Volume 4 Issue 1

How would your life be different if…You stopped allowing other people

to dilute or poison your day with their words

or opinions? Let today be the day…You stand strong in the truth of your

beauty and journey through your day without attachment to the

validation of others.

““

-Steve Maraboli

Youth BeatsDelhi Syro-Malabar Youth MovementDepartment of Youth ApostolateDiocese of Faridabad - DelhiVolume 4 | Issue 1 | November 12, 2016Email : dsymdelhi@gmail.com

Editorial Board

Patron

Director

Editor

CONTENT

Designing and Layout

His Grace Archbishop Mar Kuriakose Bharanikulangara

Rev. Fr. Anthony Lijo Thaliyath

Sherin Elizabeth Mathew

Sparrow Developers& Rijo Jose

PresidentBivin Varghese

EDITORIAL LETTER

Dear Friends in Christ,

It gives me immense joy to bring to you the re-launched version of ‘Youth Beats’, the magazine of DSYM. ‘Youth Beats’ aims to establish a regular medium of communication for the youths in our Diocese and to create a platform to unite and work for the greater glory of God. This magazine is also a medium to showcase our creative flair and to talk about issues related to our faith matters. I would like to thank all of you for your over-whelming response, for your amazing articles, artworks and photographs. I extend my sincere gratitude towards Fr. Anthony Lijo Thaliyath, Director, DSYM for his guidance and Mr. Bivin Varghese, President, DSYM, for his constant support.

There have been occasions in my journey of faith where I have had to wrestle with the societal expectations. There have also been times where I could not understand and realize God’s view of me and the very purpose of my being. I’ve often questioned my own potential. But, as time pass by, I have come to realize that I have been created to fulfill a greater purpose in life. May be this is a clichéd sentence, but I strongly feel that there is more to the purpose of each one of our creation. We often do not realize that and get busy with the changing pseudo aspirations.

God Almighty created us all in a unique way. Each one of us is different. As I come across people facing a myriad of problems, I feel having a perspective that I, as an individual can do something, irrespective of my looks, my background etc. would really make a difference in this world.

“You are not a mistake.You are not a problem to be solved.”

But you will not discover this until you stop banging your head against the wall: the wall of shaming and cag-ing and fearing yourself. My prayer to all of you brothers and sisters is to feel blessed, for you are the greatest blessing to the world. Your father created you in His own image and you are his master craft. It is at times difficult to comprehend his ‘mighty plan’ for you. Have faith and practice complete surrender to witness the miracle. Be proud of who you are, for you are His sons and daughters.

As you read through this issues of Youth Beats, may you find more reasons to instill the ‘faith in you’. May you find enough reasons to ‘love your selfie’.

Yours in Christ,

Sherin Elizabeth MathewEditor – Youth BeatsDiocesan Youth Representative – DEXCO Member, Regional Executive Committee – ICYM North Region

1

Eparchy of Faridabad Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese

Message

I am very happy to know that DSYM is bringing out a magazine on this auspicious ocassion of its annual day celebrations. I thank the Lord for the blessings He has showered on its Director, Rev. Fr. Lijo Thaliyath and the entire team of young and vibrant youth of Christ.

I feliciate all of you for all the activites and the ministries that the DSYM is undertaking and through all these you are making the church more lively and active.

Pope Francis recently said, “Whenever someone makes a mistake, the Father’s mercy is all the more present, awakening repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace. His mercy gives him no rest. He is like that Father in the parable, who keeps hoping for the return of his son who has fallen by the wayside”. We live in a world where the freedom of expression is so much in force. The youngsters are courageous to do anything which of course is the beauty of the youth. But have we the courage only to do anything gives satisfaction and pleasures? Do we have the courage like the young man in the parable who was greatly courageous enough to come back to his father and reconcile with him. We have so much of goodness in us. We also make mistakes and often are confused about life. I think prodigal son is a good example to follow in our lfie for the courage to come back to the merciful Father who gives us back what we lost and we lack.

May the Lord guide you, may His spirit strengthen you and may His love ever enrich you in your future endeavors. I wish you every success and impart the apostolic blessings on all of you.

Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara

Bishop of Faridabad-Delhi

Bishop’s House,

Message From Arch-Bishop

2

3

Artwork

Sketch ByAmol Benny

St.Alphonsa Church, Noida

4

Message From DSYM-Director

In the beginning God took a selfie and the image was the whole creation. Looking at his image He said “it is good.” This is each one of us, Children of the ever-loving Father. God took another selfie again and the im-age was Jesus Christ and He said “this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” St. Paul says “ so if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation” and “in him all things in heaven and on earth were created.” We are selfies of God the creator. Our words, actions and our thoughts must reflect his nature. We must develop his positivity in ourselves and inculcate that in our daily life.

The selfie has materialized as one of the defining modes of self-expression of the modern era and conscious-ly or not, we’re all struggling to understand our identity in a modern technological world. When we talk about identity, we usually refer to the identity the society forces upon each one of us. This perception of the life leads to issues like low self-esteem in the youth, depression, anxiety etc. Rather than feeling burdened by the pressure of the society, we must self-realize and come in terms with our true potential. As we bring out the re-launched version of Youth Beats, I pray to the Almighty to guide you through the right path. May you earn all success in life.

Yours in ChristFr. Anthony Lijo ThaliyathDSYM-Director

KNOW THY SELFIE

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As I start to pen down my thoughts, I am reminded of these lines that I had read few years back:“As a young citizen of India, armed with technology, knowledge and love for my nation, I realize, small aim is a crime...The ignited soul compared to any resource is the most powerful resource on the earth, above earth and under the earth.”

-- Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Being the ignited minds and youth apostles of the Faridabad-Delhi diocese, we are destined for a bigger pur-pose in life. ‎We often lose sense of that mighty purpose as we get pulled in the rat race. Our foundation and beliefs get covered by a veil of dust.

I feel there are two important milestones in life. One when you are born and the other when you realize the true purpose of your being. Latter is the most beautiful moment in one’s life. Having said that, it is also a fact that the second moment doesn’t come easy. One needs to practice complete surrender and worship. Be like the sailboat in the river that goes wherever the wind takes it. Be humble enough to be guided by the breeze bestowed onto you by Thee and let that guide you unto all truth: the true purpose of your being. Let us shed all our inhibitions to accept that will.

Growing up in India is a beautiful thing. Another facet of that is the tremendous pressure that comes with it. We do face pressures from our family, friends, teachers, spiritual gurus and almost everyone we ever meet. Such pressure often induces ‘low self-esteem’ and builds up the notion of negativity within ourselves. We tend to lose the inner ‘light’ that we get during our baptism. We often get concerned about our looks, our capability and start questioning the very purpose of our being.

Song of Solomon 4:7 says, “You are altogether beautiful, my love, there is no flaw in you”. So, my dear friends, let no one ever prescribe for you what you can or cannot do. For you are a craft, a master craft by the greatest designer. Surrender and accept His will and witness the miracle in your life. As you go through this re-launched edition of ‘Youth Beats’, I sincerely hope that this magazine inspires you to wipe away the veil of dust and be proud of who you are, for you are His sons and daughters. I pray that all you become a living witness to the Almighty’s Grace and discover the purpose of your being.

Happy Reading :)Yours in Christ, Bivin VarghesePresident, DSYM Diocesan Executive Committee.

From the President's Desk

5

6

Artwork

Sketch by,Jasmin Joseph

St.Joseph’s Church, Kalkaji

IMAGO DEIIn the Image of God

Selfie is a picture of a person taken by that person. Earlier we used to be satisfied with pictures of monuments, nature, and wildlife but today every photo seems incomplete without our beautiful face popping in it. Selfies seem to be everywhere from the first minute of birth to the funeral ceremony. We live in a self obsessed world. The number of people having their own photo as their Smartphone wallpaper seems to be growing ex-ponentially. Recently I saw a meme that scientists have discovered a new formula to ac-curately measure narcissism N=S/h (Selfies per hour). So are all selfie takers indulging in a kind of narcissistic pleasure? No, I think taking selfies is a harmless fun if there is no danger to life involved. After all, even our humble Pope could not escape the call of selfies. Selfies help friends to bond, see themselves make funny faces, save memories for the future. Taking a selfie without using any filter indicates that you are confident of your true self.

