Here is the first of three photo galleries showing three Vincentian Family groups in action – the JMV, AIC and the Congregation of the Mission.

Vincentian Marian Youth representatives meet on January 8-9, 2015, in Kyiv.

See gallery below.

The meeting was held at Bozhyi Dar house of the Missionary Fathers and lasted for 2 days. Various issues were discussed, and a new document, which had been recently translated into Ukrainian, was also presented. Fr. Oleksii Shevchenko also attended the meeting. Everyone was glad to see and listen to him, a person we always kept in our prayers.

On the first day Anna Skoryk from Kharkiv held a conference. She said we should unite and help each other develop different projects to assist the poor and destitute, just like St. Vincent did. She also read out some key points that had been presented at the Systemic Changes meeting. What was the most important was that we should give a poor person not only what he or she needed, but we should know how to teach that person to do something by himself or by herself in order to receive it. For if someone does not know how to be a self-sustained person, he or she will perish being unable to help oneself with anything.

Another conference was held by Sr. Siusanna from Perechyn. She shared her own experience, talked about how important an ability to listen to others, to understand their problems and direct towards the right way was. For many young people living their lives in a wrong way and abandoning God can be totally unaware of it by themselves. We should be able to urge them to do something good and to distinguish good from evil.

Then Sr. Yadviha from Sniatyn told us about a meeting in Paris that she attended. She showed interesting photos picturing a great multitude of young people who cared for helping others. It is great they want to follow St. Vincent.

Thereafter, supervised by Fr. Yezhy and Fr. Vasyl, youth went for an evening walk around Kyiv city. That evening they sang Christmas carols in the subway and at a railway station, bringing the Christmas joy to people. Some people listened very attentively with a smile; others took pictures, while still others came up and sang carols along. It is wonderful when people are able to glorify the Lord together, because the one singing for God makes a double prayer.

On the following day Fr. Yezhy conducted a conference. He told us about the Vincentian Marian Youth at a church and about their duties. He also made a point that a lot of young people were social network addicts being heavily wounded because of the Internet abuse.

Later on, Fr. Vasyl read out passages of the Second Vatican Council documents. He has just started working with the Marian Children, and therefore, he learns something new together with us.

Sr. Marta spoke about giving your own life to Blessed Mary. In her presentation, she also told us about Sisters’ personal life examples, introduced us to the saints who had surrendered their lives in the hands of Mary Immaculate: St. John Paul II, St. Catherine Labouré, etc.

At the end of the meeting, Olia and Khrystia from Sniatyn presented a new document on how to become a proper religious and laical director. Our abilities to listen to a person and understand his or her problems were core to that document. Moreover, we should know how to rejoice alike the Apostles and to share this joy with others. We must share ourselves just like Jesus shared bread. Being good Christians, we must thirst for the Word of God and instruct others about it.

What plans for the future concerns, we discussed a convent due to take place in July 2015, where a new person-in-charge of all the Marian Children would be elected. We also talked about the World Youth Day in 2016 set to take place in Krakow.

When we had a break between conferences, Klev from Kharkiv entertained us with dances which he taught us to dance as well. We are grateful to him for his creativity.

We are sincerely grateful to Fr. Tomazh who so gladly welcomed us to the house and allowed us to stay there 2 days of which we could make a lot of use that would be of service in our further development. May the Lord reward you!

Honor be to Mary!

Khrystia, Sniatyn, Ukraine