FIC BROTHERS GHANA PROVINCE MAKE OUR ANNUAL COMMON RETREAT 

DATE: 1st - 7th SEPTEMBER, 2016. 

The annual retreat of the Brothers FIC Ghana Province has started in Wa St. Louis Community under the theme “Deepening our Community Life by Way of Witnessing to God’s Mercy”. A total of twenty eight brothers (28) are attending it. 

In his welcome address, the provincial superior Br. Seregeous Dery (FIC) commended the participants for the massive turnout for this year’s retreat. He underscored the importance of a retreat in the life of a religious as “a time to allow God to speak to you and reveal to you what he wants of you in your journey of life”. As people in active service worn out by fatigue and stress from the year-long work, he reiterated that this quiet time is needed to replenish the oils of their lamps and to keep them burning for their total functionality as religious. In this way, a retreat is an indispensable refreshing need in all spheres of the life of the religious.

The Provincial Superior urged the retreating brothers to try to avoid all forms of distractions and "be fully present and alone with the Alone". Having said this, he introduced Most Rev. Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Yendi as the retreat preacher for the 2016 common retreat of the FIC Ghana Province.

Speaking to the theme, the retreat preacher projected community life as the core and epitome of religious life. In Africa, community life is homogenous– when one family or community is in pain, all families or communities share in that and the vice versa. By this, the members show concern and empathy for one another. As religious he pointed out to participants that the love of Christ has brought them together in community and they need to understand clearly what community life all stands for so that they would be able to witness to God’s love for one another in community. To attain this, the preacher admonished the retreatants to try to compromise and go beyond their differences to be able to build and deepen their community life so as to witness to God’s mercy instead of complaining about one another. Having said this, he declared the 2016 annual retreat of the FIC Ghana Province duly opened. 

By Bro. Iraneous Nembari (FIC)

(Assistant Communication Director, FIC Ghana Province)