For the first time, the retreat, which is usually promoted by the General Council for members of the Shalom Catholic Community who have some service of authority, will be open to missionaries of the Covenant Community and the Life Community at all levels of formation (postulants, disciples, and consecrated). The meeting will take place in a virtual format, from August 20th to 23rd, and will feature catechesis based on the Listening Retreat, an annual moment when the members of the General Council gather during five days of prayer and sharing to pray and listen from the Holy Spirit the new directions of the time of the community
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In the last two years, this meeting with the missionaries who serve as authority in the Community has begun to welcome more brothers from the virtual modality, increasing from 300 to more than a thousand participants. Among them were members of the Covenant Community, Life Community, priests, celibates, families, young people, adults, and the elderly… In 2022, the invitation to the Shalom 40 years retreat it’s an overflow of the Listening Retreat of the General Council and is extended to all members of the Community spread all over the world.
A unique opportunity to listen to the founder
Father Saulo Maia Dantas, community assistant of the Community and organizer of the event, explains that this will be a unique opportunity to listen from the founder, Moysés Azevedo, to all that God has spoken during the General Council’s Listening Retreat this year. About 11 thousand missionaries are expected to participate in the meeting. The transmissions of the catecheses will be made from the Church of the Risen One that has passed through the Cross, in the headquarters of the Community in Brazil.
“The content of these catechesis is documented and becomes a material that guides the life of the Community in its various fields,” reinforces Father Saulo.
According to the priest, this retreat, with all the members of the Community, will be a continuity of listening to God through the moments of prayer and sharing that are part of the program. For this reason, the community assistant already gives some guidelines for the missionaries who are going to participate. The first of these is to choose a quiet place to pray, a bright place to read the Bible, and also a place to take notes.