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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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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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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Međugorje - Part III

8/8/2017

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In comparison with last year’s World Youth Day in Poland, the festival here has a simpler schedule. In the morning we have catechesis and testimonies, with worship songs during breaks. In the afternoon, there are more testimonies, and people pray the rosary before the Holy Mass. Each day, there are more than 400 priests con-cerebrating the Mass and more than 50,000 young people dancing and singing together to worship Our Lord.

Testimony from the Cenacolo communities.

It was a blessing to hear catechesis from Fr. Jacques Philippe, who talked about relativism, faith, love and the Truth. We have also heard beautiful and touching testimonies from people who have experienced extreme conversions and now work as instruments of God.

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Međjugorje - Part II

3/8/2017

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The World Youth Festival in Međjugorje started on Tuesday, by an entrance procession after the daily rosary. Each country with their flag and a sign took part in the procession. According to the local parish priest, this time there were 61 countries represented at the Festival.

In addition to carrying the flag and sign, the people representating their countries were asked to say the theme of the Youth Festival - May your love grow more and more (Phil. 1:9) - in their own language. For Finland, this verse was said in both Finnish and Swedish.

Youth representatives from the participating countries waiting for the procession to start.

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Međjugorje - Part I

1/8/2017

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A group of around 60 people from Finland and Verona, Italy, arrived in Međjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 30, 2017. Our pilgrimage was arranged by Father Gianni Sgeva CP. One of the main reasons for the pilgrimage was the World Youth Festival, which takes place at Međjugorje on August 1-6. This year the theme of the Festival is That your love may grow more and more.

Young people from around the world are coming to Međjugorje for this global gathering. As Fr. Gianni said, each place that Our Lady has appeared is a blessing, yet more blessed is Međjugorje, since Our Mother is still appearing to the visionaries.

A sign from each country is required at the festival, so the first evening we set up the Finnish flag and registered at the local parish for participation in the festival. It is quite possible that we are the first Finnish group to have taken part in this festival. We are about 25 people from the Finnish youth group.

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To My Dear Prends – a Sunday Reflection

What is a Friend?

2017 - A Year with Mary

Serving like Mary

Međugorje - Part III

Međjugorje - Part II

Međjugorje - Part I

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Yiran Chen

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​To My Dear Prends – a Sunday Reflection

What is a Friend?

2017 - A Year with Mary

Serving like Mary

Međugorje - Part III

Međjugorje - Part II

Međjugorje - Part I

5&2

Bloggers

Yiran Chen

Archives

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To My Dear Prends – a Sunday Reflection