Editor’s

Update By tiffany chan  

Sundays 2.00pm: Bible Studies Sundays 3.45pm: Youth Mass Choir/Band Practice Sundays 5.30pm: Youth Mass Sunday 9th June 7pm: Acclaim meeting at Bishop Barry Room Sunday 16th June 6.30pm: Yrs 10-12 Youth Group Night

For all youth enquiries, please email: youth@chatswoodparish.org.au Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/acclaimyouthgroup

  3 June Tiffany Adrian, Teresa, Ivon

The month of June, for many of us in Acclaim, means the end of another Uni semester and a month of studying and nerve-wrecking exams. No matter how prepared we thought we were, the month of June always brings along many challenges, thus inspiring the theme for this YAC edition – ‘Challenges’. Today’s 20-somethings, or Generation Y, are going through a different set of challenges from their parents and grandparents – one challenge that I can particularly observe and relate to is that of multitasking. How can we study, intern, work, maintain relationships, socialize and exercise…while still maintaining and growing in our relationship with Christ? This issue we will hear from our Youth Pastoral Associate, Adrian, who recently succeeded his own challenge of a second half marathon. We will also hear from members of Acclaim’s Bible Studies about the Four Pillars of Faith (the topic for May). Whenever we are struggling through any challenge, remember to have faith and pray for strength, not for an easy life.

What’s

on

nothing ventured

nothing gained

BY Adrian brannan

In May I completed my second half marathon, a challenge that I feared even despite having done it once before, I achieved my goal and finished but after the initial elation I was overwhelmed - I could have done it better, or faster, I should have trained harder. All of this was just me challenging myself further and all will serve as ammunition for next year and as I work towards completing a full marathon in the next couple of years.

A year in our lives without challenge, could be viewed as a wasted year, a year where nothing changes, where we have accepted the status quo and we just remain stagnant.

To truly progress and to achieve our goals and ambitions we must accept challenges, in fact we must create them for ourselves, tailoring them to make sure we are challenged to a level which will make us achieve our very best.

As disconcerting as it can be to throw ourselves in the deep end, to rock our comfortable world and lifestyle by throwing in a series of goals or ambitions that make us step up, we must! Sure it can feel like we are overwhelmed and even out of control but without it we achieve nothing and furthermore we bore ourselves and our existence becomes mundane. Challenge is our destiny calling to us, asking us to build ourselves up, in a sense it is God challenging us to be the best we can possibly be and not allowing apathy, a sense of entitlement or contentment to limit our progress.

We can face all the normal challenges; to raise our grades, to get the promotion, to

lose some weight, to get fitter and to save some money, these and all like them are all wonderful life building goals and challenges, but do we stretch ourselves, do we challenge ourselves even in the placing of these goals?

In our lives there is an ever-present ongoing challenge from God; to place him at the centre of our lives and to live in service to Him!

I think we should all challenge ourselves that when we next take stock of where we are at in life and where we are going (something we should all do more regularly) we should give some extra thought to our challenges. Not only to place some ‘stretch goals’ in there to really make us reach out of our comfort zone, but also to place some goals related to how God wants us to live our lives.

Perhaps it will be about being more intent to listen to His Word, attend Bible Studies, read each of the Gospels or take up a regular bible reading program. Or maybe it will be about bringing Christianity to others and making a contribution to a social justice initiative such as visiting a nursing home and spending time with the elderly.

However you choose to challenge yourself, make it meaningful and make it about Christ being at the centre of your life and accept his ever present Challenge and love for us, whatever it is, if we do it in His Name then we can expect He will fortify us through to completion of the challenge, and we will be living a life that is worthy of glory of His Name…and don’t forget to Thank Him!

Pittwater

praise and worship BY Teresa uymatiao

Motivating. Inspiring. Dance-inducing!

On the 24th of May, a large group from Acclaim went to support one of the local parishes, Pittwater Parish in its Diocesan-wide Praise and Worship night which is held quarterly, of which OLD is due to hold the next one in September. What such high expectations we have to uphold and live up to!

The Praise and Worship celebration was such a fulfilling night, starting off with a BBQ, followed by a flow of solemn and joyful songs within a beautifully decorated space- surrounded by candlelight and an extremely talented group of young musicians (including one of our own!) leading us in thanksgiving and praise of our mighty Lord.

We also had the delight of seeing a dance performance, had a chance to be 'cleansed' and to be prayed for by priests and local parishioners and listened to an inspiring talk by Rosa Vukovich who taught us the importance of being missionaries within our Catholic lives. Many, if not all of us were touched by her personal journey with Christ and humbled by her honesty and openness.

All in 2 hours. By the end we were all on our feet dancing and singing and we had so much fun, we couldn't believe the night ended so quickly.

Amongst so many young and vibrant Catholics from parishes all the way from the Central Coast, it was so inspiring to see the movement of energy within the room, and how many other young Catholics are out there with the same enthusiasm as our own youth group :)

If you're interested in coming along to an event like this, Chatswood is set to hold the next Praise and Worship night in September so stay tuned for more details. God bless, Rez

Spiritual ministry BY ivon sangadI

Every Sunday at 2pm, a group of fun, energetic and curious minded youth gathers together at the Bishop Barry Room to worship, share their faith, study the Word of God and pray together. During May, the topic discussed was The Four Pillars of Faith. We all know that God desires to have a deep and personal relationship with every single one of us. He knew us even before we were formed in the womb. But what about us - do we know God? It is our choice whether or not we want to know more about our creator, to develop a relationship with Him and let Him in into our lives. The Four Pillars of Faith are - service, the Word of God, prayer, and community. We need all four pillars to be able to grow and maintain our relationship with God. At the end of the month, I asked everyone to draw a diagram or picture that illustrates what the four pillars of faith mean to them. This is what they came up with:

Teresa - God is able to provide us a warm home under his roof if we continue to build a loving relationship with him. Each pillar: word of god, prayer, service and community all equally important in holding up our home. Inside are his people, his church! Carl - I drew a truck symbolizing faith and the four wheels symbolizing the pillars of faith. Without the wheels (pillars of faith) the truck (faith) will be unstable and non-functional. But if the four wheels function properly they will help drive the truck smoothly on the path to our Lord. Adrian - For me: "I am the tree" living thing, bearing fruit through us in active service, based on, and rooted in, and growing through the four pillars! Trixie - the flame represents the burning passion within a person to serve, know and love God more- ignited by the 4 pillars of faith! Ivon - Each axle is a pillar and each pillar is equally important because if one is broken/ shorter than the other, the wheel will collapse and it won't be able to function properly. As our faith grows, the pillars grow and the wheel expands - this expands our scope of service, community (relationships), prayer life and our understanding of the Word. Jesus is at the centre of it all. It is round because it is a continuous process and it interrelates.

Whenever I think of service, I always think of the prayer by St Teresa of Avilla and it goes like this - “Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.” We are God’s apprentices on Earth. When we adopt that mindset, trust in God in everything we do, our scope of service is no longer limited to what we think we can or cannot do but it will be limitless because He is a limitless God.

In June, the topic is Being Christians. If you are interested in joining us, shoot us an email: youth@chatswoodparish.org!

Pray for strength, not for an easy life

Image and article from http://www.searchquotes.com/viewimage/Pray_For_Strength_To_Endure_Life's_Challenges/705/ Bruce Lee is a great example of someone who knew that life wasn't easy! He knew that success in life wasn't at all about making your life easier overtime, but instead that life was about building your muscle, your emotional muscle, physiological muscle,

psychological muscle, and spiritual muscle, consistently in each day, to tackle bigger challenge, after bigger challenge. Instead of searching for the road less traveled, and the easiest paths to conquer, we have to desire to shoot for dreams that are real to us. Make the dreams that you have on the inside of you so forceful, and so overpowering that you absolutely have to after them, for it is only then that you will seek your dreams as most others refuse to.

Instead of praying for enough strength to make it through this day, walk in the victory that you know God has already given you. Don't avoid pain, don't live a life in fear, grow and contribute to this world by overcoming obstacles that no one else has overcome! Be an inspiration today!

Join the Reader’s Ministry

A great ministry to be a part of - the Reader's Ministry has a role of preaching the Good News to our parishioners, proclaiming and celebrating God's Word! As a reader, you have a great responsibility, but it is also very rewarding- you become more actively involved in the liturgy, as your understanding of the scripture deepens. You gain great confidence and public speaking skills and you get to meet the current team of readers who are all so wonderful and friendly. You are only committed to reading once a month (or more if you want to) at the Youth Mass, Sunday 5:30pm. So a special shout out especially to all the youth - high school and above, come and get involved!

If you would like to become involved with us, or are interested to know more about reading please call/text Rez on 0412 885 553 or email her at teresarose16@hotmail.com