Jesus Youth Team visits Visitation Church

Aug 02, 2019

By Paul Peter Fernandez
The Church of the Visitation welcomed 29 people from Jesus Youth (JY) team, Kuala Lumpur, led by Sunil Miranda, the National coordinator for Jesus Youth, Malaysia on July 14. Held in the Visitation community hall, they came for a time of praise, prayer, reflection and sharing the love of God which they had encountered and experienced and to reach out to Visitation parishioners.

About 60 parishioners, both young and seniors, including Fr George Harrison and Fr Xavier Andrew, attended the event which started about 2.00pm. A makeshift altar was built with a Crucifix, a Bible, the statue of Our Lady and two lighted oil lamps.

The team, making their first visit to the Visitation Church, started the event with the recitation of the Rosary. Fr Xavier then said a few words. He congratulated the team for the initiative taken to organise the event. He reminded us that Jesus was a youth when he began his ministry and was conscious of God’s divine call on his life. Fr Xavier also pointed out two very distinguished and prominent figures who in spite of their advanced age, are still active and working tirelessly – Holy Father Pope Francis who is 82 years and Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who recently celebrated his 94th birthday. He added that age is just a number and most important is how we live our lives.

Handing over to the JY team, participants were then asked to form a circle and a simple ice breaker session was conducted. The JY music team provided music for the Praise and Worship. Two members of JY came forward to share how they had been transformed from hopelessness to new life and gained peace of heart and mind after being introduced to the Jesus Youth movement.

Another member, Ajith Mani, shared on the Prodigal Son, one of the well-known stories of Jesus. He said, the Father in the gospel passage is seen making the first move – to run, to hug, to kiss upon seeing the return of his younger son, with open arms. The passage represents a wonderful picture of the great love of God towards us in spite of our sinfulness and the many wrong choices we make. This was followed by the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Sunil then briefly shared on the Jesus Youth movement in Malaysia. He said the seed for the movement was sown in 2002 in the Church of The Assumption, PJ with the blessing and guidance by the late Fr Philips Muthu.

A small group of expatriates from Kerala, their families and youths started to gather regularly once a month for prayer and fellowship. The numbers soon grew and spread to the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, KL. These gatherings are now conducted at the Church of Our Lady of Fatima, Brickfields under the guidance and support given by Parish Priest Fr Ferdinand Magimay. Gatherings are held every Tuesdays.

On Saturday mornings, a few youths would gather in the park for personal prayers. Family gatherings are held on the third Sundays and Night vigil (from 8.00pm to 11.00pm) on fourth Saturdays of the month. Local youth parishioners, from the Philippines and expatriates from various parts of India also add up to the numbers of people in this movement.

On behalf of the team, Sunil expressed his appreciation and thanked Fr George and Fr Andrew for their support and guidance. He also thanked the parishioners of Visitation for their warm reception. The event ended about 4.15pm with the participants and JY team joining in a fellowship in the hall. Flyers on JY were distributed to participants.