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At Rockwood Spiritual & Formation Centre
“Rockwood Spiritual and Formation Centre is a focal point for many spiritual activities for the Archdiocese of Harare Catholic community. Rocks feature prominently adding beauty and steadfastness to the centre. The centre is located 9 km from the city centre.”
The Spiritual & Formation Centre
Was established to promote evangelization and provide opportunities for individuals and communities to deepen their relationship with Christ through a variety of activities and experiences.
The Bible reveals God’s word and God’s nature. We learn to understand God better by reading the Bible. The Bible shows us God’s character and provides us with God’s revelation of Himself to His people. In each section of the Bible, we see God’d holy, unchanging, faithful, gracious, and loving character. The Bible in stone reminds us all of the basis of our faith and spirituality. This also symbolizes the stone tablet given to Moses by God on Mt Sinai.
The Word of God Awakens and Strengthens Faith…
Through Hearing the Word, God supplies the Holy Spirit…
The Word of God creates and sustains Life…
The Word of God gives hope…
The Word of God leads us to Freedom…
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you”. John 2:5
Jesus performed the first miracle at Cana through the intercession of Mary his mother. Mary always directs us to Jesus Christ. In times of joy and sorrow, let us turn to the Mother of God. Let us heed her voice when she tells us to do whatever the Lord tells us to do. Doing whatever we are told to do could be; to forgive, to trust God completely, to be generous or to give more time to prayer.
The statue of our Lady denotes the welcome of the Blessed Virgin Mary to all the people who come to the centre.
God sent His Son into the world, to be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. God chose Mary for the special privilege of being the mother of His Son Jesus, and He chose Joseph for the special privilege of being Jesus’ adoptive father. Joseph did a lot to protect them. Joseph is the patron saint of the Universal Church, families, fathers, expectant mothers, travellers, immigrants, house sellers and buyers, craftsmen, engineers, and working people, among others.
Joseph diligently provides for the needs of the family of God, the Holy Catholic Church. Because of his special role as foster father of the Child Jesus, St Joseph has merited singular privileges in heaven unmatched by any saint except the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The word “grotto” has become used almost exclusively to refer to Catholic shrines built into a rock formation. The grotto helps us to grow in our devotion to Mary. One way to grow in our devotion is to pray the rosary. The prophet Elijah discovered the presence of God while in a cave.
The Holy Rosary is so important in so many of Mary’s apparitions. The origin of the Rosary dates back to the year 800, but it has evolved throughout the centuries resulting in the Rosary that we know today. The Rosary invites us to make a beautiful meditation about the life of Jesus and the Holy Virgin Mary. Whether we pray it alone or with others, we can offer our Rosary for many intentions , always asking for the intercession of Our Lady.
The nativity Story, also known as the Christmas Story or the Nativity of Jesus, is a story that tells the conception and birth of Jesus Christ. Throughout the many centuries of Christianity, the Christmas Story has development into a yearly traditional and is central to the celebration of Christmas in the Christian faith. The main message of Christmas is the Saviour, the Son of God, was born in humble surroundings.
John 1:14 is one of the most important verses in the Bible. It reads, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”.
Jesus Christ’s ministry, which lasted approximately three years, centered on preaching the Kingdom of God and emphasizing themes of repentance, love, and forgiveness. He taught through parables and impactful sermons, such as the Sermon on the Mount, which included the Beatitudes and ethical guidelines for living.
Jesus performed numerous miracles, including healing the sick, raising the dead, and feeding the hungry, showcasing his compassion and divine authority. He called and trained a group of disciples, equipping them to spread his message after his death. Throughout his ministry, Jesus challenged religious authorities and societal norms, advocating for the marginalized and critiquing hypocrisy.
His ministry culminated in his crucifixion, viewed as a sacrifice for humanity’s sins, followed by his resurrection, which is central to Christian belief. Ultimately, Jesus’ ministry laid the foundation for Christianity, emphasizing love, redemption, and a personal relationship with God.
