ST ANNE MEDIA TEAM

 

The season of Lent invites Christians to prayer, fasting and reflection in preparation for Easter. To support this focus, many Churches organize retreats that set aside ordinary routines and provide a quiet place for scripture reading, personal examination and communal worship. The congregation are encouraged to step back from daily demands, consider their actions in light of their faith, and renew their commitment to charity and repentance. In this way, the Lenten retreat serves as a disciplined opportunity for spiritual renewal at the heart of the Church’s penitential season.

St Anne’s Sasa’s Lenten retreat this year embodied that same aim, bringing parishioners together for scripture and reflection in preparation for Easter. The retreat was held on March 7, 2026. The activities lined up for the day included exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, recitation of the rosary and Penitential Service.

The visiting priest, Rev. Fr. John Paul Nnajiofor, titled his reflection “Sin of man, Mercy of God”. The first ever sin in life is the sin of disobedience. Disobedience is a result of the spirit of rebellion. And disobedience affects relationship between both God and man. Drawing reference from the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, disobedience led to the eviction of Adam and Eve from the garden and the presence of God.

To further buttress this point, God rejected Saul as king because of his disobedience during the war against the Amalekites (1 Sam 15). These two instances shows that Disobedience distances and separates people from the closeness God intended. Sin, in general, draws people away from God. This is because, after committing one sin, more sins are needed to back up the first one. For instance, when a person steals, he has to lie to cover up his deed. Sin multiplies.

However, God’s mercy exists to prevent man from condemnation. God is readily waiting to forgive man of his sins and draw man back to Himself. Luke 15 is a pointer of God’s mercy. The whole chapter discusses the parable of the lost coin, the lost son and the lost sheep. The search for the lost coin and sheep shows that God is patiently waiting and seeking the repentance and return of man. There is jubilation in heaven over every lost soul that repents and returns back to God, just as there is celebration at the finding of the lost coin/son/sheep. There is no sin too grave for God to forgive.

A group work was also carried out by the parishioners present on topics bordering the Family as a Domestic Church. It was noted that family is indeed the domestic Church as it is the first place people learn to live out faith in daily life. Within the home, parents and children pray together, read Scripture, and practice forgiveness and service. These ordinary acts, blessing a meal, comforting a child after a disappointment, resolving quarrels, become small schools of love where belief is not only talked about but lived. In this sense, the family mirrors the wider Church by being a community of worship, mutual support and moral formation.

This domestic Church also sends its members outward. When a family teaches honesty, generosity and care for neighbours, those habits shape how its members act in school, work and society. The home does not replace parish life, it prepares for it. The Family serves as the foundation of the Church as the Church is a formation of a group of families.

The retreat was concluded with the Holy mass.