Over 200 young people who will be involved in voluntary work projects abroad in summer on Monday met with the Archbishop Mgr Paul Cremona, OP, at the centre led by the Neo-Cathecumenate community in Mosta.
The evening, with the theme “Cheerful Givers (2 Cor. 9) – Youth in Voluntary Work – Summer 2007” brought young people together from about 20 groups led by various religious orders, parishes and organisations in the Maltese diocese.
Six groups will be working in various pockets of poverty in Italy. Three groups will be working in various parishes in Albania. One group will be helping out in Lourdes, France. Two groups will be sending young people to Kenya. One group will be working in Egypt, another in Algiers. Three groups will be going to Ethiopia.
There were other groups which will be going to Peru, Guatemala, Brazil and India. A group which will be working with the Missionaries of Charity in Cospicua was also present. ACTS, a group which carries out evangelisation programmes in Maltese schools and LifeCycle, a group of cyclists who raise funds for the Renal Unit, were also present.
The Archbishop, wearing a colourful stole from El Salvador, led the evening of prayer and song, organised by the young people themselves. In a short reflection, Mgr Cremona encouraged the young people in their mission. He quoted Mother Teresa of Culcutta in saying that the poor would be the salvation of the world. In their encounters with the poor, they are to model their work on the way Christ lived with others, by giving all their being to the poor.
He also encouraged the young people to be evangelised by the poor and allow the experience to change them radically. He pointed out that the poor can teach us how to combat consumerism by showing that a person could be happy with very little in life. The Archbishop urged the young people to share their experience with others when they came back and to show how alternative choices in life could lead to true happiness.
The highlight of the evening was a simple gesture where the Archbishop presented a cross to each young person present, recalling a gesture which was done when priests and religious were sent to the missions. Each of the 20 groups presented themselves to the Archbishop and received a cross.
The evening ended with a simple reception organised by the young people themselves. The meeting was an initiative of inYgo-Malta, a Jesuit inspired network, which takes up six groups to various countries abroad, Youth for Palermo and those working in Cospicua. It was then opened up to the various groups with which they were in contact.