YAC - April 2013

1 April Tiffany Ryan, Ivon, Teresa, Michelle

Editor’s Update By tiffany chan

Welcome to the first edition of YAC in 2013! Slowly, members of Acclaim have returned from their holiday over the past couple of months, and it has been exciting catching up with each other again, planning for the new year, and welcoming our new members, Agatha and Tim. Our year is already off to a great start, as we begin fundraising for our two pilgrims Ivon and Rez for World Youth Day Rio 2013. Thanks to the dedication and effort of the group, as well as the amazing generosity of our Parish, Ivon and Rez are now a few steps closer towards realizing their dream.

March also saw a few leaders of Acclaim attending the Broken Bay Youth Ministry Conference, leaving us feeling inspired and even more passionate to serve Christ.

I hope you will enjoy this new issue of YAC. God bless and happy Easter!

Sundays 5.30pm: Youth Mass Sunday 14th April 7pm: Acclaim meeting at Bishop Barry Room For all youth enquiries, please email: youth@chatswoodparish.org.au

What’s on April 1

Soul Pittwater on Praise and Worship night

BBYM CONFERENCE

BY RYAN BALBOA

Recently, I was one of 4 Acclaim members fortunate enough to be a part of the Broken Bay Youth Ministry Conference, held in St Agatha’s Primary School in Terrey Hills.

The conference centred on the youth being the ‘light of Christ’ – an inspiration to those around them, making a difference within their respective communities. It also provided us with an opportunity to network with those involved within youth ministry, as well as other active youth within the Diocese.

We were involved in sessions covering various topics, including: •

Praise and Worship, where we were reminded of music as a way towards engagement and reflection, not only for the congregation, but also for the choirs and musical groups themselves;

•

Leaders’ Spirituality, with Bishop David Walker reminding us of the importance of humility, unity, and ‘answering our call’ in our work within different ministries within the church; and

•

The Challenge of Youth-friendly Parishes, where Fr Christian Fini, Founder and National Coordinator of Oblate Youth Australia, addressed us on the intricacies of how to turn a youth group into a community-involved youth ministry.

We were also lucky enough to celebrate mass with Bishop David, and participate in the evening activities – full of good food, music and company.

For me, the BBYM Conference refreshed my perspectives on the importance of youth in the parish, a reminder that we, as young people can make a real difference within and outside of the mass – whether it is through altar serving, Bible study, Eucharistic ministry, or playing music.

2

WYD Rio 2013

From

‘go make disciples of all nations’

http://www.rio 2013.com/en

BY ivon sangadi

As some of you might know, I’ll be going over to Rio de Janeiro in July 2013 for World Youth Day with a fellow Acclaim member Rez Uymatiao.

We have been blessed with this opportunity to represent Chatswood Parish at this year’s World Youth Day. World Youth Day is a Catholic youth event held every three years in various countries that attracts up to 2 million youth worldwide.

This year, it will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 23 to 28 July 2013. In a sense, it’s a massive Catholic party that goes on for a whole week! It consists of an opening ceremony and mass, catechetical sessions run by bishops from around the world, music festivals, shows and prayer services with the Pope. It is a great chance for us to meet other young people from all over the world who share in the same faith.

And did I mention that 3 giant warehouses on a pier near Copacabana Beach will be transformed into our accommodation and be called Aussie Central, housing 3000 fellow Aussies?

I believe that WYD will change my life. I’ve seen first hand how WYD have changed people, giving them a new direction in life,

a new purpose. A local pilgrim for the WYD Madrid 2010 told me that whenever he is asked about his greatest experience, he says, “besides having a family, going to WYD tops the list” and “going on WYD has burned an everlasting fire to serve the Lord”. I just can’t imagine how much we can all learn through this experience, how much stronger our faith can become and the energy and spirit that we will bring back to Sydney to share to our friends, to infect others around us with the same energy and to truly live the gospel and the theme for WYD Rio: Go and make disciples of all nations (Mt28:19)!

On behalf of Rez, I would just like to thank the priests, our youth group Acclaim and the whole parish for their support and making all of this possible for us. We can really feel a sense of belonging and communion within this supportive parish; a true representation of a Christian community. We can’t wait to serve the parish better with the WYD fire burning inside us, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

God bless you all abundantly.

3

From

https://twitter. com/Pontifex

WYD fundraising

BY Teresa uymatiao

Hey guys, I'm Rez and I'm one of two young pilgrims privileged enough to go to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in July this year, to celebrate World Youth Day with our new Pope, Pope Francis!

