One day we had an interesting conversation during our lunch time at University, it was about something romantic. Before reading the rest of this post, please think about the most romantic thing that ever happened to you.
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Last weekend for the first time, I attended a “One Body in Christ” Youth Weekend at Stella Maris and, if God wills, it will not be my last.
This is my first post in the New Year, as I was in Spain with my family for my Christmas holidays. I would like to share with you some differences in being Catholic in Spain and in Finland. Religious Education
A desert? Not the first association that comes to mind when you hear the word Finland? However, for me my recent return to my home country felt like a move into one - the Biblical desert; a place where we are alone, stripped of the comforts and tempted by evils. Bit no need to get anxious, a happy ending follows! as always with the God of Israel who is love through and through and eagerly waits to give us that glass of life giving dehydration!
My stay was a wonderful, life-changing experience. Worship of the living God naturally wells from the daily routine of prayer, work, leisure and shared meals lived out in obedience, poverty and chastity. Well, that is a whole another story. Now I concentrate on the shock that return to “the world” brought about in my life.
 Before coming to Finland I just knew that Catholics were a minority. To my surprise, this minority of Catholics in Finland was composed of many cultures and backgrounds, which was a beautiful reflection of the universality of the Catholic Church. During the summer of 2016 a youth festival took place in a Catholic center called Stella Maris. The idea of the festival came from a religious community guided by Father Gianni Sgreva CP, as the result of their continuous prayer for the youth of Finland.
The event was extremely especial, and it involved a significant amount of young people from different backgrounds and cultures. Youngsters from different parts of Finland were together in an environment that helped them to share their faith with new friends of similar age, talk about their experiences as Catholics in Finland, clear some of their doubts about the Church, and the most important reestablish their relationship with God or strengthen it. I am extremely thankful to God and all the people involved in this festival, since I never saw a Catholic event in Finland that would gather young people from all over the country. Moreover, this event was specially designed for youngsters, making the spiritual life easy for them. We have only 14 days more of 2016, and I usually get quite emotional during this season every year. There is no way to explain it with my words properly all my feelings, but I would like to share this with you all some memories from 2016, and Finland.
I want to share first my parish life in Turku: I feel home here!
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5&2
A mosaic in the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish in the Holy Land.
This is a blog about being young and Catholic in Finland.
BloggersYiran ChenYiran, or Maria Micaela. Born in China but baptised in Spain (2015), student in Turku. Participant of the Youth Weekends at Stella Maris. Cooking, running and photography are my hobbies.
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