Click HERE for photos of the day
As planned, we celebrated another session of training of catechists. This time it was done at the Pastoral Centre in Hlabisa. The catechists serve the communities of Hlabisa and Mtubatuba.
This session of training continues the plan started last year. It is a "three year journey" following the training being done at Metropolitan level at Pax Christi Pastoral Centre (Newcastle, Diocese of Dundee). We basically worked on the RCIA (Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults).
Even though training of catechists are becoming a natural part of our journey, it is true that this session was a bit different. First because of some "last minute problems" and second because of the weekend chosen for the training.
Dates had been chosen well in advance. While last year the first session was done at Hlabisa and the second at Ngwanase, this year we chose to start at Ngwanase. The idea was to delay the training in Hlabisa so that we could finish fixing the pastoral centre. It did not happen. Part of the work was done just a few days before the training and it was not possible to buy bunk beds and mattresses in time. To make it more complicated, we were not even able to borrow them for the training. Still, everyone accepted the situation (blankets replaced the mattresses) and the training was done as planned.
The other particular element is that Sunday was "mother's day". Most of the catechists are mothers who would have happily spent the whole day with their families but they only went home by midday at the end of the Mass.
During Mass the catechists renewed their commitment to serve their communities in front of the Bishop. They were blessed and each one received a cross and an image of Our Lady of Ngome.
In the second half of the year we plan to continue the Biblical training with the Catholic Bible Foundation of South Africa as we did last year.
