This was my
first SYD, I was not able to join the first and the second. There were many
questions and anticipation in me. I wonder if it will be as the same as other
youth's camp i have participated before, will i be able to make new friends,
will it help my faith to grow. As these questions keep haunting me, finally
SYD3 arrived and mysteriously i am one of the secretariat members for this time
SYD.
Together with few others
members, we arrived in Holy Cross Toboh one day earlier than the rest. To my
surprised or rather shock few camps were damaged because of earlier heavy rain
and storm, and as usual i quickly blaming God for what had happened. To my
surprise, our main coordinator Wilfred James, told us that it was indeed good thing
that this happened now, so that we may be prepared and know which part is not
ready, our good Lord has shown us what need to improved before SYD3 starts.
Through this, i have learnt something that we have to be firm and rooted, so
that in times we encountered heavy storms in life I'll be able to stands strong
against the storm.
Through the Friendship Day, I
am grateful that I am able to understand more about differences, and it was a
wonderful day that because of that understanding I am able to make new friends from other parishes, dioceses without
looking into the differences. It was a blessing through that encounter I
realized i will never walk alone. In that differences we have Jesus Christ in
him we are unites.
Our first catechesis " why am i proud to be
a catholic today ? " , this sessions make me proud and grateful that i am
born and raised as a Catholic. , What
will i be if i am not Catholic, can't even imagine about it . But for me it is
pointless to only feel proud as
Catholic. I should also share it with other as there were many people who
haven't experience God love yet .
In the afternoon then we had an animation program call " Road to Emmaus"
, through this once again I am affirmed that I am not walking alone , God is
with me ,recently I lost my Grandfather after a fight with cancer and a cousin
due to Heart Disease , my world is torn apart , I felt God had abandon me , I lost the will to live . But this program awakes me that
God had never left me in the first place , it is just that for some reason I am
blinded to see God presence in my life, yes He knows and understand my pain and
sufferings. He wants and ready to take it away from me but it is me
who is reluctant to do so, cause' blinded
by my own thought that God has abandoned
me. The road to recovery from this experience is a long and enduring journey,
there will always be scar, but i know that I should be at ease as our good Lord
will walk with me till I reach
the end. At the end of the 3rd day of SYD-3 is Youth night , here we once again
refresh how Jesus died on the cross to wash away our sin. Thank You Jesus ! without You there is
no us.
Our second catechesis " me , Him and you
" , this session made me realise that I must put God as my root in any relationship I had. Without God
in my relationship, I tend to follow my own lust , ego and judgments whenever
it comes to relationships and decision
making. So now i understands more how to
have good relationships, and the vitality to let God live as the third person
in any relationship because He is love and His love unites us. At the end of
the 4th day of SYD-3 is Family night , here we get to see a live acting on the reality crisis in modern
family , it helps me to relate it with my own stories , it helps me to realise
that every member of the family had it own purpose in order to build a happy
and loving family and of course without God in our family there will be no
peace, loves and family.
Day 5 of SYD-3 ! my favourite day of all , today
we had our 3rd and last Catechesis" Go and be firm in faith " , in
this session we were asked to recall all of the catechesis and experience we
had experienced during the past few day of SYD-3. Then we were shown some of
the modern day crisis that our church are struggling with at the moment , this session help me to
realise that I do learn a lot from SYD-3 so now it is up to me to share it with
others. But to do it i must firstly strongly rooted and firm in Jesus Christ!
Then it is
time for my favorite program of all which is the "Pilgrim Walk " , there is 7
station in our walk and in each station we were given bookmark and it is about the 7 most important event in a
Catholic life which is the Seven
Sacraments. What I like about this walk is we could relate it with our life,
and here are some of my faith reflection on this Pilgrim Walk. At the first
station we were given the bookmark for sacrament of baptism. I symbolized it with my experienced at that time. Reaching
the first station we all still fresh and strong and couldn't wait for
what lies ahead of our journey and happily we walk to reached the second
station.
In the second
station we receive bookmark on Sacrament of Confirmation and the third was
Sacrament of Eucharist / First Holy Communion. This was a joy feeling during
the walk, we were happy and strong, full of energy and enthusiastic. But at the
middle of the journey we start to get tired, I relate it with sin, now we were
tired and
thirst for God, so the only way is to fix our relation with God by going to a
confession the fourth station and the fourth sacrament, Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Reflecting on this sacrament, through reconciliation we obtained new strength
to keep on walking. It was a
wonderful Journey.
Then we were
given the bookmark of for me the most beautiful sacrament of all which is the
sacrament of marriage as through marriage we continue God's beautiful creation. Then came
the Sacrament of Priesthood, without Priest
the other sacrament could never
be performed as the priest is the one who Baptist us, confirm and celebrates
the Eucharist, hear our confession , bless our marriage , ordain priest (bishop is of course still a priest )
and give us our anointment of the sick.
During the
walk, there were many of us who couldn't finish the walk , I simply relates it
like this, that many Catholic who either by their own fault, ignorance or
circumstances was not able to received all necessary sacraments in their lifetime.
And finally the last station reflection is about the sacrament of the anointment of the sick ,
at that time we were very tired and almost pass out which I can symbolize it
with the moment when we are at the end of our life, we all tired, full of anxiety, anxiousness
and question what is next. And at that time is about surrendering to God... then
we finally reach Holy Cross Toboh (our heaven in this case ). That is my faith
reflection of the walk.
Then we reach our final activity of the day the
"Vigil Night" ,during this program we had a holy hour outside the
church , rain start pouring again but I had learn to not to blame God. My
reflection on the rain was God used it to "wash" us , He baptize
us once again so that we will use our new found strength from SYD-3 to bring and
spread His love to others, what a the best way to end our SYD-3 !
Finally the last day of SYD-3 , after mass we
all greet farewell to each other , I am very happy and grateful to be able to
join SYD-3 as it help me more rooted in Christ , more firm in faith and much
ready to be risen in Christ , the happy joy joy period had come to an end as it
is now time to focus on sharing what I learn
from SYD-3 to other . Thank you SYD , Thank you Jesus!
