Catholic professionals attend retreat as part of spiritual journey

Members of the Catholic Professionals Society (CPS) gathered for their annual retreat at Nazareth House of Prayer, Laloki, in Central, last week.
The retreat, which had its theme, ‘Our call to Catholic holiness’, attracted 16 participants who attended the event from March 8 to 10.
The retreat was part of a spiritual journey.
It involved reflections given by retreat director Fr Sylvester Warwakai.
Topics covered at the retreat focused on the role of the laity in the church.
Fr Ambrose Pereira, the spiritual director of CPS, was present for the entire duration of the retreat.
The biblical perspective of the retreat was the story of Elijah seeking the presence of God, and of St Paul’s journey to Arabia before his conversion on his way to Damascus.
Warwakai invited the participants to silence and reflect on situations in which they had sought God and where they had been called by God.
He asked them to look at similarities in their lives, basing themselves on the experience of Elijah and St Paul.
‘Role, vocation and mission of the laity’ was the topic of the second session.
Warwakai drew on the life of Blessed Peter ToRot as a model for the laity to follow.
He said the laity are living stones of the church, and as baptised children of God, were involved in the redemptive mission and work of Christ Jesus.
“Each person has gifts that should be used to build the kingdom of God”, Warwakai said.
The reflection on the relationship between laity and clergy highlighted certain issues regarding clericalism, structure and hierarchy of the church, and the direction being taken by Pope Francis for a more pastoral approach of dealing with church matters.