Faith Formation

AUXILIUM KURSEONG: A catechetical Seminar was organised at Auxilium, Kurseong for a group of sisters from 29 – 30 May 2024 with the theme “Know, Grow and Share the Good News”. There were 40 participants. On 29 May, the seminar commenced with the inaugural Prayer by Sr.Jenita Mary Savarimuthu. The resource person of the day, Fr. C.M. Paul SDB,the Vice-Principal of Salesian College Siliguri, was introduced and warmly welcomed by Sr. Lily Perumpettikunnel. He dealt with the topic “Media and Catechetics”. He spoke about a few topics: 1.Navigating Faith Formation in the Age of AI (Artificial Intelligence),
2. The evolution of Media in Catechesis,
3. Opportunities offered by Modern Media Accessibility and Reach,
4. Challenges in using Media for Catechesis and
5. Best practice for Integrating Media in Catechesis. While speaking on the use of AI, he explained that it is a transformative opportunity to enhance faith formation, it can reach a wider audience. This input session gave the insights to make best use of different digital tools to catechize the people in faith. Sr. Prema Francis and Sr. Basanti Ekka proposed a vote of thanks to Fr. C. M. Paul for his creative way of presenting the session.
In the afternoon Sr. Lily Perumpettikunnel presented different catechetical documents. The participants had glance on 10 categories of documents published by different Popes and 16 documents of the Second Vatican Council.The last session of the day was conducted by Sr.Jenita Mary Savarimuthu, with the topic “School and Sunday Catechesis”. She emphasizedimbibingthe qualities of good Catechists,and the importance and effectiveness of our catechism classes in the school as well as in the parish.She also stressed on the importance of preparing the lesson well, using various teaching methods and own life experience. It was a re-learning and revision for the participants.
On 30 May 2024, Sr. Lily Perumpettikunnel, dealt with the topic “Abundance of Catechetical documents in the post-Vatican era”. She emphasized especially on the Three Directories, 1. The General Catechetical Directory (1971), 2. The General Directory for Catechesis (1997) and 3. The Directory for Catechesis (2020). The next session was taken by Sr.Shanti Tirkey on the topic “Youth Catechesis”. She presented six present challenges of youth catechesis: -1. Sleeping youth 2. Dying youth 3. Stinking youth 4.Witheringyouth 5. Walking away youth 6. Running away youth.Through the session, she helped the sisters to reflect on how we should take great interest in the life of young people and give them the right solution from the Bible, for the challenges which they come across. In the last session, the participants had an open quiz on the documents of the Church. It was conducted again by Sr. Lily Perumpettikunnel. At the end of the session, the vote of thanks was proposed by Sr.Sumitra Ekka and Sr.Siljera Marak. The participants were grateful for the enriching sessions imparted at the beginning of their retreat.