| Easter Stories |
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"Breaking Dawn" Easter Retreat 2012
Holy week had 10 young adults participant in the Magis Ireland Easter retreat. What made it different this year was their collaboration with SXF parish in Gardiner Street. One young adult reflects on their experiences and shares some thoughts.
I come from Brazil South America, and came to Ireland to improve my English, I have been here six months. When I thought about Easter I when searching for a meaningful way to celebrate with people of my age and came across Magis Ireland through their brochure. I really enjoyed the time, which was spent reflecting in a creative way with other young adults and then moving to the parish’s services. Everyone was very welcoming and I made many new friends.
To me the most special moment was after the Holy Thursday’s mass, when after the Mass the community walked to the local church garden and sang and pray the rosary. The deep meaning of each moment, using symbols of white ribbons, stones, silver, fire and rose petals, made it very real and the scripture reading of “for where two or three meet in my name, I am there among them ” was brought to life. People from all walks of life praying together make me think that God is much bigger than the time, then distance and culture, it doesn’t matter if the person is Irish, Brazilian or Polish, old or young, rich or poor, speaks English or Portuguese: God is the same to everybody and all the differences among us are irrelevant.
I remembered my Christian community in Brazil, in spite of the many cultural differences, it is the same Spirit, and the same God bring us together to worship. This was one of the moments that stood out for me as we gathered to pray. Other thoughts that came to me was the resistance of Christianity I sense, I believe many young people need to experiences a positive sense of Christian community, mass attendance once a week is not enough to provide spiritual energy to resist to the strong and constant pressure from everywhere that affirms a materialistic and secularized culture. We need to create communities that invite young people to reflect and this is what I experienced in Magis Ireland. Through this, I believe I can as an individual support building on our Christian community and inviting many to be involved. I look forward to the next retreat.
André
Ballintubber Pilgrimage Easter Retreat Driving for Mayo on the Thursday morning, I’d been thinking, “what have I let myself in for?”. It had been wet and cold and I had been feeling like not going. But I stayed with what I was feeling and did some prayer and eventually we got there. As I entered the Abbey, I got a great sense of peace. My mind was at ease and I was happy to be there. Such a great a group of people to share this experience with! I enjoyed very much the simplicity of our prayer, the humble way of living and the simple way that the retreat was led. We had a beautiful day for the walk to Croagh Patrick on the Saturday and we had covered 12 miles before approaching the mountain. The parts I enjoyed most were the silence and prayer with God. It was great to reflect on what Jesus had done for us and how he suffered to give us what we had. He has taught me how to listen and serve others. Mary |