5&2 Youth Blog

To My Dear Prends – a Sunday Reflection

6/5/2018

No, no, that is not a typo in the heading. Prend means friend and is a word that we invented during World Youth Day in Poland in 2016. To put it simply, it is an invention that began with our imperfect English. I remember that at that time I could not even properly recite prayers in Finnish and hardly follow people’s conversation. However, out of love, my friends - prends - helped me understand everything. We danced together, got lost together, roamed around in beautiful Krakow together. Those are nice memories.

World Youth Day in 2016.

In today’s gospel, Jesus called me again to be his friend. This is the second time in 3 days.

What is a Friend?

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Truthful Grace

10/4/2018

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“Lord Jesus, I trust in You.”

During this Pascal Octave, I have started praying the Novena of Divine Mercy. God’s Mercy is infinite, the only condition we need to discover it is that we trust in Him.

Thanks be to God, I participated the Easter Vigil this year with Stella Maris People. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and had sharing moments in group and in family.

By the time of the Vesper, we had decided to do the readings in different languages and shared them among ourselves. This meant that the readings and psalms were in Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Finnish, Swedish, English and Tagalog. It gave us an amazing feeling of being the Universal Church and experiencing a new Pentecost!

After the Vigil, we shared some experiences, songs and pastries.

Christus Resurrexit! Christ is risen!

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Faith 24/7 - A Lenten Reflection

11/3/2018

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One day I was having lunch with my colleagues and we were talking about our weekend activities. The conversation went something like this:

I said: I went to Lohja for a church gathering.
My colleague: Was it in Vivamo? I used to go there when I was little.
I: No, it was at Stella Maris, we often go there for youth gatherings.
My colleague: That’s nice, but religion is not my kind of activity.

Religion, activity? Is religion an activity?!

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The New Stella Maris

29/1/2018

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After more than two months of silence we went back to the "home" of Our Mother, Stella Maris. This time, we are not part of any Youth Weekends anymore. Andi is abroad for a month of exams, Father Gianni has been here alone, with Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. That might seem sad: a place with empty rooms, cold and abandoned. The reality, however, is totally different. We had a such joyful weekend, without any arrangement and stress, young and energetic people gathered together in good will. Hey! Welcome to the New Stella Maris!

We arrived at around 10 on Satudray morning, for spontaneous prayers in front of the most blessed sacrament. All kinds of petitions were offered, we know that God knows better what we need.

After having lunch together, we had a short sharing moment. After the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we “chewed over” Sunday’s reading together in Lectio Divina. What a delicious spiritual food that Jesus prepared for us through St. Paul. The Body of Christ and us, all we should do is to listen our Father.

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2017 - A Year with Mary

31/12/2017

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Finally, it is the time to look back upon this year. We have received uncountable favors from Our Lady, so we thank our Mom for helping us. A multitude of events happened this year and I list some of those that really helped me and my friends to grow in faith.

1. The Youth Weekends.

The One Body in Christ Youth Weekends continued with a wonderful group time at Stella Maris. We learned about vocation in the Spring and we continued about family and social challenges in the Autumn.

People from various places shared their testimonies, lots of providences were given (every weekend we received more than enough food, for free!), as well as blessings and healings from adorations, worship and prayers.

Unfortunately, it could not continue after October, since the use of the buildings was banned by the authorities. Nevertheless, we always stand united as “One Body in Christ”.

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My ABC for Advent

20/12/2017

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It's the third Sunday of Advent already, so in this post I will try to summarise my Advent reflections in the order of the alphabet.

A: Annunciation. Our Lady's period of Advent is actually longer than ours, since she knew that Jesus was coming since the Annunciation.
B: But. "Everything before the 'but' does not count." It happens to me all the time. (ノ_＜) I want to pray more, but I don't have time." "I want to participate in the morning Mass, but it's too early." Maybe it could be a New Year's Resolution, to stop all the buts?
C: Child. Many times we should be like children, waiting for the Child Jesus with our hearts full of purity.

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Family and Faith

8/11/2017

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Recently we had the October Youth Weekend at Stella Maris, which was attended by around 20 people. In some ways it is "the last weekend", as the Bishop has announced that all activities should stop at Stella Maris by November. This post is a summary of my reflections at this time.

Sunday Mass at Stella Maris during the Youth Weekend.

1. Love and Serve

Family means a unity of servants, and it is a place to serve. In a family, we serve each other through love and we offer ourselves to another person. Love is never temporary, contrary to what society promotes nowadays.

Jesus serves us by giving his Life. Love in His terms stands for sacrifice. If we want imitate Him, then we should learn to give and to "sacrifice" ourselves. And learn to be faithful like Him!

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Serving like Mary

25/9/2017

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Click to find out more about the next Youth Weekend

This month is a special month: it is exactly one year since we started the Youth Ministry at Stella Maris. However, we don’t yet know if we are going to have the second year of youth weekends. Yes, this post is about my reflections on the current situation at Stella Maris. I have been praying about it for a long while, and now I want to share my thoughts with you, based on Sunday’s readings and Gospel (24/9/2017).

Stella Maris. It is a Marian Shrine and activity center. It was consecrated to Our Lady a few years ago and every May since then, this vow has been renewed.

This Sunday’s first reading (Is 55:6-9) is on the difference between God’s plan and man’s plan. Apparently, we plan in different ways for Stella Maris. For some of us, it is a diocesan activity center; for some of us, it is a Marian sanctuary; for some of us, it is a parish. And for many other people and me, it is a spiritual home.

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The Language of the Holy Spirit

6/6/2017

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Happy Pentecost!

I took part in the vigil at Stella Maris on Saturday, on the Eve of Pentecost Sunday, and the first reading drew my attention:

Then the LORD said: If now, while they are one people and all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach. [GN 11:6]

It has been said that human communication is not very efficient, that listeners only get few per cent of the original message transmitted by the talker. But languages are also tools to proclaim and unite people.

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The Good Shepherd

8/5/2017

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On the Feast of the Good Shepherd our brother Andreas Bucksrucker received his Admission to the Holy Orders at Stella Maris. Bishop Teemu Sippo SCJ celebrated the Holy Mass and blessed him.

Last weekend it was the May Youth Weekend at Stella Maris, Andreas shared his testimony with us as the theme for the weekend was the Priesthood. What did I conclude from Andi’s story? That the Plan of God is always much better than ours.

Andi at the Youth Weekend at Stella Maris.

This life is a pilgrimage; we walk, and we seek the right way. Sometimes, we create the difficulties for ourselves to finding the way that God proposes. We may not pay attention to what God tells us (like a wayward sheep); we may want to avoid the way by coming up with excuses or following attractive material issues (the rich young man); we may be lazy, not work and think that faith moves everything.

Excuses after excuses, pretexts after pretexts, which will just cause us to end up like the prodigal son: sad, pockets empty, life ruined. Until we find the way back Home, the way that He chose for us, we will not have peace. Because Jesus said, the Peace that He gives is different from the peace of this world. He is the Good Shepherd, the One who knows his sheep, and his sheep knows Him. He knows us better than we do!

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<<Previous

To My Dear Prends – a Sunday Reflection

What is a Friend?

Truthful Grace

Faith 24/7 - A Lenten Reflection

The New Stella Maris

2017 - A Year with Mary

My ABC for Advent

Family and Faith

1. Love and Serve

Serving like Mary

The Language of the Holy Spirit

The Good Shepherd

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