The Gospels often refer to Jesus’ mission as, “He went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and illness among the people” (Mt 4:23; see also Mt 24:14; Lk 4:18; 7:22; 20:1)[1]. What is the good news? One way of referring to the “good news”, is to take it as the compendium of the teachings of Jesus. In this sense, the Gospels are the good news. At another level the news about the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus could be proclaimed as the good news. However, at a deeper level, Jesus himself is the Good News. Therefore, embracing the Good News just means experiencing Jesus himself.
The interesting thing about the Gospel narratives is that, as I came to discover, there is an underlying pattern in these encounters with Jesus. It is this pattern that […]
Youth Retreat
Youth Retreat
Jesus Experience – 7 Step Retreat
Nairobi, 20 April 2011
The popularity of the 7 Step Retreat is now on the rise. Or it is that whenever I am asked to do a retreat for young people these days, I just follow this outline. This morning I concluded another two full-day retreat for about 200 youth at the Don Bosco Boystown. The Boystown is one of the Don Bosco institutions at Karen, Nairobi. It is a technical school that was started in 1985, following the model of Boystown of Father Flanegan, Nebraska, U.S. Our Boystown also admits girls for the secretarial courses during the day programme.
Using John 1:35-42 as the key text I elaborate a 7 step retreat that trace the pathway of the Christian Life Journey: Thirst (two disciples of John the Baptist), Signs (Look there is the Lamb of God!), Search (What do you […]
Come and See: 7-Step Retreat
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 12 April 2011
Last weekend (8th to 10th April) 52 youth gathered at the Mbagala Spiritual Centre for a weekend retreat that I was privileged to animate together with Mr Prosper Dionis. Prosper has been my faithful companion in several training programmes and retreats since the year 2000. The retreat, that is part of the annual programme of the Chuo Cha Maisha programme, was organised by the Don Bosco Youth Educational Services (DBYES-Tanzania) that I had lauched in 2005. Chuo Cha Maisha programme is a Christian lifeskills training programme run by DBYES-TZ in the Archdiocese of Dar es Salaam. Every year the programme reaches out to about 300 youth from 6 to 7 parishes; it runs from July to May every year with 20 days of training. The training is offered by a voluntary youth group: Don Bosco Youth for […]
Njoo Uone Retreat
One of most powerful experiences in youth ministry is youth retreat. Between 2005 and 2008 we did several five-day silent retreats for young people. Find here the standard timetable: