January 2009 Newsletter

January 2009 Edition

Do not let anyone look down on you
just because you are young, but be an example
for the believers in your speech, your conduct,
your love, faith and purity. (1 Tim 4:12)

Welcome back and Holy New Year to all our readers! As we enter the new year of 2009, switching from old committee to the newly selected committee, we pray that all of us especially the new leaders will work as a team and communicate with each other well and that we will learn more about our faith and grow in our love for Christ. Moreover, as a soldier of Christ, we need to stand up and fight for Christ.
In the process of growing up, we are faced with many challenges and moments of trial, persecution, humiliation, defeat and insult. But remember, with the love of Christ, we can ride through these storms in life! And do not be afraid, for we are the ambassadors or Christ. Turn to Jesus, listen and hold on to Him. And it is through all these hard work that we will rise in victory together with Christ.
We hope that our newsletter for this year will be able to help each and every one of us to journey closer to Jesus and imitate St. Paul the Apostle in his evangelization to the gentiles.

“Never forget that the church, in fact humanity, all the people around you now and those who await you in the future, expect much from you young people, because you have within you the supreme gift of the Father, the Spirit of Jesus”
(Message from WYD, 2008)


MYCS Board 2009
A year has passed, here come a new year, the old batch of MYCS have worked hard and brought us this far. We thank them for what they have done for MYCS. We hope that they will continue to help and pray for the new batch of MYCS who have taken over the office since the end of October 2008.

Like the last batch, we too, went through the gruesome MYCS leadership camp where we were tested beyond our endurance. Although, pain and suffering occurred in our body and mind during the camp, we also had fun.
On the last day of the camp, the MYCS board for 2008/2009 was elected and the results are posted below.

Main Committee
President: Jeanne Chiew Wan Ying
Vice President: Elisha Bilong Ridgway
Secretary: Jacqueline Usun
Assistant Secretary: Shirley Sylvester
Treasurer: Stephina Lupang
Publicity/Liaison: Raynald Banyang
Project: Therry Noel George + Raphael Raymond

Newsletter Editorial Board
Editor: Malcolm Aaron
Assistant Editor: Lorizka Xalfina
Typist/Layour: Morris ak Jet
Distributor: Mark Jeremy Essa
Keep-In-Touch: Rowena Dabra

As you can see, we have two new posts which are Publicity/Liaison and Project. “Publicity/Liason” is responsible to publicise our MYCS activities while “Project” will come up with projects to help catholic teens and YCS in the schools so that we can grow in our faith.
We look forward to working with all of you this year!


2009, St. Paul Year
The Pauline Year, which Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed on 28th June 2007, has an ecumenical dimension, that is, reaching out to people of our faith, and will follow the example of St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, who brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to Gentiles—people of other faiths.

St. Paul was a great witness of Christ and he lived his life faithfully following the call of Jesus right to the end. He died a martyr. He was beheaded by the emperor Nero in around 67 AD.

This year of St. Paul that we celebrate is designed to celebrate the bimillenium (2000 years) of the birth of St. Paul, which historians place between the years 7 and 10 AD.

Many of us may think that we, teenagers, are too young to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people of other faith. We will gladly let the adults, our parents, our brothers and sisters do this.

But dear friends, are we really that young? Don't we have classmates who are of other religion? Don’t you think that they will listen to us better than when adults talk to them? It is high time that we teens reach out to our own peers and tell them about Jesus. Of course we need to exercise caution and be sensitive to other people’s feelings. We should not push out faith down people’s throats.

Telling others about Jesus can be done in many ways. We don’t always have to talk. The best way to tell others about our God is through our actions. We can show love and care for others who are not of our faith. In short, we can tell them that Jesus loves them through our loving and caring actions.

So friends, let’s imitate St. Paul and bring the Good News to others. This is more so for those of use who have been comfirmed. Soldiers of Christ, let’s stand for Captain Jesus and tell others about Him.

Prayer to St. Paul

Glorious St. Paul, most zealous Apostle, martyr for the love of Christ, give us deep faith, a steadfast hope, a burning love for our Lord as that we can proclaim with you. ‘It is no longer I who life, but Christ who lives in me.’ Help us to become apostles, serving the Church with a pure heart, witnesses to her truth and beauty, amidst the darkness of our days, with you we praise God our Father. ‘To Him be the glory, in the Church and in Christ, now and forever.’ Amen.

Announcements:

1. 2 representative of every school in Miri (excluding those within the main committee) must be present at every MYCS meeting.
2. For the month of January, meetings will be on the 11th January 2009 and 18th January 2009 at 9am sharp in the Conference Room of the father’s house, St. Joseph’s Cathedral Miri. Stationary, bible and a notebook must be brought along.
3. Those who are born in 1994 or earlier and have already received Holy Communion and wish to receive the Sacrement of Comfirmation this year are required to join the weekly Sunday talks at the St. Joseph’s Cathedral from 1pm to 2.30pm. For further information, please contact Aunt Margaret/Christ Teens/MYCS (us).
4. Easter Camp 2009 will be held on the 10th til 12th April 2009. Please pray for us as we organise this camp.
5. There’ll be a YCS Mass on the 18th January 2009 (11am) at the St. Joseph Cathedral, organised by College and SMK Baru. Please kindly come and give your support.