But the problem with all these selfies hanging on our virtual walls is our tendency to rate ourselves based on the number of likes we get, the number of followers we have. We for-get that we are not a commercial product to be sold in market; we are ‘imago dei’, the im-age of God (Genesis 1:27).God is infinitely beautiful; this infinite beauty is the origin of your beauty. So, you are beautiful irrespective of the facebook and instagram jury’s verdict.

But is my life all about selfies or do I see a greater purpose in life? We should ask our-selves am I living a self centered life or a God centered life? Are all my talents being used to bring glory to myself or am I able to say like King David “Not to us Lord , but to your name be the glory “(Psalms 115:1)? Am I able to pray every day like Mother Mary “Not my will Lord, but let your will be done in my life” and happily accept all the hardships that this daring prayer brings?

Self-esteem is the view you have about yourself. There are two extremes on every issue, similarly when it comes to self esteem; we have many believing themselves to be no less than a God, they think that world would have ended if they did not exist. And on the other hand we have people who think that they are of no use and that

7

their existence is a burden on society. Both kinds of people are prone to depres sive ten-dencies. The former kind of people get depressed whenever someone criticizes them, whenever they fail in a task, whenever their photo on social media is unable to generate the intended interest, their elephant sized ego bursts at the feeblest prick. The latter kind of people is afraid of life, worried about the future, unable to find any joy in life.

You need to carve it in your mind that God has carved your names on his palms (Isaiah 49:16). You “Let Christ take over.”You should imitate Christ, have his view points. After all, he is the ideal man (John 19:5). If you are looking for a role model to follow, follow Jesus Christ. He is unlike other role models, unaware of your love for him; rather he loves you more than you can ever love him, more than you can ever love yourself. You are not a prince or princess, you are something greater; you are Christ’s beloved, a being created in the very image of God. This alone should be the source of your self esteem. We are heavenly beings onboard a ship called earth journeying to the infinite beauty. I think the great poet Khalil Gibran was not far off from the catholic view of beauty when he said” Beauty is not in the face; Beauty is a light in the heart”. The most beautiful face on earth is a face that loves, that loves till it hurts, a face scarred with the marks of love, wrinkled with lifelong sacrifices.

Akhil JamesInfant Jesus Forane Church, Palam.

DID YOUKNOW ?

8

St. Thomas More, Patron Saint of DSYM, was Oxford educated, a lawyer and served in Parliament. He wrote the world famous writing in defense of the Church, for which he was imprisoned. He spent 15 months in the infamous Tower Of London before he was exe-cuted, nine days after St. John Fisher.

9

FOR WEARE

GOD’S MASTERPIECE

I’ve knownI am a very beautiful story, God.

Once you finish telling about me,Will you not repeat the tale again?

Your character loves your story

Poem by,Anju Kurian

Photograph by,Alphie M Joseph

Blessed Sacrament Parish, Kingsway Camp

10

Learn ToLOVE OURSELVES

Artwork byCresty Johnson

Holy Family Church, Pushp Vihar

‘Love yourself’ - something that a majority of the people around us constantly urge us to do.

Human beings crave love the most. No matter who we are, love is something that we want to receive constantly in our lives. Be it the love and care of our parents, friends, spouses, relatives or even lovers - It has the power to propel us to live and do better. Just think of how far we go, to please someone we care for, in order to have a part of the love they share with those around them. Well, believe me, if we don’t fall in love with ourselves first, then initially every other bond we share will fade away.

Self-love, is one of the most important qualities that we ought to cultivate. In or-der to love others in a pure and perpetual form, we should first have unrequit-ed love for ourselves. Lack of self-love is the path to ‘Self-Destruction’. The world around us is constantly in a race. A race to be the best, look the best and live the best. It’s disheartening to see that the so called ‘society’ has set certain standards that define a perfect human being. Anyone who doesn’t fulfill those requirements are mocked and shunned. And the result?? People running around starving them-selves, injecting steroids, stealing, killing, bullying and wrecking their own bodies in the most dreadful ways possible.Why is it so important to give into the society’s standardizations? Trust me, if those were the ultimate standards, then God would have never given that privileged just to some, while ignoring the others.

