Archbishop Edward Gilbert has challenged young people to develop a personal relationship with God – and stay connected.

He issued the challenge to more than 200 Catholic youth gathered at the El Dorado Senior Comprehensive School for last weekend’s Youth Assembly 2007. Theme of the event, organised by the Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Secretariat, was “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6).

The Archdiocesan Youth Assembly replaced a Caribbean Youth Assembly planned for Jamaica. Organisers there, anticipating that national elections might have been held around the same time and concerned about the safety of visiting youth, advised against the Assembly being held. Jamaica’s elections are due to come off August 27.

Preaching the homily at the closing Mass last Sunday, chief celebrant Archbishop Gilbert urged his youthful audience to develop an individual “relationship with God to accept the truth of God”.

Speaking on the second reading (Colossians 2:12-14), he joked that the underlying message was often heard in advertisements by telecommunications providers: “Be connected”.

The Archbishop said people needed to be connected with the Spirit to live the Truth but noted that many did not know how to pray. He said while more and more adults were today asking how to pray, prayer must not be just words without meaning. “Without that personal relationship, prayer is sterile,” he remarked.

Archbishop Gilbert challenged Episcopal Delegate for Youth, Sr Kathy Joseph OP, to find a way to sustain what was started over that weekend – youths relating to each other at parish level.

Concelebrating the Mass with the Archbishop were Carapichaima parish priest Fr Derek Anton and Vicar for Administration, Fr Jason Gordon.

 Fr Gordon had earlier delivered the day's feature address on “See the Way, Judge by Truth, Act for Life”. He spoke of the importance of choosing the truth to avoid division, saying that oftentimes people believed themselves holy when, in fact, their lives did not reflect it. Choosing the truth was choosing Jesus, he said.

Fr Gordon noted that sometimes young persons allowed music and movies that did not reflect their faith values to influence the way they talked, thought and behaved. He told the gathering of young people from across the archdiocese: “When our eyes and ears don’t function in connection with God we tend to make other things our God.”

One’s conscience was the voice of God, he said, explaining that it transmitted warning signals from God to help people resist sin. Fr Gordon lamented that very often, young people did not pay attention to the signs God placed before them in their everyday life. He advised young people to foster positive thinking and not “stinking thinking”, an expression borrowed from the Alcoholics Anonymous philosophy.

Fr Gordon ended with a reflection on the four dynamics of love, “All is gift, all is holy, all is striving for its perfection, all is held in divine embrace.”

The other feature speaker over the weekend was attorney-at-law Tricia Hudlin-Cooper. Delivering the feature talk on Saturday on “Follow the Way, Speak the Truth, Become the Life”, she said change was inevitable and people must examine themselves to determine where change must begin.

This was necessary because being a witness to God's work entailed being different and a choice must be made between fitting in to avoid scrutiny or standing out and risking rejection, she added.

Hudlin-Cooper said many young Catholics were “ignorant of the faith” and asked: "If we do not know what we follow, then how can we possibly witness it to everybody?" She compared the youth to soldiers without ammunition if they did not pray and live a life in Christ.

Workshops

Workshop sessions were held on both days. On Saturday, the focus was on social issues while Sunday’s workshops included using clay, drama, dance, video production, singing, art and craft, poster and banner design, and print media.

Drama Fest 2007 runners-up Laventille Shrine and winners Malabar Youth performed their skits before a break to allow the Archbishop to visit some of the workshops.

Towards the end of the closing Mass, Kyle Dardaine – of Companions of the Transfigured Christ – acknowledged the presence of a small group of participants from the Guyanese interior region of Hosororo. He explained that this was the region in which Trinidadian missionaries were currently working.

Missionary Joseph Wells and newcomers Jodi Gonsalves, Stephen Jones and Anna McCartney were then invited to the stage and formally commissioned by the Archbishop.

The other missionaries beginning the Antilles Episcopal Conference Youth Commission Missionary programme – Antonio Rodriguez, Shaun Lindsay, David Constantine and Jerome Fournillier – were unable to attend. The group leaves August 7 for Guyana.

The Archdiocesan Youth Assembly received support from the Ministries of Sport and Youth Affairs, and Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs.
– with reporting by Khadija MacFarlane, Adrian Hercules, Leslie Bartholomew and others in the Print Media workshop.