This year I participated in the Lenten Program run for the youth from the Ryde Deanery. It was a different experience to the Lenten programs that I have previously been involved with through St. Charles.

Each week, we had a different guest speaker who gave a reflection on the Gospel for the coming week. It was a great experience to get insight from other people, both religious and lay, which helped to provoke different meanings for us all personally.

The discussion which followed also allowed us all to share our ideas and relate to people of a similar age that I was both familiar and unfamiliar with. It was great to also get to know other young people in the wider community and to find out about how the youth in their respective parishes operate and get some more ideas for our own youth at St. Charles.

The last night for me was the highlight of the program where Colin L started off the evening giving us a background on his life journey before performing a one-man, shortened version of The Passion for us. We then wrapped the program up with a big ‘family’ dinner celebrating all that the program had to offer.