Empowering the Youth to be responsible adults of Tomorrow

 by Bro. Brian Bahian, FdCC

Our youth today are growing up faster. Many of them grew up without their parents, with a broken family; some of them are abandoned and neglected. According to some, youth of today are the back bone of the nation. They can change the future of the society with their well being, spirited and courageous behavior.

Unfortunately, today we find those who are more interested in other places which are not useful to them as well as to our motherland. They choose to spend their days abusing drugs and alcohols, playing computer games, spending their nights partying and living it up and worst, involving their young playful mind into a thing called “premarital sex,” that might lead them to being a parent at their very young age. 

Those young people need our help! This is where, we, the Canossian Sons of Charity are called for. We are conducting various activities for the enrichment of the Canossian Youth. One of the activities that we organized annually is the Canossian Oratorio Kami or the C.O.K.

Last February 17, 2013 we held our 17th C.O.K in our seminary in Quezon City (St. Magdalene of Canossa Formation House) with the Theme: inChrist@yahoo.can.ph. The participants of the said event were the youth from Marikina City, Bataan, San Juan and Tondo, Manila. The whole day activity aimed to help the youth to discern and affirm the true joy they experienced through personal encounter with Christ, and to be able to nourish the friendship with Him that was expressed through the Oratorio and lastly to respond to the challenges of life and  to share the Christian joy to the universal church.

The C.O.K. had given three modules. First was “Seekers of Joy.”, God made our hearts to seek for true joy but sometimes we fell into a trap, we thought that what we are doing was right because it gives us joy. Through this module, we wanted to help the youth seek for true joy that they may experience is rooted from Christ. The next module talked about “Keepers of Joy,” after they found the true Christian joy they have to keep it in their hearts, and embrace the true joy they experienced through their personal encounter with Christ, that somehow in their everyday journey they can share this joy to others. The third module was “Givers of Joy,” if we received too much from God, we could not just stay at the corner and do nothing, and instead we should share what we accepted and receive from God. Through these modules we are empowering the youth to make a difference to be the bearer of love and peace of Christ. The participants were motivated to share their life message, their testimony and their personal experiences with the Lord. The youth freely shared the message of truth that God has taught them. These are the lessons about God, relationships, problems, temptations and other aspects of life.

With this annual activity for the young people, we are giving our youth a chance to make a difference in their lives, we are giving them an opportunity to make a change in the society, to reach out their goals in life, and we are molding them to become a leader and a better Christian.

In every journey there will always be a challenge, this challenge is never been identified by its level of difficulty, the youth intends to make it hard for themselves, but if they would just open their minds and accept this challenge as a part of their lives, they can survive and succeed.

"This activity made our youth realized that life is not about challenges; it is about how they will face those challenges. Life is not about just complying; it is about complying with all their wills and efforts. It is about finding the joy in all the struggles of life, only in finding the joy in the mysteries of life will we always find Christ in the center of one’s life."

So, if we continue helping and supporting them, they will hold and nurture everything their parents, mentors, and leaders invested and they could grow to be responsible adults of tomorrow.