Prayer

Father, we pray for the Lithuanian Youth Days,
And for those preparing in their communities,
And for everyone whom You want to invite to celebrate together.

We praise You, Jesus, who are
coming to us over the waves of the world today.
We thank You for inspiring us, gathered in Your name, with hope and trust,
by saying:
“Take heart! It is I. Do not be afraid!”

Jesus, we ask mercy
For our sins and for the sins of all youth,
For our infidelity and absence of love for You.
Make us again Your disciples, to whom You say:
“Take heart! It is I. Do not be afraid!”

Jesus, pour on us Your
Holy Spirit
who would enable us to witness and proclaim to our friends, parents and to the whole world:
“Take heart! It is Christ. Do not be afraid!”

Programme

30 June - 1 of July
In the city Klaipėda and scene „Vasaros Estrada”

30 of June, Saturday

1. JULy, Sunday

BIBLICAL THEOLOGICAL INSIGHTS FOR LITHUANIA YOUTH DAYS 2007

“Take heart, it is I” (Mt 14, 27)

With chapter 14 Matthew begins a narrative on the earliest beginning of the Church – Kingdom of God.

Mt 14, 22-33 – Jesus walks on the sea.

Matthew, just as Mark and John, describes this event in connection with the miracle of multiplication of bread. However, he enriches his narrative with the scene of Peter beginning to sink. Peter makes an attempt at following his Master, however he is not sure about what he is doing, and he is scared of taking a risk to drown. Matthew uses this narrative to underline Jesus’ divinity and to present him as the Lord, who has a power over nature in the same way as Yahweh in the Old Testament. He is also speaking about the Church – a little boat sailing a stormy sea of this world always in the closeness of the invisible but salutary and vigilant divine presence of the Lord.

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat…

Miraculous feeding of the multitude and exaltation of the crowds has inflames and fascinated imagination of disciples. Jesus, wanting to take them away from all of this and insure that the exaltation of the crowds did not take them over, commanded them to go to the other side. Jesus simply made them get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. “And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone”. The noise of the crowds and prayer in solitude. By this time the boat, battered by the wind was far from the land, for the wind was against them. Early in the morning Jesus came walking toward them on the sea.

Sometime in between three and six in the morning Jesus comes to his disciples walking on the water. Jesus shows his power in some way he did while giving an order to the wind to calm down.

When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, thinking it was a ghost, and they cried out in fear.

The appearance of the Risen Lord in the chamber of Cenacle brought the same feeling to disciples. And Jesus immediately addressed them: “Take heart! It is I; do not be afraid!”

The words of Jesus do not only calm the disciples down proving he is not a ghost but also help him to be recognized as God, Lord of creation. “Do not be afraid!” It is a phrase most often used in both Old and New Testament to follow the revelation of God. God uses it to calm down his people, to dispel fair and confusion.

Peter answered him: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water”. He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started to walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Peter wants to make sure it is Lord. Jesus agrees right away, he is ready to dispel restlessness and confusion of disciples. However, Peter himself is not ready to receive this miracle… After asking for this sign himself he remains holding onto the earthly reality and is not ready take a step of faith towards the meeting with the action of the Almighty God.

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Jesus reaches out his hand in answer to Peters’ cry of help. A reason for Peters’ sinking is his little faith. Jesus saves Peter and asks him a very serious question: “Why did you doubt?”

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

Jesus has power to calm down the wind, just us in the other narrative about calming down the storm. Jesus offers his help to Peter and to all his disciples on the condition they have faith in the Lord and trust him under any circumstances.

Those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God”. Disciples do no longer doubt and having believed in him as in the Son of God they worship him with these words.

Letter of Bishop R. Norvila

Dear Young People,

June 30th – July 1st, 2007, the VI Lithuania Youth Days are going to take place in Klaipeda. Lithuania Youth Days are being organized by the Youth Pastoral Council the Lithuanian Bishops Conference. We hope that all the participants of the event will be welcomed with hospitality and will come home with the enriched heart.

What are Lithuania Youth Days? They could be described by one simple word – meeting. This event provides a possibility for the young people who believe in Jesus Christ and have found their place in the Church and also those who are in search of God and are open for truth and goodness and willing to learn about the hope that lives in Christians (1 Pt 3,15), to meet each other.

It is wonderful to meet old friends – as far as it is possible for young people to have “old friends – and to make new ones. It is also a chance to be refreshed, to have once perspective widened, to experience a closeness of those who share your ideas, which is so encouraging when one has to face life’s trails.
The courage is sustained not only by friendship with pears. God is the first One who offers us his friendship. IV Lithuania Youth Days will be a time for all of us to listen to the words of Jesus Christ that had become the motto of the event: “Take heart. It is I” (Mt 14, 27). Jesus spoke these words to his disciples after he approached them before the brake of down far way in the sea, their boat battered by waves.

I am certain that in Klaipeda we will not only hear the whisper of the waves but also these words of Jesus. Even at those times when we are in the middle of a storm, when we are tired, when we loose our direction in the darkness of night, He finds our boat, approaches and says: “Take heart. It is I”.

May God bless a long journey of preparation! Looking forward to the joyous meeting!

Bishop Rimantas Norvila