11

‘Each one of us is special in our own way’ - No matter who we are, where we are from or what we look like, we all are the results of our creator’s undying love for us. We are unique in our own way. Instead of treating our differences as shortcomings, we must treat them as treasures that only we possess. Treasures that make us who we are. Let’s just look around ourselves. We all have inherited qualities and traits that are unique to us. None of us are the same. We all have our own identities. What we should do is protect that identity, instead of trying to be someone else.

Loving yourself is not easy. It’s one of the most difficult tasks one can ever think of achieving. When living in a society that constantly traumatizes its inhabitants, it’s tough to overcome the pressure and be who you are. Let’s just keep trying. Instead of being stuck on copying others, let’s become beings that are special and unique in their own way. Explore your inner selves. Discover your strengths and work on them. Most importantly - ‘Never change for anyone else’. This life is all we’ve got. Let’s make it worthwhile.So buckle up. Break the stereotypes. Every small step matters. No more imitations. Let’s just be our true selves. God loves us no matter what!! So let’s live life to the fullest. This way when we meet him in the END, we’ll have the satisfaction of having lived a life without regrets.

Aiswarya MathewSt Jude Church, Sahibabad

DID YOUKNOW?

The Pope is protected by the Swiss Papal Guard. Wearing uniforms designed by Michel-angelo and commonly armed with halberds, they are capable of using heavier weapons if needed. Each member is Catholic, male, and Swiss, and must complete military train-

ing in Switzerland. They must demonstrate good conduct and be at least five-foot-eight in height. Those who are chosen are granted a private au-dience with the pope along with their families. In extreme circumstances, they are expected to guard the Holy Father with their lives. The Swiss Papal Guard is the oldest active military unit in continual existence since 1506.

12

I Want You toREMEMBERWhen the world brings you down And sorrow ails you heart, Don’t turn around and back off;Stand up for your beliefs,Trust in what you know;In yourself you’ll find strength.

Life is full of chance Some you’ll surely take, From some learn a lesson; And those we call mistakes, Love starts with you; Look in the mirror.

Hopefully you’ll smile and winkWhen you love that smililing face, Beautiful is he who recognizes;What true beauty is,Even if the surface is ugly;Ugly is he who measures beauty by its exterior,Without first weighing the interior.

If you can’t say “I love myself” Then you can’t love others, What do clouds feel if you haven’t flown? You can’t reflect love if you can’t feel your own.

Poem byDini Augustine

13

APPRECIATE YOURUNIQUENESS“You are altogether beautiful , my love; there is no flaw in you” -Song of Solomon 4:7

Yes, each one of us is a masterpeice having our own uniqueness and beauty. His radiant image and likeness has been gifted to us. When we are so precious in the eyes of the almighty let’s recall how much do we regard and value ourselves.We are living in a generation where every youth/teen is having three different names for three different social networking sites i.e the irony of our newly paved up “ Selfie Generation”.We all our living in such a chaotic enviornment were we aren’t sure of what name suits us the best.

But you and me, are neglecting the fact that our almighty God has written our names in his palm even before we were gifted to our mother’s womb .The so loving and merciful Christ is whom we are ashamed of to proclaim about, in our own peer groups.When we run away from our own identities we are actually taking us away from Christ and we need to understand that this race will only end up in unhappiness, isolation and pain, because no joy or happiness is attained without his powerful intercession

To stand firm in all the temptations we come across in our daily lives and be courageous enough to say a ‘no’ when it’s against his will and be adament in his faith should be our earnest prayer to God in every hour . “For the man sees the outward appearance but the Lord sees our hearts” ( 1 Samuel 16:7).We end up doing what- not to impress the world and are always in the thirst of attention and fame and amidst all this ,we are again neglecting that he, who gave us this beauty and charm, looks at our hearts and at one point of time we only will have his protection and sincere love to rely on.

