NOYE 2019
Back in January, 80 young people from Oblate communities all across Australia gathered together at Ferngully Lodge, Healesville for the National Oblate Youth Encounter. The theme for NOYE this year was “On the Road” and focused on St Eugene’s challenge to first make people human, make them christian and finally to make them saints.
Alison, Roshali & Husharn broke down this challenge during their talks and each of them taught us something about what it means to be human, christian and finally holy. These talks were complimented by the workshops we attended and the discussion and activities that we participated in each day. Rasika & Tishan gave us some insightful and practical ways to combine prayer and mindfulness, Kevin broke down the OYA Prayer & Creed to show us what it means to be part of Oblate Youth Australia, Carmela shone a light on the lives of few modern day saints to show us that we too should strive for holiness and as always Fr. Christian and Bishop Mark were honest and open in their discussions during the Q&A sessions.
As always the liturgies were powerful and really allowed us to focus and reflect on why we were there. Adoration, reconciliation, morning prayers and the final mass were so well prepared and each of the groups put in a lot of effort to ensure the best liturgies possible. It was great to see all of the groups getting involved in the various aspects of prayer and liturgy!
I could write pages and pages about all the amazing people and moments that made this experience so incredible, for example group choreographed dances thanks to our MC’s Karolina and Sanjay, an epic dance party thanks to our resident DJ Nathan or the late night scone sesh (those involved shall remain nameless). So instead of writing pages and pages, I’ll leave it to the videos below to tell the story!