Towards World Youth Day in Madrid

On Saturday, December 18, 2010, we, members of a group of youth from all over Israel, met in the monastery of Saint Peter in Jaffa, together with Father Apolinary and Benedetto, the animators of the group, in order to prepare to travel to Spain with all the other youth from all over the world.

We were 12 young people gathered in a circle and we discussed the challenges of being a Hebrew speaking Catholic in Israel. Each one introduced his or her personal story regarding faith, the challenges that must be met, the difficulties and obstacles that are encountered on the way, and of course the role of our families. After this getting to know one another, we sang and prayed and even learnt a new song: “God of strength, Almighty, only You are Lord, only You are Holy, King of Kings”.

At noon we took a break and prepared together the meal, a barbecue. During the meal there was another opportunity to get to know one another better.

After we had strengthened our faith by listening to one another, we took time for spiritual activities between ourselves and God. We read together a passage from the Gospel of Saint Matthew and each one sat alone for about 20 minutes, answering questions that we had gotten, connected to the Gospel that we read. Furthermore, we discussed the questions and he theme: “Preparing the Way”. We hope that we will open our hearts to God, especially in this period of Advent.

We think that we learnt a lot at this meeting and we eagerly await other meetings together and of course the big meeting with all the young people from around the world next summer. Together we will rejoice in the presence of the Pope in Spain and we will all be filled with the Holy Spirit with one heart. Amen!

Written by Daniele and Daniele from the youth group