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ERBGĦIN

10/01/2023

‘ERBGĦIN’ is a Lenten reflective resource produced by MCYN in collaboration with Lifelong Catechesis, intended to be used with young people during Lent.

As the title of this project suggests, all sessions revolve around the number 40 as inspired by the 40 days of Lent. We do not have many books in the Bible which consists of more than 40 chapters. In view of this, 2 out of 4 sessions would be reflecting on Isaiah 40 and Psalm 40. As observed, there is an additional session following the 4 sessions to be held during Lent. This added reflection should take place during the first days of Easter so as to manifest how the Easter celebration can redeem the 40 days of Lent.

All sessions have been recorded in Maltese in audio-visual format which you may access on YouTube. You may also download all content and reflections in writing in both English and Maltese so that you would be able to amend the content or format according to your group’s needs.

Access Videos
Video Reflections
English Version
Maltese Version

 

Whilst wishing you a blessed time of Lent and Easter, we promise you our prayers. Should you require further information, do not hesitate to contact us via email on: [email protected]

Pentecost: Prayer Space

09/01/2023

For the feast of Pentecost in which we celebrate who we are as Church, in collaboration with Spiritual Development in Schools, we are providing you with a prayer space to animate with your groups/communities. The ultimate aim of this project is to better our understanding of who we are in unity with each other as Church, and our dependency on the Holy Spirit who makes sense of our frailties.

Download in Maltese
Download in English

On this feast of Pentecost, we express our gratitude for your work and tangible presence with adolescents and youths within our communities. Related artistic audio-visual content will be reaching you all in the coming week. Stay tuned!

This Christmas, Make Room

12/12/2022

I can only imagine the attentiveness of parents just before the woman gives birth. Many parents prepare the famous hospital bag weeks – if not months – before the delivery day, to make sure they are fully equipped when the moment arrives. I believe that Joseph and Mary were just as mindful before Jesus was born, while also being filled with joy and excitement. These are undoubtedly memorable moments cherished by many which make everything else seem irrelevant.

During these delicate moments, the last thing that I would want to think of  is a 30-minute telephone survey by one of some statistic agencies – which have a tendency to test my nerves every so often. Joseph and Mary were not exempt from such statistical exercises; their government had in fact demanded their participation a few days before the delivery. The only difference was that the couple had to embark on a 33–hour journey between Nazareth and Bethlehem to enrol themselves. I must thank Google maps for the 33-hour calculation, though this might have been slightly different knowing the vulnerability of Mary in her last pregnancy days (if not hours) and the accompaniment of a poor donkey.

The couple had to leave their home in this vulnerable situation in order to foster responsibility and  be lawful citizens.
NB: The Romans had not been a corruption-free authority either.

Am I willing to leave my comfort zones to meet my obligations towards the state/superiors?

Knowing Joseph’s profession, I can only imagine what he had been preparing to ensure that  baby Jesus received a warm welcome to planet Earth. The simplest preparation that comes to mind is a comfy bed where the mother and child could rest. Yet, he had to leave everything behind to participate in such census, and the selfless woman who had just accompanied Elizabeth in her pregnancy now found herself on a physically and emotionally challenging journey with Joseph – without the warmth of that bed which her husband had planned for baby Jesus and without the warmth of their relatives’ presence.

Would I be able to sit with my own self in moments of vulnerability without being distracted by my possessions?
Would I be able to acknowledge and trust God amid my suffering?

The time for Mary to deliver arrived, and we all know how the rest of the story unfolded. The most comfortable piece of furniture found by the carpenter was nothing less than a manger, and the ones who had accompanied the couple during these joyful moments were none other than some sheep and the poor donkey. I cannot imagine how the couple must have felt at  that  point, after being stripped of all their plans and desires, and finding themselves in a place far from luxurious or fit for a rising king – a cave. A human disappointment. Nevertheless, God still finds His delight, especially now that He could start engaging with His beloved children through an embodied medium, in the simplest form of communication: a newborn’s cry.

