Mae Rim, Chiang Mai Thailand, 2 June 2023 -- On May 28–31, 2023, Fr. David Vichiensaeng Kongtrakoondee, SDB, the director of Mae Rim catechetical center, Chiang Mai, organized a seminar on the topic As the Yeast, Active: Become a Youth Pastoral Co-operator. There were 45 participants in this seminar, including priests, nuns, catechists, and other people who work in the field with young people in Chiang Mai Diocese. The key speaker at this seminar was Fr. Yarat Chaiyara, SDB, who led participants to deeply understand the heart of the pastoral work that came from Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd. Moreover, people who work with young people need to become yeast who do their own duties, even if they are the smallest ones, because that is the way to holiness. This simple thing that we do is compared to the yeast that a woman puts in a bucket of flour until it leavens.
On the second day of the seminar, Fr. Ronachai Mathavabhandhu, SDB, shared with participants about the crisis that young people today experience and how it affected relationships between generations. We, as pastoral ministers, need to respond to this situation by accompanying the young in a proper way. After that, Fr. Prasert Somngam, SDB, shared with participants his experience of his pastoral work in the parish, which is not only liturgical but in every area and every group of the parish. The person who works in the pastoral area helps people meet God and other people. The final day of the seminar concluded with the evaluation and sharing of participants, followed by the closing mass celebrated by Bishop Francis Xavier Veera Arpornrat, the bishop of Chiang Mai Diocese. All participants were glad and eager to go back and become yeast in the place where they work.
