.

The theme of the recollection was “God is Good, I am good.” The groups started their session with ice breakers and games to get them more acquainted to one another. It was then followed by a session on God’s love where they were introduced to the true image of God, who is Love, Compassionate and Merciful. The second session was based on their identity as Sons and Daughters of their Heavenly Father. The truth of who they truly are and how precious each and every one of them are was really spoken into their life. They had group dynamics, creativity and discussions running the whole day to reflect and share their views and understanding of the topics of the day.

The Youth were then invited to reflect on what they received throughout the day, and to see how God was speaking to them following which they brought what they had gained into a time of Adoration. During that time of silent adoration the sacrament of reconciliation was made available to them.

The day of Recollection ended with the adults and youth coming back together as a group to celebrate the Eucharist that was animated by the Filipinos. At the end of the mass some of the youth presented a song which declared their commitment to follow Jesus as Lord and Saviour.