Youth Day

Wow! What a day!! I sincerely thank God for this day... the Youth Day at St John's Kondadaba. I had great amount of anxiety and fear as to what would be the outcome of this one day animation programme for nearly 200 youth of the neighbouring villages and Parishes. What I literally feared was that I had taken upon myself the animation of the day - to be done in Telugu. I feared words would fail me. I feared, I would make a fool of myself. I feared it would be an utter fiasco. However, thanks to the inspiration from Frs KT and Wilson, and certainly a great amount of help from God above... I surprised myself (leave alone the Brothers)! Words, sentences and what not just flowed from my mouth... in Telugu. I know not how much of what I really wanted to say, reached them, but this I know, I did not once feel restricted or held up for want of appropriate words or proper use of language.

The youngsters too were fantastic.... lively, involved and ready to join in for all the learning. Another great difficulty I faced was the choice of animation themes. I really could not zero in on what exactly I wanted to share about. However, things fell in place more or less by last night... that too at 1 am in the morning (after I returned from the launch of the Evangelisation programme).

Rather than speak all the while, I made use of some powerpoint presentations, a couple of video clippings and plenty of games... all as part of the theme and as tools for drawing out a message. It did work out very well.

One of my greatest joys was to see the Youth Alive group members fully active and 'alive'. They indeed did their best in making the day a very memorable one for the youngsters - and in turn for themselves. They planned well, interested in doing many things with great finesse ... and did not resent being pushed to do their best! Satish, was the most interested of all.

A surprise for me was that he quoted one of my goodnight thoughts for the young people... that of being men who can move others to a better life. Thanks to him and his acknowledgment of my impact on his life! All in all, a great day! A detailed report can me read here.

Thank you, Lord!

Salesians without youth...

I came across this very interesting news bit titled Beggars banned from churches in Assisi, Italy. It begins thus: "BEGGARS have been banned within 500m of churches in Assisi, Italy. And it's now illegal to feed the pigeons in the town square. You wonder what Francis of Assisi would have thought of that..." It really sounds so jarring! After all that St Francis stood for, we hear of this right in his hometown. I suppose authorities have a valid reason for it; but is it good enough reason to 'ban'? Sometimes I fear this may get replicated in our Salesian houses too. Comments and instructions which sometime term our collaborators as "those people" and youngsters as "nuisance" are quite disparaging. That some places/times we do not make the first move to interact with the young is bad enough; worse is when young people run away from us (either because we always find fault with them or because we are too out of sync with their ideas, opinions and values).

The (f)utility of a World Youth Day...

Much has been spoken and broadcasted about the World Youth Day that was held in Sydney a while ago. I wonder if much has been DONE - or will be done - as an offshoot of the World Youth Day. I agree I`ve not really followed it up day by day or have been involved in events leading up to this international event... however, I have my own reservations about the whole fanfare!
To have a week long celebrations of togetherness, unity and sharing is indeed a nice idea. It surely has great advantages. What I question is the worth of it. Is it really worth that much of effort, energy and expenditure just for one week. Had there been a greater awareness and consciousness about the same theme and vibrancy at the local level perhaps it would have been of greater use. Rather than grand solemn occasions which come to go, I`d prefer to hear and believe in something more tangible here and now, something local, something in each Province, each Parish, each Youth Centre and that too all along the year. Let`s have more youth days, youth months, youth years rather than `a` world youth day - one week in a year! I mourn not the fact that there has been a world youth day, nor that only a handful of people made up the Indian contingent, or the Salesian contingent, I mourn rather the lack of a Salesian youth movement in INDIA. I know very well much is being done at the grassroots but can all of it be connected to have a real impact at the national or state level. Can we, as youth workers, network together to form a vibrant youth movement in our own parishes, youth centres, Provinces and country? Some may say it is easier said than done! True and I do take the blame also - after all, I too am a Salesian! But I do believe it is possible. The PALS meet held a year ago was indeed a commendable effort. So too is the launching of the www.youthindia.net but what I dream of is a movement (however small it may be) of youth at each local level which can be linked in whatever way we can with the state and national level. While there is a national face to the movement, its individual flavour too is retained. May Don Bosco guide us all!