At the end this evil world will always try to keep us away from his unconditional love and we need to fight against the odd and understand how compassionate our Lord is as Pope Francis say “People will try to block you, to make you think that God is distant, rigid and insensitive, good to the good, and bad to the bad. Instead, our heavenly father ‘makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good.”

Avelin K AbrahamSt Joseph Church , Kalkaji

14

BEAUTY IN HIS CREATIONPoem by

Sal LoustMayur Vihar -I.P Extension Parish

The meadows, the treesThe rivers, the breezeAll follow Your willThe red sun as it diesThe full moon on the riseAll from Your will

For from You is all beautyAnd nothing defies Your authorityYou are the most highFrom the heavens You makeEverything for our sakeAll with a sigh

For we deny Your gloryAnd we go on and craveAll things unbefittingSo before You we now lieFor what is lost completelyOnly You can save

Captured byAlphie M Joseph

Blessed Sacrament Parish, Kingsway Camp

15

SEARCH FOR AN IDENTITY“Search for ‘Appreciation and Acceptance’ is the biggest driving force for the youth of today” The above lines were said by my parish priest during one of his Sunday homi-lies. I was a child back then, and didn’t really understand what it meant, but the charisma and authority and the concern with which he said these words struck a chord within me, that as I grew each day into my youth, these words came back to me and became more and more obvious.

It is true that whatever we do, we want to do or have to do, comes from an in-ternal desire to be accepted and loved. We put on the best dress we can find or the most expensive of makeup and jewellery,so that the prettiest and famous girls in the classrooms would think I am pretty too and accept me as one of them. Surveys have shown that the reason for more than 67% of the children to start doing drugs is not depression,but because they think its cool, so that they can be one of those cool guys of the classrooms, who don’t care what the world thinks and so on. . .

Facebook , Instagram , Snapchat, flooded with a thousand different photos, each with a different filter and edit,with apps to beautify each picture, cause we are afraid our true self might not be accepted. It makes me sad when I see television commercials which promise to make my skin fairer if you use a cer-tain product? Why? Does having dark skin make me less beautiful? Who gave anybody the power to decide or establish what is beautiful and what is not?

Whenever we go out, we make sure to go and stand in front of the mirror and ensure we look ‘perfect’, many a times complaining about how fat you look , how skinny you look, about your imperfect nose, lips and all. We cease to re-member that we are the Masterpiece of god’s creation and we were created in his image and likenes.

“I am Beautiful”. We are all beautiful, each and everyone of us, the dark one, the fair one, the tall one, the short one.I am not beautiful because somebody said

16

so , my beauty is not defined by the limits of human perception , I am beautiful because I was created by the hands of God and in His image, “So God created human beings in His own image.” Genesis 1:27, and his work is absolute . It might be a bit too bold to say this but, when we stand there in the mirror body sham-ing ourselves, Are we not then shaming the image of God?

There’s a difference between pretty and beautiful.When someone is pretty, the person has a good appearance, but when someone is beautiful, the person shines on the inside and out.

Anns Maria VargheseSt. Augustine’s Forane Church, Karol Bagh

<< Revisiting the Cover Page <<Every Modern day selfie is not a selfie unless it has filters and every

filter’s purpose is to beautify the selfie. Why beautify?Because people judge you on your looks.

The painting on the cover page is a painting by Greg Olsen which has been edited and filtered.

Imagine Jesus in this era, would people judge him regardless of his great purpose?

Would his instagram picture speak for his deeds?

