Taipei, staging the Gospel "so as not to miss out on a single word"
Taipei (AsiaNews) – A group of young people from Taipei’s Sacred Heart Parish(台北 聖 心 堂) are staging the parables of Jesus in the Gospel. The aim of the theatre event is to tell the life of Christ through and involve as many faithful as possible in performance, which is enjoying great success in the Catholic community in Taiwan.
It all started last year, during the weekly meetings between a group of students and the parish priest in preparation for the Mass on Wednesday. At a certain point one young person suggested: "We should try to dramatize the Gospel of the day, to make it more understandable and personal." There was a desire to emphasize the importance of Jesus' parables, the stories and Bible texts, connecting them with the problems faced by the group and the personal choices of each.
The youth group included two students of dramatic arts who pounced on the opportunity to "stage", although within the group and in a liturgical context, the Gospel of the day.
"All this – says Ruiqian (陳瑞 芊 老師), one of the two leaders - requires preparation and commitment, so we decided to focus on the initial start of the month, studying the details page of the Gospel prescribed by the liturgy for the first Sunday, and we started to put it on stage. " Thanks to this initiative and resulting enthusiasm, many other young people felt attracted by the style of celebration and from a few dozen each event now has hundreds in attendance.
"Of course - says Yuzhen (王宇珍 老師), who along with Ruiqian leads the group - there is a small group that prepares the staging and there is a larger group that assists. But everyone is invited to get involved, anyone who wants to take part the following month can and is warmly invited to represent one of the characters of the day. "
"From studying and dramatizing the scene you discover many details, messages and an inner resonance that would otherwise be lost or overlooked," says Matthew, one of the youngest "and most of all no one can get distracted. The staging is very addictive. "
Cecilia Zhuang (莊 小姐), who has a passion for creative writing and so has drawn up the screenplays, concludes: "Starting from the second week of the month two of us draft out the script for the staging, then we compare the contents during the meeting and finally practice for a couple of sessions before putting on the final staged event. This gives us confidence and self-esteem and it makes us reflect on the message of the Gospel as well as allowing us to reach more young people. In fact, we have received several invitations from parishes in the center and south of the island to spread this project".
The Archbishop of Taipei and the other bishops of Taiwan do not this initiative to go unnoticed. For this reason, the group from Sacred Heart will offer courses for young people this summer.
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