Am I aware of God’s wish to reach out to me today?

Aspiring to build a space for Jesus  to dwell in is wonderful; however, are these dreams  replacing  my thirst to meet Him? Am I so preoccupied with being sinless or with my works, that I am forgetting that this is a two-way relationship?

May this story humble us in the realisation that Jesus brings life when and wherever He wants to. He does not require us to be fully equipped; rather, He requires us to have an expectant heart. God did not choose a carpenter to satisfy His needs to sleep in a luxurious bed; rather He chose Joseph for who he was. Mary was not chosen because she was a skilful mother; He chose her because of who she was.

In the same way, God wants to encounter me and you today, not because of what we can offer, but because of who we are, for He is in love with us, despite our disappointments or failed plans. Just as He wanted to journey with Joseph and Mary, He wants to walk the journey of life with me and you.

How can I make room for Jesus this Christmas?

Journeying Through Advent with Film

10/12/2022

We have recently collaborated with ‘Lifelong Catechesis’ to come up with a resource pack to accompany young people aged 16+ throughout the four weeks of Advent. We encourage all leaders to make use of this resource which delves into the themes of hope, faith, joy and love through an exploration of 4 movies.

Download

One Church, One Journey – For Youth Ministry

09/01/2021

In June 2020, the Archdiocese of Malta launched the process of ecclesial renewal One Church, One Journey. This process invites the Church in Malta to a journey taking place between 2020 and 2024.

MCYN has created an abridged version of One Church, One Journey. This version was written with the intention of making the original text shorter, simpler and easier to reflect upon. We’ve made it with hope that it will inspire reflection and, ultimately, drive action.

We pray that this process truly opens us to the will of God and the conversion of heart required to be true witnesses of Christ.

Christus Vivit – Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation to the Young People

02/04/2019

“Christ is alive!  He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world.  The very first words, then, that I would like to say to every young Christian are these: Christ is alive and he wants you to be alive!”

“Christus Vivit” (“Christ Lives”), is the pope’s reflections on the 2018 Synod of Bishops on ‘Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment`, is a combination letter to young people about their place in the church and a plea to older members of the church not to stifle the enthusiasm of the young, but to offer gentle guidance when needed.

Vive Cristo, esperanza nuestra is the opening of the original text in Spanish of the post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, whose text was subsequently published today, April 2, with the signature of March 25.

It was announced by Director of the Holy See Press Office, Alessandro Gisotti, that the Exhortation named “Christus Vivit,” will be published on April 2, “the memorial of the death of John Paul II.”

The wish, he expressed during a briefing in Loreto, was “to link together the two pontificates, so loved by and close to the younger generations.” Pope John Paul II had been the first Pope to address a letter to young people in 1985 and he was the Pope who began the World Youth Days.

Today, April 2, the Pope’s Apostolic Exhortation was released for the first time.
The full English text of the Exhortation can be read here.

Healthy Tension

05/09/2017

Tension and stress are rarely associated with something positive. And yet the Gospel invites us to live in healthy tension. Tension is when one is stretched between two contradictory points. And the Gospel has many of these contradictory invitations. John portrays Jesus as calling his disciples to be in the world but not of this world (Jn 17:14-15). Matthew and Luke both write of the contradiction ‘For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’ (Mt 16:25; Lk 9:24). But perhaps the greatest sign of contradiction of all is Christ’s death on the cross, in order to bring life to the full. This is the ultimate tension. Christ here is literally stretched on the cross to bring heaven and earth together, to redeem all the human race in the loving embrace of God the Father.   

Perhaps our contemporary culture is more open to living in tension after all. Our culture no longer thinks in black and white. Our culture stretches our potential to all limits. So too our youth ministry can invite and challenge young people to live these healthy gospel tensions, as challenging as they may be. Can we invite them to be more of Christian witnesses in their daily lives? In the world but not of this world? To speak in a counter-cultural manner? To write blogs, facebook posts, newspaper articles in favour of life, truth and more Christian values?