Cover Page Designed by, Christin Thomas

St. Jude’s Church, Sahibabad

4

Alisha GeorgeBlessed Sacrament Parish, Kingsway Camp

17

LOVE YOUR SELFIE: Appreciating God’s masterpiece in the mirror

The recent ritual that has been added to our everyday life is taking selfies. The importance of selfies can be seen by the growth of the number of devices that help taking selfies like the selfie stick and the innumerable apps in the form of photo editing apps that can enhance your beauty –Retrica, Candy etc. or create hilarious images of you-Snapchat etc. Not to forget ‘Selfie’ was named the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year in 2013.So what is this selfie craze about- is it a pure form of narcissism or is it related to increasing self-esteem?As a youth myself I admit that I have been a slave of selfies too but as I grow older I do realize the need to distinguish between the number of likes that I get in the virtual world and the number of likes I acquire in the real one. I have seen my friends who post a picture and dread until they acquire the perceived accept-able levels of likes or comments. In fact I remember a friend who usually used to ping me asking to like her pictures. So is the importance that we give to editing selfies justified when our spiritual inner self is left unaltered? The answer is a straight ‘No’. Spiritual life is above every consideration. A simple exercise would prove this. Just take your selfie when you are happy and do the same when you are sad. I bet you would be glowing and beautiful in your happy selfie. Inner joy and confidence are fruits of spirituality. Spirituality begins by first accepting oneself and the fact that God, the Almighty loves you with all his heart. We were made in His likeness and thus no doubt we are His most beautiful creation.

Becoming Beautiful

Our body is the temple of God. We have to keep ourselves clean inside-out. It is important to dress smartly and look good not for others but for oneself as it is a reason for confidence or lack of it. Excessive care of one’s looks is not only a waste of time but can build insecurities and unnecessary worries, in what could have been a rather simple life.The more important point when we talk about beauty is our inner beauty. To build our inner self we have to follow two simple principles that our Lord has taught us, love God with all your heart, mind and soul- a feeling that in whatever we do we have God’s presence will encourage our conscience to take the right decisions and leave us humbled. The second commandment of loving your neighbour as yourself is easier said than done. The baby steps into achieving that start with viewing the situation from the other person’s perspective and asking yourself,” what would I have done if I were in his/her shoes?’, “Was his/her reaction justified? “. This method is simple but very effective. This follows with overlooking their weaknesses and dif-ferences. It is rightly said ignorance is bliss. Ignoring all the negatives around will lead to a more fruitful life. As the young generation we need to responsibly use our time and effort to be a blessing for everyone around us and live up to Jesus’ expectations of us. Before editing selfies we should take a moment to edit our spiritual life. Fully understanding that everything around us is God’s creation we should always recall that ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time ‘and never despise oneself or anybody

18

DIOCESAN NEWSLEADERSHIP WORKSHOP & DEXCO ELECTIONS – 2016

DSYM DEXCO conducted the Diocesan Leadership Workshop at the Hall of Divine Mer-cy, Bishop’s House, Karol Bagh on August 13, 2016. Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulanga-ra blessed us with his presence and also taught us about positiveness in leadership. This was followed by Election for the tenure of 2016-2018, in which following people were elected:

19

Onam Celebration - 13 September, 2016

DEXCO | KERALA SCHOOL, CANNING ROADorganized their annual Onam celebrations on 13th September 2016. This was the first venture of the new DSYM Executive Committee, the first official step towards their service to the Diocese of Faridabad.

We witnessed an overwhelming partic-ipation from various Parishes of our Di-ocese. This had been a boost to the or-ganizing committee and we extend our heartfelt thanks to each and every Partici-pant. 22 parishes joined in the celebrationOver 200 people participated in this event. All youth members and guests were wel-comed by applying ‘kalabham’ on their foreheads which is a traditional way of welcoming the guests at an event. They were also registered accordingly. The event started at 2:45 pm with the ardent and fervent ‘chendamelam’ which enliv-ened each and every person present there.

Our chief guest Honorable Justice Kurian Joseph and the Guests of Honor namely,

Rev. Fr. Jose Edassery, Vicar-general, Dio-cese of Faridabad; Fr. Chetan Machado, Regional Director-ICYM; Mr. George Kalliva-yalil, Bureau Chief of Delhi, Deepika; Lt. Col. Ramesh Kumar, Commanding Officer of 205 Transit Camp and a JAT Regiment officer; and Ms. Jenny Joy, National General Secre-tary, ICYM and priests from different parish-es graced the occasion with their presence. After the Public Meeting, various Onam Games were conducted such as Lemon and Spoon race, Sundarikku pottu, Ka-lam Thallu, Vellam kudi malsaram, Three-legged race and Candle race. We witnessed massive participation from each and ev-ery Parish that was present for the event.Faridabad parish emerged as the winner of the event and was awarded with the “Ever-Rolling Trophy For Best Participation and Performance”. The event came to an end with a ‘shingarimelam’ by the ‘chenda-lam’ troop which increased the excitement level of the people. Also, many people from various parishes helped us in clean-ing up the premises which displayed the unity and strength of our youth members.

