Our youth continue their way


Daniele, from the youth group writes to us about a meeting that took place after the return of the group from Madrid.

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On Saturday, September 3, a first meeting took place since the youth group returned from Spain. We came to the meeting very excited to see one another again and everyone had many stories to tell!

In the morning, Father David, Vicar for the kehillot, came to talk to us about some important subjects: one was that it is important that we continue meeting and that we do something with the wonderful experience we had, that we find ways to communicate what we learnt to others. The second matter about which he spoke was the fact that we, as young Catholics who have grown up in a Jewish society should find ways to pass on our experience to the younger generation, the generation that will follow us, because they do not always know how to cope because they are too young. We, as youth, deal with this every day as we were born into this and perhaps we can find a language in which to communicate with them in joy and celebration… Another central theme about which Father David spoke was the Filipino, Lebanese and other children, who are sons and daughters of migrant workers and asylum seekers in Israel. They are growing up in our society and they are an integral part of our Church. They were born here and grow up here, speaking Hebrew perfectly! Our responsibility is to integrate them into our Hebrew speaking Church so that they feel as though they belong and not as aliens, so that they might be able to pray just as we can at weekly mass…

In addition, we gave Father David presents from Spain: a WYD T-shirt, a hat from the WYD and a pendant with the pilgrim shell from Santiago. It is important to note that Father David has supported us all along the way, knew everything that happened in Spain and made sure that our news was reported on the internet site.

After that Father David had to leave…

We then played a game during which each person had to take a piece of paper which contained the name of a member of the group and then to tell a funny or nice story about the person concerning something that happened in Spain… as five members of the group were absent, some had to take two pieces of paper.

Following the game, we went into the big church of the monastery in Jaffa and we participated in a time of adoration which was a very moving time of prayer. Than we broke for lunch, continuing our conversations and sharing about the wonderful experiences from the trip to Spain.

After lunch, we had a break until evening mass. Before we left the monastery to walk around we tried to call the Requinios (the group of fantastic Spanish students who had hosted us in Santiago). We succeeded in speaking with four of them and we exchanged information about what had happened since the end of the WYD.

In the evening, like on every Saturday evening, there was a mass in Hebrew and we participated. After mass, we presented a slide show of our trip to Spain to the members of the Jaffa kehilla and we helped them get to know the Requinios, telling them something of their story.

Our meeting ended with that.

I hope and I am sure that the other members of the group hope that we will continue this experience and that this is not an end but a beginning and that we might indeed be able to do something with this experience! As the Pope said to us at the Vigil in Madrid: You, the youth, are not only the generation of the future but that of the present.

Thanks to all who contributed to making this wonderful trip possible because it was very meaningful for each one of us.

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