Sandakan youth celebrate World Youth Day

Apr 15, 2015

SANDAKAN (Herald Malaysia): The Catholic Apostolic Youth from the Parish of St Mary organized a special programme for about 80 participants on March 28-29 at the Parish Hall in conjunction with World Youth Day with the theme Happy are the pure in spirit for they shall see God.

The purpose of the programme was as follows :

1) to bring all the parish youth together to celebrate World Youth Day 2015;
2) to nurture and foster a deeper friendship among the youth and adolescents;
3) to help the youth in strengthening their faith through unity in prayer.

On March 29, they gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday and World Youth Day 2015 which was solemnized by Fr Sunny Chung. In his homily, Fr Chung invited the faithful to reflect on the characters of the apostles, in particular Judas Iscariot, who was with Jesus for three years and was able to “sell” Jesus.

We may see ourselves in Judas Iscariot if we have followed Jesus for many years. But when we come up against trials and challenges, we easily give up and desert Jesus by changing our religion. He ended his homily by urging the faithful to be strong in their faith and to always pray for that strength in preparation towards Holy Week.

After Mass, Fr Sunny Chung blessed the new St John Paul II Youth Centre that will be used for spiritual activities for the youth. Following the opening, Sr Lilian fsic began a session with the explanation of the message from Pope Francis on World Youth Day. The session ended at 3.00pm with a closing prayer.

REFLECTIONS:

“After following the World Youth Day 2015 programme, I realized my ministry as a youth is not enough and there is a lot more that I need to do to better myself. During the group sessions, we were able to exchange opinions/ideas on our various ministries. My hope for the youth is that they do not give up in whichever ministry they are in, to serve sincerely without expecting anything in return. I also hope that more youth will participate in future programmes to renew their faith and knowledge in the various ministries. Amen.” -- Lydiana Kantiu

“Throughout the programme, I tried to understand what was said in Luke 22:26 But not so with you: rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. I was very touched to see the youth serve with compassion and love, regardless of age, whether they were adults or school children. In serving, it is important to understand the love that Jesus is giving through the cross. This was made clear by Fr Sunny in the session Theology of the Cross. Apart from that, Sr Lilian fsic in her session What is Holy Week was very valuable to me personally.”

“During the group session discussion on Pope Francis’s message to the youth, I had the opportunity to get to know those youth who are younger than me. I was given the chance to understand the problems that they are going through. My hope is that more youth will come together as one to pray as well as to deepen their faith and knowledge of the Holy Catholic Church. ” -- Rodney Roger Sining