Can we invite them to live out of their comfort zone? Without their gadgets? To live a period intensely for others, perhaps through voluntary work? To make radical choices in their lives? Isn’t this the way we invite them to lose their life in order to gain it?

Any youth minister who has challenged a youth group, be it daring them to an abseiling adventure or to a mission, know that they rise up to the occasion. And when they live in tension, it acts like a catapult. It helps them grow in spiritual maturity, it helps them be of witness to others and mobilise others to taste what they have experienced.

As youth leaders and ministers, we too are called to live in a tension that is life-giving and creative. We are called to be lamps to others and recognise the mission which we have been given for “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” At the same time, it is important we acknowledge that we bear ‘this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” So, in our journey as youth leaders, we need to continuously strive between doing all to polish and train ourselves so that we shine God’s light brightly, whilst at the same time trusting that it is God who will work through us, if we only step out of his way!

Christine Rossi

Ms Rossi together with Profs Adrian-Mario Gellel will be presenting their research entitled: ‘Of Lamps & Clay vessels – Towards the validation of non-formal and informal learning of youth leaders in Church youth groups.’ on the 23rd September 2017 at Sala San Gorg Preca – Catholic Institute in Floriana at 9am. For more info please send an email on: [email protected]

That Unreachable Thing Called Beauty

28/08/2017

“I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.” (The Book Thief by Markus Zusak)

There must be a reason why this sentence etched itself so deeply into my memory. It doesn’t happen often, so when it does, there simply must be a good reason for it to do so. I keep finding myself returning to this sentence, each time inserting different adjectives – opposites, contradictions – that shouldn’t work together. Words such as distant and close; rich and poor; wretched and peaceful; silent and loud; real and abstract; man and God…you get the picture. In all cases, the sentence holds true.

It seems to me now, that this single sentence is somewhat of a paradigm of the entire human experience. We simply cannot understand the value of one thing without that value which tends to stand on the most distant, opposite end. Can we start to understand the truth, without identifying the non-truths; or true friendship without having suffered betrayal? Can we read a complete sentence, without knowing the value of a single letter? Can we fully appreciate the splendour of a mosaic, without considering the thousands of little glass pieces (tesserae) used to create it? I am convinced the answer is no. So how can we expect to recognise Beauty (yes, with a capital B); or Truth, or Love (all with capitals), or Oneness without first seeing (but it is an ever so small and limited a glimpse) what they are not, through the multiplicity of means and scenarios which we are offered throughout our life, daily?

I am here concerned with Beauty, but since all are connected, one will naturally and inevitably relate to the other in a practically inseparable way. Much has been written about Beauty already, and whatever has been written here has certainly been written elsewhere before. “Art,” claims Pope Francis, “is not only a witness of the beauty of Creation, but it is also an instrument of evangelisation” (‘My idea of art,’ 2015). In other words, art is both passive and active – it is one and the other, and both at the same time. Indeed, the sentence still holds true.

Art is a tool, an instrument, and for a long time in the history of art (and man), Beauty was the insufferable cause and desire of several artists and patrons. All longed for Beauty, many attempted to reach it, and all, of course, failed. Because Beauty, in this sense, is not only unreachable but also unrecognisable. Yet, and here comes the paradox, it is forever approachable. We yearn what we cannot fully have. Still we try to reach it in one way other, and often we do not realise that we are.

What we will possibly find within art is not Beauty itself, but an expression of it, a taste to wet our appetite for the actual thing. And so we ask for more, to see more and know more. But the actual thing we are then looking for, is something art cannot provide us with. It is only an instrument, not the actual music, and it is the music that we desire most to hear.

Giulia Privitelli – Pietre Vive

Throughout the summer period, Pietre Vive is offering numerous formation camps in Spain (Santiago de Compostela and Puente de la Reina), in France (on Gothic art and architecture) and Greece (on early Christian communities, between paganism and jews). Contact [email protected] for more information or [email protected] to get in touch with the local community.