The Garden of Gethsemane was a place of great importance to Jesus Christ, referred to in all four Gospels as a place where Christ retreated into deep prayer and a time of agony before His arrest and crucifixion, and near where He ascended to heaven in the Book of Acts.
At the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus spent His final hours and prayed His final prayers just before He was betrayed and arrested. According to the Gospels, Jesus led His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane following the Last Supper in Jerusalem just before His arrest, trial, and execution. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ felt sorrow and distress over the hardship He would need to endure. He sought out the quiet and privacy of this special place so he could go before God and pray. In the garden of Gethsemane, we get a glimpse of Jesus as fully man and God. We see His anguish, fear, and dread. He was overwhelmed and sorrowful as He was betrayed and abandoned. Jesus was suffering in His soul as in His body.
Gethsemane is a place or occasion of great mental or spiritual suffering. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we can kneel or sit to watch and pray with Christ as He had asked his disciples to do in Gethsemane.
The “Stations of the Cross,” also known as the “Stations of Jesus,” are a Christian tradition that commemorates the events of Good Friday, marking Jesus’ journey from his condemnation to his crucifixion. This devotion typically includes 14 stations, beginning with Jesus being condemned to death by Pontius Pilate and accepting the cross.
As he carries it, he falls three times, showing the physical toll of his suffering. Along the way, he meets his Blessed Mother, Mary, and receives help from Simon of Cyrene, who is compelled to assist him. Veronica wipes Jesus’ face in an act of compassion, while he encounters the weeping women of Jerusalem, urging them to weep for themselves and their children. Upon reaching Golgotha, Jesus is stripped of his clothes and nailed to the cross, where he ultimately dies after hours of agony. His body is then taken down from the cross and laid in Mary’s arms before being placed in a tomb, marking the end of his earthly life. These stations serve as a powerful spiritual reflection on Christ’s suffering and sacrifice, especially during Lent and Holy Week.
The Cross is the most important symbol of our faith, because it represents the message that is at the heart of the gospel, without which there would be no Christianity at all. The gospel in an nutshell is that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins. The cross conquers sin and death.
The cross cancels the record of debt that stood against humanity (Cor 2:14). On the cross Jesus Christ bore our sins in his body, so that we might die to sin and death (1 Pet 2:24). The curse of sin and death was placed on Jesus Christ so that we might obtain the blessings of Abraham (Gal 3:13).
The relic of the True Cross was then restored to its place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. For Christians, the cross represents the defining moment in history when the creator God is reconciled to mankind. Jesus Christ, God in flesh, laid down his life as the sacrificial lamb, taking the punishment we deserve upon Himself, atoning for our sins, and setting us free from the enslavement of sin.
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Colossins 3:1).
The resurrection amounts to the Father’s clear signal that Jesus is the powerful Son of God who has conquered death and reigns as Lord of all (Romans 1:4, 4:25). The resurrection not only proclaims a living hope but also an eternal inheritance. He is eternal since Christ rose again from the dead in victory over Satan and sin and death. He is the King of heaven and earth, and no enemy can touch him. His kingdom will never end. The resurrection of Jesus Christ instills hope in the face of life’s trials. Easter is a reminder that you live day in and day out with power that can overcome any challenge.
In our darkest days, it gives us light. In overwhelming discouragement, it gives us faith.
Sister Faustina was a young, uneducated nun in a convent of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland during the 1930s. In 1935, St. Faustina received a vision of an angel sent by God to chastise a certain city. She began to pray for mercy, but her prayers were powerless. Suddenly she saw the Holy Trinity and felt the power of Jesus’ grace within her. At the same time, she found herself pleading with God for mercy with words she heard interiorly:
Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us. (Diary, 475)
The Chaplet may be said at any time, but our LOrd specifically told St. Faustina to recite it during the nine days before the Feast of Mercy (the first Sunday after Easter). He then added: “By this Novena, [of Chaplets], I will grant every possible grace to souls”. (796)