Northern Deanery PDYD 3 Celebration
Joyful morning. Good morning. Exciting morning.
Feb 13, 2015

By Margaret William
Joyful morning. Good morning. Exciting morning. That is how the morning of January 24th, 2015 could be described as the church grounds were packed with 420 young people from 11 parishes of the Northern Deanery. Participants came from far and near, registering themselves as early as 7.30 am to witness the Journey of the Cross and Icon that finally alighted at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Kulim (SHJK) for the Northern Deanery PDYD 3 Celebration. Right after registration, participants proceeded to have breakfast at St. Thomas’ Square.
The event started with a warm welcome and briefing by Mr. Stanley Sudhagaran. The Penang Diocesan Youth Day 3 (PDYD3) Cross and Icons of Our Lady and St John Paul II were assembled at the church altar by members of the Northern Deanery Youth Council. A slide show presentation of the Northern Deanery Parish Level Journey of Cross and Icon brought cheers from the young people.
The Mass was celebrated by Fr Victor Louis, the Dean of Northern Deanery, with Fr Martin Arlando, the Head of Penang Diocesan Youth Network (PDYN) and Fr Thomas Koo, CDD, the Parish priest of SHJ Kulim, concelebrating. In his homily, Fr Victor Louis encouraged all youth not to be afraid to keep up their faith. He also asked the young people to be better exposed to our rich and wonderful Catholic faith, about our Lord and Saviour, as a tool to protect themselves from false teachings.
After lunch, the participants broke up into groups, according to their language of choice, for an in-depth session on the verse Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in Heart, for they shall see God” conducted by three guest speakers, Mrs. Carmelita Arokiadass (English), Mr Simon Joseph (Tamil) and Mr Nicholas Teh (Mandarin). The sessions brought great joy and excitement to the participants who also enjoyed themselves with games and moments of praising God.
“God is good, all the time!”, that was the beginning of the appreciation speech given by the Northern Deanery Youth Council Coordinator, Ms Marcella Maisieto. She thanked the organizing committee members, sponsors and volunteers who had worked hard to make this event a success and for the support from all the Parish Priests of Northern Deanery and the PDYN staff for their trust and guidance. She wished each youth gathered a great experience at the end of the celebration and that they be touched by God’s love in some way.
This one day event ended in the evening with various interesting performances from all the participating parishes. The participants had a great time throughout the event and yes, it wouldn’t have been a success without the presence of our Almighty God. Now the PDYD cross and icons of Our Lady and St John Paul II will continue its journey to the Penang Deanery and lastly, to the host Deanery of Perak for the grand event of PDYD 3 this coming September 2015. All interested young people are encouraged to register at their respective Parishes as soon as possible to be counted in.
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