ABLAZE!

SACCRE Youth Ignites Ablaze Youth Rally

More than 350 young Catholics in Singapore had their hearts set ablaze with God's Love as they took part in the Ablaze Youth Rally. The event was held on 9 September 2006 from 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm at the Ignatius Hall of St. Ignatius Church. Its overriding theme was "Experience the Deeper, Higher and Longer Love of God".

During the first half of the rally, sonorous praise and solemn worship were led by a combined music ministry from youth groups such as Amplify Ministries, NTU-CSA Charismatic Prayer Group, Living Stones Campus Outreach, SJ Connectors, and John 10:10. Despite the hall being filled to its maximum capacity, the young congregation was undaunted by the standing-room-only space and spent all their energy to praise God. This unexpectedly huge turnout speaks in favor of the truth that God's Love proves to be an even stronger crowd-puller than Saturday night clubbing for many of today's young Catholics. Ria Anggriani, 21, who led the organizing team for this rally explains the phenomenon thus, "The need of youths to experience Christ's love is shown through this event. We are no longer afraid to show to the world that we are God's children, and that our joy is in gathering together to worship Him."

After praise and worship, Freddy Gomez from Amplify Ministries passionately delivered a spiritually enriching talk. Filled with conviction, he spoke of how God imparts the gift of self-control to his people and how this gift enables them to re-frame their concerns and challenges in life with a Christian paradigm. Furthermore, he said that having this frame of mind helps them to respond to any situation in a Christ-like manner and to influence its outcome to be more reflective of God's Love. Referring to the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Church in Philippi, Gomez expounds on the rationale for his talk saying, " Just like Paul's response to his imprisonment, we too have to recognize that we have control over our response to an event in life which would in turn determine the outcome of the event. By exercising control over our emotions through the power of the Spirit, we would be better able to reflect the love of God in all our challenges of life."

The young audience took home the message. One of them was Erwin Siow, 24, a student of The National University of Singapore Business School. When asked what aspect of the speaker's talk gave him a better understanding of God's Love, he vividly recalled, "Freddy's talk illustrated how we can use our God-given ability of self-control to re-frame our responses to bad situations so as to derive positive outcomes from them." Furthermore, he commented on his overall experience at Ablaze. He shared, "The passion for Jesus displayed by our friends from SACCRE Youth is simply infectious. Aptly enough, it has set ablaze my desire to deepen my relationship with God through a community focused on Christ."

The Ablaze Youth Rally is organized by the various groups that comprise the Singapore Archdiocesan Catholic Charismatic Renewal Youth (SACCRE Youth). The next Ablaze Youth Rally is expected to take place sometime next year. More information on Ablaze can be obtained from the SACCRE Youth Website http://www.saccre-youth.org , the Ablaze Blog http://ablazesingapore.blogspot.com, by E-mail to info@saccre-youth.org or by contacting Marcellus at 98781601.

- Miguel