8 June, 2016

Lilit Mkrtchyan

On June 4, 2016 in the Armenian Catholic “Aghajanyan”camp in Toros village another general youth meeting took place bringing together around 350 young people from Armenian Catholic communities in Armenia and Georgia. This gathering was the fourth preparatory meeting in  2016 ahead of World Youth Day in the Polish city of Krakow. The goal was to prepare the youth living in Catholic communities for the pilgrimage, make commitments to the Church, reveal new callings and promote intercommunity relations of young people.

Father Raphael Kravchik heralded the beginning of the meeting with welcoming speech, then presented the requirements that are directed to the youth for WYD days.

“Dear young people, I am very happy to see you here again. In one and a half months we will leave for Poland. And our preparation should be really more serious. During our previous meetings, we- the clergy, have told you that we do not go for a tourist trip but for the pilgrimage. Pope Francis invites us to Poland for World Youth Day. In those days, the Catholic youth of different countries will have the opportunity to meet the Holy Father and pray together with him. If we want to meet with the Pope and take part in this event, we must have a spiritual preparation. We go to Poland, not only to see a foreign country, but also to show our Christian life. Everyone knows that Armenia was the first to adopt Christianity as the state religion. The clergy and young people in Poland are waiting for us. His Excellency Raphael Archbishop Minassian does everything for you, that you may spend these days in a best way. We must also remember that this year during the World Youth Days a prayer will be performed in Armenian for the first time.

The meeting was continued by Siranush Minasyan, who is responsible  for WYD Armenian group. She helped the young people to fill in their application forms.

During the break, the young people started to cheer each other by their songs, dances and instrumental performances.

Each nation has its characteristic and special features. Armenia also should be presentable with its national and cultural identity. Along with folk dances, the young people also learned Polish national dance.

Father Garnik, during the conversation with us, told that the young people approach to this spiritual, great and valuable mission with commitment and full understanding.

“I believe and hope that our young people are already aware for what they are going. I am glad that our youth came to the understanding that they will first go on a pilgrimage -to pray with the Holy Father. Today, I urge our young people to present Armenia in a truly proper way. I would like our young people be as St. Paul says in one of his letters- young people should be temperate, humble, and most importantly, prayerful, because today the Holy Father requires that young people should be prayerful to be an example for his entire community”.

Due to this meeting, the Catholic young people once again had the opportunity to come together and engage in religious life.

At the end of the meeting, Fr. Anton Antonian celebrated Holy Mass. Fr. Anton urged the youth to be more upright, live Christian worth life.

Translated by Narineh Aghasaryan