On 7th October, 35 workers and house staff of our four houses of New Delhi – R.K. Puram, Snehalaya, Najafgarh and Vasant Vihar made their annual retreat at Auxilium Holy Child, Vasant Vihar.

The day’s programme was animated by Rev. Fr. P.J.  Mathew from Dharuheara.

Through input sessions with the help of motivational stories the preacher led the participants to arrive at the following conclusions:

• God created us to play a responsible and unique role in our life.
• We are surrounded by difficulties and problems, but we must respond to these positively, for our God is with us always.
• The Family Rosary is an essential element for our Christian living

In the afternoon the participants spent the time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, reception of the sacrament of Confession and the Holy Eucharist. At the end of the day the retreatants praised and thanked God for the wonderful opportunity to spend the day in His Company. At the end of the retreat everyone reached a Rosary as a gift.

A retreat for the house staff was conducted from 3-6 September at Auxilium, New Chumta. 12 of them from different communities of North Bengal participated in the retreat. The animators were Sr. Mary Ekka from Auxilium, New Chumta and Sr. Cecilia Tamba from Nirmala Niketan, Jaigaon.

The retreat commenced with Adoration in the evening. During the good night Sr. Theresa Vettuvazhiyil welcomed the retreatants and spoke to them about the importance of the retreat.

Sr. Mary Ekka touched on the topics “God and me; Life of the saints; Life of the Church; role of Mary in our life, Life here on earth and hereafter in heaven”. Sr. Cecilia Tamba spoke on Sacraments via video clips. The retreatants experienced freedom, light, peace, joy and God’s presence within. On 6^th morning with the Eucharistic celebration the retreat was concluded. The retreatants expressed their gratitude to the organizers and animators for providing wonderful opportunity to be with God.