You will have become familiar, seeing and hearing our names at mass, fundraisers, in the bulletins, on posters, EVERYWHERE over the past couple of months trying to rally funds for our pilgrimage. Ivon and I are so blessed to be able to have this opportunity, to deepen our faith and to channel this into stronger and stronger actions not only for our Youth Group, ACCLAIM, but for the entirety of Our Lady of Dolours Parish also. I wish I could express the gratitude and happiness that we have in our hearts and we excitedly await to serve the church when we come back -REfreshed and REnewed!

From our last counts of our fundraisers - your efforts have helped us raise over $3000 ($3089.45 to be exact!) over the past 6 months including: - Parish Feast Day concert - September 2012 - Shrove Sunday pancakes - February 2013 - Pavlova Raffle - February 2013 - Hot Cross Buns sale - March 2013 Wow.... Thank you to the priests, the church who has supported us immensely, our youth group Acclaim, and of course you, the parishioners. Without everyone's efforts, this would not have been possible. It’s so inspiring to see the growing community spirit within our parish.

Can't wait for Rio!! Estou tĂŁo animado (I'm so excited!)

We ask for your blessings and prayers as we come closer to WYD :) :) Love and god bless.

4

Why did Jesus have to die for us on the cross?

BY ivon sangadi The phrases: “Jesus died for us”, “Jesus died for our sins” and “Jesus died as a ransom for many” are all familiar phrases.

Many of us, however, don’t really understand the meaning of these phrases. Why did Jesus die for us on the cross? How did He save us by dying?

We, as humans, are frail beings, in character and in morals. It is so easy for us to be tempted by our flesh and fall into sin. For that reason, God sent three things in an attempt us to redeem us.

First, he gave us the Ten Commandments, which failed to change us because as humans, we cannot wholly fulfill the Ten Commandments with our own powers.

Then He sent prophets into the world carrying one message and that was: “Repent!” but this failed too. So God came directly to the world to save us through Jesus Christ.

Jesus was on a mission to save the world from sin; and to do this, He must live “to serve and give His life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). His death is both the Paschal sacrifice that redeem us, because He is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:19) and He is also the sacrifice of the New Covenant that restores the relationship between us and God through reconciliation, His death was “the blood of the covenant, which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”.

Jesus’ death on the cross was an event in which blood was poured. The sacrificial blood is essential in Jewish culture and is offered to the altar for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus did not die any other way; from poison, illness or

starvation, but He died on the cross.

Jesus died to pour out His blood for us, to the very last drop until the soldier pierced His side and water gushed out instead.

Jesus did not die on His way to the cross, when He was humiliated, whipped and suffered tremendous pain and fatigue by carrying the cross. Jesus did not die when He was nailed to the Cross. Jesus died when He finally said “it is finished” because all His blood has been poured out for us and His mission was accomplished.

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

Blood represents life. By pouring out His blood, Jesus gave us new life.

Hebrews 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

We are set free from the sins that we have committed through this new covenant and our relationship with God restored. Let us then be children of God and make it our life mission to serve God with all our heart as our way of repaying Jesus for what He has done for us. We may never be able to repay Him, but every single second of our lives should be used to follow Him. 5

Prayer of new beginnings God of new beginnings, we are walking into mystery.

We face the future, not knowing what the days and months will bring us or how we will respond.

BY michelle yeong Taken from www.stmarys.org/

May there be love in us as we journey.

May we welcome all who come our way.

Deepen our faith to see all life through your eyes.

Fill us with hope and an abiding trust that You dwell in us amidst all our joys and sorrows.

Thank You for the treasure of our faith life.

Thank You for the gift of being able to rise each day with the assurance of Your walking through the day with us.

God of our past and future, we praise you.

AMEN

Join the Reader’s Ministry A great ministry to be a part of - the Reader's Ministry has a role of preaching the Good News to our parishioners, proclaiming and celebrating God's Word!

As a reader, you have a great responsibility, but it is also very rewarding- you become more actively involved in the liturgy, as your understanding of the scripture deepens. You gain great confidence and public speaking skills and you get to meet the current team of readers who are all so wonderful and friendly.

You are only committed to reading once a month (or more if you want to) at the Youth Mass, Sunday 5:30pm. So a special shout out especially to all the youth high school and above, come and get involved!

If you would like to become involved with us, or are interested to know more about reading please call/text Rez on 0412 885 553 or email her at teresarose16@hotmail.com 6