World Teens Day Report
Thank you to everyone who attended our very first World Teens’ Day! This event would not have been possible without you. We had 1500 registrations from around the world and over 550 participants on the day, not to mention those who were watching on YouTube.
We loved the way you engaged with the program and the speakers, but most importantly we loved your questions. That’s why our speakers will be answering them in videos which will be posted soon, so stay tuned!
So now you know how to become monks without really being monks! Inspired by the life of St Anthony, if you didn’t watch it or just forgot here is the wrap up. We had 4 major topics: The Calling, Victory Over Sin Quiet time and Letting Go.
The Calling:
Bishop anba Daniel gave his opening talk. From his talk we learned that monasticism is not only a calling but a self desire and that monasticism is a big blessing and the life of angels. When a novice enters a monastery he is given a new name and new attire because he is a new person and should not look back to the world but to Christ.
Since Anba Daniel is a monk from St Anthony’s Monastery in Egypt himself, he told us the story of his calling to the monastic life and how he learned the monastic life from two great monastic figures of our time. Pope Shenouda III and Anba Sarabamoun Bishop of St Bishoy’s Monastery.
Throughout the day we also watched 4 videos explaining the different callings:
- Monasticism- by our very own Bishop Daniel, Bishop of St Shenouda Monastery and by Fr Anastasi St Anthony
- Priesthood/Priest’s wife- by Coptic Mum Laura Michael
- Missionary- by Dalia Fam who has dedicated over a decade in Zambia
- Marriage- Sandra and Mounier Sayegh
Victory over sin:
Fr Elijah Iskander from St Mark’s Church in Sydney gave us 5 extremely practical and inspiring methods on how we can come out victorious when faced with tribulations. These are:
- Prayer, especially the psalms
- Asceticism
- Never look back
- Be sincere and honest in your prayers
- Be guided by and look to the Scripture for guidance
He recommends that we all read The Life of Antony by St Athanasius and that we don’t focus on the number of times we’ve fallen, but rather on the number of times we’ve risen.
Quiet time:
Fr Anthony Messeh all the way from the United States helped us figure out how we can do this ‘Quiet Time’. In our busy lives, that can be quite hard to devote time for quietness, and sometimes when we do, we don’t practice it correctly. Abouna gave us some very useful steps on how we can achieve and most benefit from quiet time.
Letting Go:
Mona Lotfi, aka, Mona Chrysostom, had some golden advice for us on letting go of some of the habits and actions that hold us back. Obviously, we can’t leave school and go live in a cave in the desert, so how can we as teenagers of 2020, renounce the world? Watch Mona’s talk to know!
But it wasn’t all talks! We had a lot of fun getting to know people from all over the world, playing Kahoot, and answering all your questions!
It was great to see you all on Saturday! Thank you for your participation!
If you missed out on the event and want to watch it, you can watch it here on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/YNEaT2EquSU
Stay Safe and God Bless
