Youths are the light of Christ in the family
A total of 300 youths, from all over the parish of St Anthony, participated in the Tenom Youth Day (TYD) programme organised by the Tenom Parish Youth Team Servers. It was held at the Church of St Francis of Assisi, January 20-22.
Feb 16, 2017

By Ronie Bahan
A total of 300 youths, from all over the parish of St Anthony, participated in the Tenom Youth Day (TYD) programme organised by the Tenom Parish Youth Team Servers. It was held at the Church of St Francis of Assisi, January 20-22.
The theme for this TYD was Youth Family Light which was also a followup of an earlier session called the Youth Cooperation Programme held at the Holy Trinity parish, Paguokon and Santa Maria, Melalap.
The TYD theme was taken from verse 1 Tim 4:12: Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
During Mass on the first day, Fr David Michael, in his homily said, “To be honest, having a family is not easy. It requires sacrifice and strength to be able to face and withstand whatever challenges may come. The youth must learn to communicate better with their parents, to make Christ the centre of their prayer life so that, whatever decisions they make, is the will of God. The family unit would collapse if there is no understanding or good communication and mutual respect between parents and children. The family is the first school of prayer for the children, a place to learn forgiveness and a prayer life that is always guided by the power and belief in God.” He said that the challenges faced by the youth today is a maturation process and encouraged all the youth to believe that God will guide them in their everyday lives.
On the second day, Fr Rudolf Joanes advised the youth that “Other than honouring parents and other family members, the youth should also be aware of the blessings that they will receive if they are humble and sincere in asking for help and guidance from the Holy Spirit in any form of service, either in the Church or in the family. We hear often about Feng Shui where some people believe that luck for their family or business comes from harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment. This is not compatible with our Catholic faith and the teachings of the Church. Our trust and faith is in God who is the source of everything and we depend on Him for everything, not on luck.”
He continued by saying that, generally, youth are always ready to give up. He said that they should sacrifice their time and energy to reciprocate the efforts made for them by their parents. They should work harder in school to obtain a good education to enable them to get good jobs and help ease the burden of their parents.
After Mass, the session began with a talk delivered by Seminarian David titled The Holy Family. He said that the Holy Family should be a model for Christian families. We must place our trust and confidence in God when we are faced with difficulties.
Alex Paul Jiran also shared about issues faced by his family, saying that the family is a school for us to learn and develop wisdom and confidence through Christ. “There are many families who are having problems and suffering many challenges throughout the world. Suffering also teaches us maturity, and to follow the way of Christ is to do good rather than evil.”
Other sessions included issues and challenges faced by the youth, the character of the youth themselves to be more familycentred in Christ and how to spread the love and word of Christ in their action and behaviour.
The end of the programme provided opportunities for the youth to have a Question & Answer session with the panel that included Roselinah Francis representing the Youth Servers of Keningau Diocese, Sr Julie Banting FSIC, Alex Paul Jiran representing the Diocese of Kota Kinabalu. The programme ended at 5.00 pm.
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