By Janice Ann Morais, Form 3

I recently attended a formation for secondary school students on the Beatitudes held at the St. Joseph Church formation center over two days.

The teachers who explained the Beatitudes to us were informative and tried their best to get all our attention but as the attendees were between the ages of 13 and 17, focus sometimes, went awry.

At the end of the session, however, many of us came away with a better understanding of the Beatitudes and how, if applied to our daily lives, could be the bridge in reaching out to fellow Catholics and people of different faiths.

After all, the Beatitudes speak of the importance of being humble and not looking down on anyone despite their weaknesses and shortcomings. It is also an important call to us, Catholics especially, to show mercy to everyone we come in contact with.

On a large scale, the Beatitudes also define blessings and happiness that we already have as God’s children.

Life today is filled with worries and challenges and we do not make God as our priority anymore and that is where the Beatitudes teaches us that there is a blessing behind every storm when we put all our faith and trust in Him.

For me, personally, the main takeaway from the two-day session was the importance of being humble and showing mercy. I am determined to live my life by these two important values.

With these two values, building bridges, mending broken relationships and sharing God’s love with one another will become so much easier, especially to teenagers and youths who are still trying to find the real meaning of being Catholic.

The lessons learnt over the two days can last a lifetime if we can hold on to what we have learnt and not get distracted with what the world throws at us.

And on that note, I would sincerely like to thank our faith formators for the excellent work they put in but from a student’s perspective, I believe a lot more can be done to make the formation more interesting.

Maybe throw in some outdoor activities, introduce some games and even stretching the formation over a longer period, not condensing everything into two days.

But teachers take heart, we realise the sacrifices that you have made. You sacrificed your weekend, quality time with your respective families, just to be with us and impart your knowledge. You were not paid anything, you did it out of the goodness of your hearts. We really appreciate this.

This aptly describes all of you — Happy are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Thank you and God bless.

Also read
RETREAT FOR CATECHISM STUDENTS ON BEAUTITUDES – PART II