World Youth Day

From our Youth Group

WYD Auckland Experience ... will you be there?

Can’t make it to World Youth Day in Madrid? Then let Madrid come to you through the WYD Auckland Experience! Lots of your favourite elements of World Youth Day will be included in this weekend experience from 19-21 August:

- Stations of the Cross, Adoration and Reconciliation

- Helping your local community through social service – putting your faith into action

- Being Catholic in today’s world

- Celebrations of prayer and music

- Diocesan Youth Mass 31st July at St Patricks in town.

MY HOUSE MY CASTLE

In the last five weeks we have been blessed to have Logos run a programme for young adults here at Our Lady of Lourdes. The Logos team encouraged young adults from West and Central churches to attend this programme because it was about leadership, growing with Christ, building your Faith, having Hope there is change, but mainly learning to love one another and loving the LORD through helping others. It was also just for young adults to connect and meet others from different parishes. They also had a camp in Oruawhau at Rangimarie marae and this is when everybody allowed themselves to open up and trust one another, that is when our group of young adults and Logos became family.We had nine young adults of our own participate and they are Talosaga Jnr Poasa, Will Amosa, Eloisa Masae, Joana Fonoti, Ida Fonoti, Fred Tollemache, Xavier Ah-Chong, Johnny and Nigel Fonoti. They have experienced all this and this is what they had to say on our last day of My House My Castle.

Something I learned about myself?

That there are a lot of people in the world that have nothing and this made me appreciate my family and what I have, there are heaps of ways I can help people,

I can do great things and succeed if I try and to always have a good attitude, to be confident in front of heaps of people, to be respectful to everyone around me, and to be confident to be myself in front of others, that I have a good personality and never give up on things, to be good and helpful to others and obey and respect others, good at praying and altar service, change my attitude towards my parents and to always listen to older people.

Something I learned about leadership?

Leadership comes from great responsibilities, to consider others, trust, talk and be strong. To be friends with people no matter what anyone else thinks, to be a good role model, that anyone can be a leader, to always be respectful and good to people even if you don’t know them, to lead and show others you can do it.

Something I learned about my faith?

That I lack faith because I only pray when I want something, I need to pray more and trust him more, to have faith in my family and friends but mainly in our creator, to be honest and loyal, that I can’t do things without faith, to be helpful, kind and respectful, trust and faith go a long way.

What makes you strong and happy?

Praying, seeing my family every day, God makes me happy and my family makes me strong. I must be able to accept my imperfections as life is not perfect but GOD is.

A big thank you to Nic, Lome, Sam, Jess, Mike from Logos, Yve, Pat from J Walkers, Trish from St Marys for all the hard work you have poured into the children that attended My House My Castle, know that all your teachings will always be appreciated and remembered and that you were awesome leaders and we will miss you heaps. Romans 5:1- Since we have been justified through FAITH, we have PEACE with GOD through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Love From Talosaga, Will, Eloisa, Joana, Ida, Fred, Xavier, Johnny, Nigel

WYD 2011 by Patrick

As some of you know Douglas Mitchell, Yvonne Purcell, and I (Patrick Katoa) have just come back from World Youth Day in Spain, Madrid. About 30 pilgrims from Auckland attended. From New Zealand in total about 100.

We had the World Youth Day opening Mass Tuesday evening in Madrid’s Celebis Square, presided over by the Archbishop of Madrid and con-celebrated by the bishops and priests participating in World Youth Day. From Wednesday to Friday we had catechesis and Mass with bishops from all around the world. This started around 11am. To avoid the long cues at train stations and at the stadium where all this was held, we’d have breakfast around 7:30, then prayers, then leave our campus around 9am. During catechesis, there was adoration, confession, and rosary going on in different parts of the stadium opened to pilgrims. Attendance for weekday catechesis and Mass was 12 thousand plus. This was managed and organised by the Sisters of Mercy. They did an excellent job. During the week after catechesis and Mass, there were different events going on around town for pilgrims to attend if we wanted to. Our Auckland team split up into small groups. Douglas, Yve and I, along with 3 others were one group. There was an event we tried attending, but we ended up lost. We tried asking for direction from voluntary staff, but it made it hard when they couldn’t speak clear English. We decided as a group to walk around town with our New Zealand national flag, but even then we were mistaken for Australia so many times. Saturday 20th August we had vigil mass starting at 8:30pm. To get there we left campus at around 12 in the afternoon. We trained and then walked about 10km. It was about 37 degrees. This made it really tough. We each carried our back packs containing our sleeping bags, as well as our breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most pilgrims camped out there as well. A storm came during vigil Mass, so about half way during Mass, the Pope stopped for a while then finished it off later on that evening. The Pope celebrated the finale Mass last Sunday. I felt really blessed to be there. To overcome the difficulties not only from the night before, but also back here in New Zealand. I gave thanks to Jesus for always being there for me especially in times of need. Being present from beginning to end at this special event gave me that feeling that we made it, that we accomplished our mission, not just Douglas, Yve and I but for our families and for our parish here at the Lady of Lourdes. To physically be there and witness a crowd of about 2.7 million come together because of Jesus in complete surrender, I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support.