News
Local Circle in Nkulumane
February 2023 was the month when a few members gathered for their first DWD local session in the Holy Spirit parish in Nkulumane, Bulawayo. They decided to meet regularly every month and so encourage one another to be active and fruitful disciples of the Word.
Their regular meetings are open to visitors and candidates who are still doing the DWD basic formation course. There is a sure hope that the local circle in Nkulumane will grow in number and in zeal for missions.
New DWD Handbook Ready
In January 2023 a new version of our handbook was published. Besides a slightly improved design (the dark mode is a thing now), there are new prayers, a new guide for preparing and blessing a prayer corner, and the newest adaptation of our statutes.
You can find it in our download section. We published there also some new guides, our forms for printing, and the summary of our DWD Basic Formation course lessons.
Our Basic Formation Course
The last two years 2021-2022 we have been working hard on adjusting our network to the newest requirements from the SVD Generalate. Mainly, we have been focusing on our new obligation - to pass a basic formation course that prepares us for proper DWD membership.
For most of us the course is done online via whatsapp, led by our Spiritual Director. It consists of 7 lessons. In every lesson, we study a missionary text, learn a prayer, gain a new piece of knowledge and a new missionary skill.
Mission Sunday 2020
On Mission Sunday, 18 October 2020 we did a lot of work in our parishes: evangelizing of those who needed to hear the Good News together with some material or financial help, explaining the Mission Sunday's origin, presentation on the missionary rosary and praying it, distributing the Pope's message, Eucharistic adoration for the missions, teaching parishioners a missionary song.
Those who could not attend the Mass because of Covid-19 restrictions, celebrated the Mission Sunday in their Small Christian Communities or families, often with the missionary rosary and a presentation about missions.
Some of us dedicated more time to their private prayer for missions and missionaries during the day, often inviting their family members to join them.
On social networks, we spread the message of the Pope, invited our friends to join the DWD network, or challenged others to do something for the Mission of the Church.
Celebrating our Founder
In some of our parishes we celebrated St. Arnold Janssen's feast as a great solemnity on Sunday 19 January 2020. We translated all liturgical prayers and texts of the day into our local languages Ndebele and Shona, so everyone could understand the liturgy. We decorated a picture of St. Arnold Janssen in our churches with flowers, candles, and fabrics. At the beginning of the celebration, we presented the story of St. Arnold and within the intercessions we prayed for Catholic world missions and missionaries.
Mission Sunday 2019
On 20 October 2019 we celebrated the Mission Sunday.
We did a great job in our parishes: individual evangelizing of those who needed to hear the Good News, presentations on the missionary rosary, praying the missionary rosary with parishioners, distributing the Pope's message to the youth, Eucharistic adorations for the missions, teaching a song about this year's theme "Baptized and Sent". Some of us dedicated more time to our private prayer for missions and missionaries during the whole month of October.
Half-national Sessions
There were two half-national DWD sessions because we couldn’t travel to one place from all over the country for desired one national event. On 24 August 2019 in Budiriro, Harare and on 1 September 2019 in Nketa, Bulawayo we had a great time of sharing, learning, and practising the spirituality of our saints, mission animation, and evangelization.
Mission Sunday 2018
On 21 October 2018 we celebrated the Mission Sunday. In our parishes, we, the Divine Word Disciples promoted mission awareness.
We led a missionary rosary prayer in the Holy Cross Parish in Harare, in the Holy Family Parish and the Holy Spirit Parish in Bulawayo. In Harare we also introduced our group to the parishioners and led a Eucharistic adoration for the missions. We also distributed many copies of Pope's message for World Mission Day 2018.
Gift For Rural Missions
Our local circle in the Holy Family Parish in Bulawayo completed the first circle project on 20 October 2018 - we made and donated some altar clothes for the rural chapels of the SVD missionaries.
New Circle in Harare
There was a very first session of our brand new local circle in the Holy Cross Parish in Harare.
On 10 February 2018 four Divine Word Disciples met and shared and prayed together for the growth of missionary spirit.
The Virtual Circle Alive
Those who cannot attend the DWD sessions of a local circle, can join our Virtual Circle via WhatsApp or email now.
On 4 August 2017 we started off our first virtual session that lacked nothing - there was sharing, prayers, news, and teaching. The members were only a few but we believed that many can become Divine Word Disciples soon and the Virtual Circle can grow fast.
New Beginning, New Hope
Groups of parishioners in the the Holy Family Parish in Bulawayo have already been trying to support SVD Missionaries for some time. Since there is s request from the SVD leadership to revive and improve the Divine Word Disciples group, we are working on it. The first session of DWD in the Holy Family Parish took place in January 2017.
