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Hey everyone! Welcome to the St. Mary & St. John's Coptic Orthodox Church Youth webpage! Here you can find posts of videos, photos, stories, and event information for the youth group all year long. For the latest info , we send out information regarding upcoming activities, meetings, various events and important announcements via the E-Mailing List. To subscribe, just submit a request via the subscription panel below the Navigation menu. We hope to see you all on the weekends. Friday night, the youth meeting is at the church and starts at 6:30pm. For more information, subscribe to the mailing list. Sunday morning, we celebrate the Holy Liturgy at 8:30am, click here for address and directions to the church.
Remember to look at the "Worth Checking Out" section regularly, where we will post online material we think you guys want to see. If you have any suggestions for the "Worth Checking Out" section or any other sections of stmarystjohn.org, please email us.
This summer, the youth will be spending a lot of time with one another and Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in fellowship and love. Our youth mailing list and the event calendar are great ways to stay up-to-date with our upcoming events. We hope to see all of you there!
in Christ,
St. Mary & St. John Youth
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 Christmas Play 2005: The youth performed the first annual Christmas play on January 16th and it was a big blessing to the church and a great success. We thank them for their time and effort in putting together such a well-done performance.
Winter Convention 2004 was held in Monterey, CA at St. Mark's on December 26th - 29th. The youth and servants of our church were joined by those of St. George's of San Jose and St. Mark's of Monterey. For more information regarding this convention, email youth@stmarystjohn.org.
Attention: Youth, we want your help! In our effort to better the youth section of the church website, we ask you to submit ideas, articles, and whatever else you think would be useful, entertaining, and, most importantly, spiritually beneficial for the youth of St. Mary & St. John Church. Email any submissions to youth@stmarystjohn.org. Thank you for your help and God bless! |
Food for Thought...
Posted on 1.31.05
Do you complain when your friends let you down? When they’re late to pick you up for an important engagement or don’t tell you the truth? Do you keep score-about gift-giving, initiating phone calls, or picking up the tab? Are there times when you feel you give more than you get?
Jesus experienced all these things and more. His closest and most beloved friends let him down. They were unreliable and immature. They learned slowly, always the hard way. Some even betrayed him. Yet he forgave them and loved them anyway. Jesus loved his friends, but not because they were worthy of love. His love made them worthy.
J. I. Packer expresses this idea in his book knowing God: “there is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me. There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow men do not see…and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself. He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.”
So the next time you friends let you down, remember God’s grace, use His Son as your model and ask, “What would Jesus do?”
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Posted on 12.25.04
There is one Christmas carol that has always baffled many...
What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? Here is the explanation:
From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember...
The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.
And now you know.
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Posted on 12.14.04
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.
As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you?! Just what the heck do you think you're doing?! That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"
The young boy was apologetic.
"Please, mister... please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," he pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..."
With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car.
"It's my brother," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay...
"Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger.
Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message:
"Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!"
God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us.
It's our choice to listen or not.
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Posted on 12.14.04
A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead.
The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump out of the pit with all their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead.
Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out.
When he got out, the other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.
This story teaches two lessons:
- There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.
- A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them. Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path.
The power of words...it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in difficult times.
Happy new year 2008 | |
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Prom '06 Slideshow: This is the slideshow the youth watched at the '06 Church Prom.
PCAL: Check out the official website of the Pacific Coptic Athletic League. Don't forget to come out to the games and root for your San Ramon Eagles! |
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