20

21

Santhome Convention 2016DEXCO | THYAGARAJ STADIUM, INAThe Santhome Bible Convention for the year 2016 was held from 14th-16th octo-ber,2016 (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) at Thyagaraj Stadium, INA, New Delhi. It was successfully led by Rev. Fr. Jacob Manjali and Rev. Fr. Jose Puthiyedath. DSYM (Delhi Syro-Malabar Youth Movement) played an active role in the convention. We were given the responsibilities of arranging the volunteers(for different sectors, for the parking lot, for distribution of food , in the reception area, for the food stall and general volunteering), setting up a food stall, presenting a Prayer Dance at the Pub-lic meeting, distributing Diocesan Notices and leading the children’s convention. We received an over-whelming response from every Parish of the Diocese. The Representatives gladly extended their support by sending out DSYM members to help us out in different areas.

22

23

Regional Meeting At Navinta, OkhlaSeptember 24, 2016There were 4 dioceses present: Simla-Chandigarh, Jalandhar Diocese, Delhi Diocese, Di-ocese of Faridabad and Jammu-Srinagar diocese. 4 members represented our Diocese at the Regional meeting: Fr. Antony Lijo Thaliyath, Director, DSYM; Mr. Bivin Varghese, Pres-ident, DSYM; Mr. Navin James and Ms. Sherin Mathew-Diocesan Youth Representatives. Announcements regrading the forthcoming CBCI National Youth Convention, Asian Youth day, YCS/YSM and CAT India Programme were made.

24

PARISH NEWS

Newspaper Drive - Mary Matha ChurchThe Newspaper drive is an initiative taken by the youth members of DSYM, Mary Matha Church that started in February, 2016. The team collects newspapers from all the units of

the parish on a monthly basis, in order to collect amount for the youth fund that in the long run is donated to charity.

25

We are also trying to collect other articles such as plastics, card boards, books, magazines, old electronic items etc that can be sold as scrap to gain more mileage. Our main aim is to keep our parish and neighborhood clean by taking part in the green initiative.

Reported by,

Agnes JaiseGeneral Secretary

Mary Matha Church

Blanket Drive, St. Alphonsa Church, Noida

26

Delhi Syro Malabar Youth Movement (DSYM) Noida, the youth wing of St. Al-phonsa Church, Noida conducts various so-cial activities throughout the year. One of such activities, for which we give upmost importance, is to reach out to the poor and the needy, and help them in whatev-er way possible. Blanket drive is one such programme which we conduct every year. Every winter, DSYM Noida raises funds and distributes new Blankets to the poor and the needy people. Under the guidance of our Parish Priest/Youth Director Rev Fr. Ju-lius Karukanthara, we are organizing our 3rd Blanket Drive (2016) this year starting from October till Mid-December.

Last year, many people and youth members from other parishes also came forward generously to help us in raising funds for purchasing blankets, thus making our pro-gramme known in the Faridabad Diocese. Last year we raised funds to purchase 200 Blankets and we distributed it in three vil-lages of Noida. This year we are targeting to distribute 500 Blankets, which will only be possible through your contribution.

Blanket – Rs 130/-Blankets – Rs 250/-

(Rest in Multiples of two)LET’S SHARE THE WARMTH THIS WINTER

We request everyone to come forward and contribute as much they want and help us in making this drive yet successful once again. We are also visiting parishes during their masses so as to get some contributions, if

your youth unit is not doing the same and would like us to pay a visit, please let us know, we will be more than happy.

On behalf of DSYM Noida, I extend my sin-cere gratitude to everyone who will be join-ing us for this cause. May God Bless you All.

Amol Benny +91- 9958477694DSYM NOIDA PRESIDENT

Alisha GeorgeBlessed Sacrament Parish, Kingsway Camp