The Word of God speaks of our experience in the language of 2,000 years ago. Our experience speaks the Word of God in today’s language.

These are the words by which I introduced both the Gospel of this Sunday and the testimonies of four of the youths that lead a marvelous experience of evangelization the night before in Palanga, Lithuania.

The Word of God speaks to us of the Kingdom of God by resembling it to the yeast a woman mixes to the dough making it grow into a beautiful loaf. The yeast is very small in comparison to the volume of dough to which it can make such a difference.

Last week, a group of fifty Lithuanian youths, coming from all over Lithuania, including Vilnius and Kaunas, attended for a three day course of formation on new evangelization in Palanga. This is a summer resort village of not more than 12,000 people in winter, but which increases up to 80,000 during the summer months.

It was a marvelous experience with such a lively and gift group of youths who met Jesus personally and are so enthusiastic to introduce Him to others. They came to pray and learn how they can do it in an effective way with youths of their age.

After an intense preparation, they opened the Church of Palanga, dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady, from 10.00p.m. till 1.00a.m. on Saturday 16 July. The flow of people, especially youngsters and young families that came to Church and were accompanied up to the altar, to present their most intimate desires personally to Jesus in the Eucharist was incredible. It is estimated that some 600 youngsters made this experience.

Although it was an impressive experience, this amount barely represent 1% of the people present at the moment in Palanga. It seems like a drop in the huge Baltic sea. However, the seed has been sown, the yeast has been mixed to the dough. As a local priest has told me: “From today, Palanga is not going to be the same!

The youths witnessed publicly in front of a Church packed with people on Sunday morning: “I never believed of seeing the new evangelization I saw in Malta taking place in such a powerful way in my country….” “The love I experienced is so great….” “I met two youths who arrived at the Station and heard a Psalm being proclaimed. They followed the sound coming from the external speakers of the Church. And ended up in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament instead of the night club!” “I always was afraid and shy to read in public, yet, during the Outreach, I was given the ministry to proclaim the Word of God. I accepted out of love for Jesus, and now I am healed!”

This is the parable of the yeast and the dough in today’s language. The youths of Lithuania are experiencing a new springtime. The same can be said of Lithuania. The Kingdom of God is amongst them, even if they cannot as yet see it.

To believe the Words of Jesus is to see the signs of the times with the eyes of faith. The Word of God speaks of our experience in the language of 2,000 years ago. Our experience speaks the Word of God in today’s language.

Contact Fr Paul Fenech.