Breathe In. Breathe Out.
Everyone’s lives are being stripped back in this slowdown, and the life of a teamie has been no exception. In the absence of ministries, schools, regular youth groups, and even of our locations and each other’s physical presence, our missionary lives in isolation have boiled down to their truest essence; lifestyle!
I begin each day with an hour of reflecting on the daily readings, and then message through those thoughts from Melbourne to my beautiful team sisters (in Canberra and Perth), keeping accountable and fostering sisterhood. I then livestream mass from St. Declan’s in Penshurst, Sydney. I find what stirs my soul to life. I play the piano, pray the rosary and go for a walk singing, dancing and raising my arms along to the hype praise and worship I listen to (there is always a reason to express freedom of praise while in public!). I’ll read, journal, do a workout, and FaceTime family/friends/team, as an example. To top off the day, I pray night prayer from the Divine Office before bed in union with the wider Church. I also pray through putting on the armour of God (Ephesians 5:14) each day, in remembrance that I am still fighting for the Kingdom in a very real way, and because any good warrior is always ready for battle!
Let it be known that I am very much alive and fighting!
Though you may associate YMT with super mad fun camps, powerful dramas or outlandish games that make you wonder ‘how on earth did they think of this??’, all of the external which you see is the fruit of a very deeply rooted, often unseen internal work; and that work is the commitment to prayer that each teamie makes. Not even a pandemic can shake this!
I cannot stress enough that ultimately, PRAYER is the heart of YMT.
It is our source of life, of love, of energy and of fun. As explained in our original vision by founder Colin Sutton in 1986; ‘[We] believe that it is only through the power of God that we will be able to do this great work’. This being the case, YMT lifestyle is and always has been ‘saturated with the Holy Spirit’ with prayer being our core.
‘Evangelisation’ is the natural by-product of an intimate relationship with God.
And you know what? In allowing myself to be brought back the most original, unedited dimension of my calling for 2020, my love is increasing. I find it difficult to explain, but even though life right now is certainly not how I saw my year going, already, love is moulding me into a better missionary. In fact, I’m being transformed into the best missionary that God has made and equipped me to be. These spiritual guns are being disciplined, toned and strengthened in ways that I’d never thought possible. To quote Emperor Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove, “Boom, baby!”
Our mission may look different, but it has by no means stopped.
Like my own day mentioned above, every single team member around the nation (and beyond!) is still living team lifestyle, uniting us in a really special, unbreakable way. We are adapting, we are loving, and we are thriving, not because we don’t feel any sadness or hurt from the sudden change (of course we do!), but because prayer keeps us grounded and present. In this entirely surreal, unprecedented time, we have the chance to be powerfully reminded that the life that we chose to live this year is a life centred entirely on growing in relationship with Jesus (with the help of Mama Mary, of course.)
From the very beginning of YMT, we have maintained that ‘The Lord is also telling us to be vision oriented, not problem oriented’ (Colin Sutton). To say that COVID-19 has been a bit of a ‘problem’ would be a pretty gross understatement, hey? The world as we know it has been flipped entirely on its head, and it’s highly likely that your plans which you had for your 2020 have changed drastically, just as mine have! But what do we mean by ‘vision’ oriented?
Well, the ONE plan that hasn’t changed, and that will never change, is God’s plan to love me and you.
Breathe in. Breathe out. You are loved!
This is the reason our motto is ‘hope for young Australians’ and not ‘look-we-tried-but-then-a-pandemic-sent-us-back-to-our-home-locations-unexpectedly-so-oh-well-sorry for young Australians’. It’s ‘HOPE’!
Right now, I find it most important to count, appreciate and delight in the little signs. Count the clouds! Listen to the wind! (Pocahontas who?) Notice your breath!
It didn’t occur to me until quite recently that God actually pieced Creation together with me in mind. He did it all because He knew that I’d delight in it. Everything around me is a sign from God that He loves me. Whether it’s the way the sun dapples in through my bedroom window in the late afternoon or how my glasses fog up at my first sip of tea (which never fails to make me laugh), it’s because I’m loved!
Breathe in. Breathe out. You are alive and you are beautiful!
So, tomorrow is Holy Thursday. This Holy Week has been/will be probably the strangest of your life so far. (It is for me!) Again, my encouragement is to stay present. None of us physically attend any upcoming liturgies, but that does not mean Easter is cancelled! These next few days pose a real challenge, though also an invitation. If you’ve found that Easter liturgies have been what have carried you through the celebration, letting our rituals do the work for you rather than trying to enter into the spirit for yourself, now is the chance to enter deeper. Of course, there are live streamed services which I’d definitely recommend you take part in (see Brigid Cooney’s incredible post about live streamed mass here), but maybe Jesus is inviting you to be more present to Him.
Remember also that Easter Sunday always follows Good Friday, and that as we celebrate the miracle of Jesus’ Resurrection; we can have faith that things will resurrect again. New life will spring up in this world. YMT will return to location. The age we live in now is just our present, not our forever. This too will pass. Recall ‘hope for young Australians’? Yeah. There is always hope. Jesus made that very clear when he literally rose from the dead. Crazy!!!
This time could well be an invitation from God to go deeper with Him in love. To strip back what you’ve found has been drawing away your time, your energy and your heart. To hear in the silence God’s unconditional delight in you. What’s your response?
This mission-hungry teamie has said yes to that very same invitation, and has found that her bursting heart can rest in peace where all else seems so unknown. This Holy Week, she’ll be sitting at the foot of the Cross with Mary, just taking it all in.
Not doing, just being.
To The YDs:
We are fighting for you. While we may not be physically present, we are fighting furiously for you behind the scenes on the spiritual front line. You have not been forgotten. Quite the opposite! We stand with you in the uncertainty.
Stay present. Future questions of ‘what does God want me to do after school?’ or ‘what is my vocation?’ can seem overwhelming. Right now, everything might seem overwhelming. Maybe try to change the question from ‘what’ to ‘how’: ‘God, how are You loving me today?’ Remember that plan will never change. Ever. Like, ever.
To All The Aching Hearts:
My dear brother/sister, the present time that you find yourself in is not an ambiguous block of time after which your best life will begin (the one with all the sunshine, perfect skin and a constant, empowering soundtrack playing in the background, and the one without a pandemic). If you choose to, perhaps in these days you will see the joys of God’s smaller designs while the larger one feels clouded in a whole lot of chaos and confusion.
Breathe in. Breathe out. You are loved, you are alive, you are beautiful, and you have not been forgotten!
Have a very happy (though unusual) Easter, and please pray for YMT 2020: we are praying for you, and fighting for you always!
Anti is a 19-year-old Melbournian gal who loves mangoes, goats cheese, thunderstorms, and who maintains that water is objectively the best of the elements in the series Avatar the Last Airbender. She also likes literature, so appreciates big long words; particularly how ‘superfluous’ rolls off the tongue. (Try it!) Anti’s on her second year of YMT, after having served in Perth for 2019 and currently serving on YMT Sydney.