On the occasion of the papal prayer for the next World Youth Day, and of the following Holy Week, the youth of Sacred Heart Chaldean Church of Erbil gathered for a spiritual retreat in a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the same city.
A group of 80 young people gathered on Thursday and Friday 29th-30th of March in the Sanctuary of Virgin Mary in Erbil for a prayer vigil and a spiritual retreat, to hear God’s word and to partecipate to the Eucharistic adoration.
Read their testimony:
The prayer retreat, organized by Fr. Rayan P. Atto, parish priest of the Sacred Heart Chaldean Church, let us be in communion with our brothers and sisters who gathered in Rome to partecipate in a penitential ceremony during which, for the first time since he became Pope, Benedict XVI, heard some young people confession.
Our gathering started on Thurday evening when we met in the Virgin Mary Sanctuary courtyard and sat in front of a big screen showing a live broadcasting of Pope Benedict XVI prayers. It was the first time for us to live such a remarkable experience and we consider ourselves very lucky for the chance we had. After the meeting we prepared and shared the dinner together.
After the dinner we prepared the place for a special Mass and for the Eucharistic consecration. It was as Jesus himself had pitched his tent among ours, and we spent all the night with Him until dawn. Early in the morning we continued our scheduled programme by fasting and cleaning and preparing the sanctuary and its gardens. We were tired, but our thinking of Christ’s passion helped us to withstand and overcome the fatigue and finish our work.
But it was not only work: our souls were nourished by the words of Fr. Fadi Lion and Fr. Zeid Hababah, who helped Fr. Rayan P.Atto in hearing our confessions and showing us the way to repentance.
By midday of Friday, 30, we gathered to partecipate to the Holy Mass and to thank God for the spiritual retreat and the precious opportunity we had just lived together.
During the Mass we prayed for peace and love in the world, and especially in our beloved country Iraq, and we thanked again God for everyone who contributed to the success of the spirituale retreat, and everyone who helped financially and morally to complete our happiness.
The spiritual retreat benefited us also because we could meet other young people coming from all Iraq and currently living in Erbil, and exchange our experiences with them. We had also the chance to share our experience with some nuns from different orders: Sr. Najeebeh and Sr. Raeda, (Little Sisters of Jesus) Sr. Refqa, Sr. Marina and Sr. Rosemary (Chaldean Nuns) and Sr. May (Sacred Heart Nuns) who helped us in the organization of the spiritual retreat and who prayed and worked with us.
While watching the Pope and all the young people gathered around him in Rome we wished to be among them, and we were, even if by our hearts and souls, but our great hope is to partecipate to the next World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, in 2008. It would be wonderful to share those great moments with our Pope and all our brothers and sisters coming from all over the world and gathered together in the same place and with the same aim: listening to God’s word and worshipping Him!
Sacred Heart Church Youth Center/Erbil