I was born in Kuwait and moved to Dubai when I was about two years old.
I grew up there but in most Middle Eastern countries you don’t become a resident automatically.
You take on the nationality of your parents and both my parents are Indian so my passport is Indian.
My parents are Catholic and there are many Catholic churches in Dubai so we were able to practise our faith freely there.
I think it is harder to practise your faith in Australia because Dubai is a Muslim country and the values are more conservative there then they are here.
I moved to Australia in 2008 when I was 19 to do my Interior Architecture degree at Curtin University.
I am now a professional interior designer.
I used to attend a Catholic youth group at Curtin till I graduated in January 2012.
Now I am part of the Santa Clara Youth Ministry at Santa Clara Church, Bentley where I am a parishioner.
I pray alone or sometimes in a group, for example like when the Santa Clara Youth Ministry had a prayer vigil and we prayed the Rosary together at King’s Park on July 7, 2013.
When we were at the Prayer Vigil we talked about certain social issues like addiction, depression, loneliness, sickness and abuse.
We prayed for those challenged by these issues and discussed how we would deal with them ourselves and how we could help someone else who experienced these problems.
God is in everyone and if you try to see Christ in someone I think that has an influence on how you then deal with them: you see them in a different light.
I was surprised by how aware the other young people were about these social issues because when I was their age I had no idea. It was strange and scary to an extent.
They know about these issues because they are so prevalent in our society today, but they also showed great faith in the way that they turned to God in order to face these issues.
Seeing their faith gives me the strength and courage to implement my faith as well.
It is important to have God to turn to because if you don’t have faith there is a sense of hopelessness.
Our Parish Priest, Father Dennis Sudla, started the Santa Clara Youth Ministry early last year.
To date, we have had a mix of Catechesis, faith formation, social events and a retreat.
We have come a long way and have about ten youth leaders now. Fr Dennis attends the youth leader meetings and I am one of the youth leaders myself.
Our youth leaders play some important roles such as treasury management, marketing, public relations, outreach, event coordination, article writing, graphic design and photography and so on.
We are quite fortunate to have talented people who generously give their time to do God’s work.
We meet once a fortnight at the Santa Clara school hall to discuss and plan for future events such as faith formation sessions and social gatherings.
There is so much more to come over the next few months!
I think our Youth Ministry is something really special. Growing up is really hard.
As a young person, you face peer pressure and that can make it difficult to practise your faith.
You can lose your way. Associating with other young Catholic people can help us stay on the right path.
It shows that there is a way to live your faith in this very secular world.
We can support each other in prayer and friendship and grow in faith together.
We have a Youth Mass once a month or if there is a special event. I sing with our Youth Choir as well.
When you have young people there is certain energy in the parish which enhances the vibrancy of the Church.
As well as youth, there are heaps of younger children in the parish.
It is always amazing how many little kids come running up to receive the children’s blessing from Father at the end of Mass.
As they grow older they will receive their First Holy Communion and Confirmation.
It is important that there is a youth group in the parish so that when they get older they can continue their faith journey with other people their own age.
Bentley parish is celebrating 50 years in 2013 and we have been interviewing some people who have been long-time parishioners as part of a commemorative 50th anniversary magazine that we are putting together.
One of the things that many people said about the parish was that it has always been close knit.
Having other families and older mentors in the parish is also a very faith-nurturing environment, as you can see how people live their faith at different ages and stages in their lives.
I feel that my Catholic faith is the guiding force in my life, influencing everything including my work and my interactions with others.
As the world is increasingly secular, I think one of the challenges facing Catholics is the idea that a person by himself or herself has control of everything.
They are self-sufficient – they have control of their lives, their career and their future so they don’t need God. Of course, this isn’t true. God is in control of everything.
Over the last two years I have learnt to pray by listening to God as well.
It’s easy to get stressed with university, work or just life in general. I don’t know about the future really but you can only do what you can do.
I told myself, “You said you believe in God and now you have to prove it.” After that I felt much better.
I pray anytime and anywhere. I just talk to God, thanking him, asking for help, guidance and inspiration.
When I experience hard times or get stressed, I look back and think of all the difficult situations that I have experienced in the past: how some things worked out in the way I wanted and also some things that didn’t happen as I had hoped.
But in all those situations things always seemed to ‘work out for the best’ in the end.
Then I realise that it was the hand of God acting in my life.
This gives me hope because I know that if I face any difficulty I can just leave it in God’s hands. He may not do what I ‘want’ him to do but he will always do what is best for me!