What is Antiochia - The Antiochia Community

"20 And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. 22 Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. 23 Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. 24 For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord. 25 Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: 26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch."
(Acts 11:20-26, King James Version Bible)

What we want?

•     inspired by this Biblical text, we want to offer our abilities and work in places, where the living Christian faith slowly becomes a history.
•     we want to fulfill the commandment of Jesus to announce the Gospel to the whole world and, through our life, to testimony that it is possible to live according to it - even today.
•     we want to be close to the people´s lives - close to their sorrows and joys, to understand them well and to serve them.
•     we want to establish a dialogue with our neighbourhood, based upon our own experience with Jesus.
•     we want to from a true Christian community, starting from deep and sincere relationships.
   

Selection of the parish

The Antiochia participants become the "workers on the Lord´s vineyard" and are ready to offer all their potential and gifts received for the service of the Gospel, so as the Kingdom of God on the earth may grow.
The parish, where Antiochia should take place, must be ready to continue the work begun by it and, after the end of the Antiochia presence and activity, further develop the fruits of divine action.
The arrival of Antiochia people to the parish is prepared by the local priest, or by means of short visits throughout the whole year, during which the aims of Antiochia are explained to the parishioners.
The local priest should support the project fully and totally-otherwise our activities would be meaningless.

Practical informations

During the summer holidays, within the fourteen-day courses, young people (older than 16) arrive to the selected parishes and participate on their life and activities. Courses are always led by seminarians, at times also by the experienced laypeople. The activities always depend on the actual need of the parish, but the announcing of the Gospel and own life´s testimony have always a priority.
We try to address all age groups, but especially children and young people. In the parish, we offer alternative holiday programs for children (games for the development of creativity and skills, theatre performances with a Christian message with children´s own participation, excursions, woodcraft etc.).
Other age groups are addressed through the work, which helps both the municipality and the parish, and through the individual interest for the people (visiting and helping the abandoned, elderly and disable).
The whole Antiochia project is based upon the mutual communication and a prayer, both common and personal, which is an absolute fundament of our activity.

What Antiochia brings to its participants

•     a possibility to openly testimony their faith through their life and thereby to overcome their shyness.
•     learn to lead a mutual dialogue with both other participants of Antiochia and those who do not belong to the community of Catholic Church, or search for the sense of life.
•     deepening of the personal relationship with God, thanks to a regular prayer, adoration of the Eucharist, catecheses and liturgy.
•     establish and develop a friendship to the people, who share the desire to work together and to testimony the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their own country.

The activities of Antiochia during the schoolyear

In autumn and spring, we regularly prepare two meetings for the participants of Antiochia. There we share our experiences from holidays and discuss how Antiochia shall look like in the future.
We try to maintain the personal contants with the people from the municipality, where Antiochia has previously taken place: by visiting, correspondence...
During the whole year we pray, both individually and in a community, for the common work to which we have been invited by our Lord, to become "light of the world and salt of the earth" not only for our closest friends, but for all those we will encounter.

History of Antiochia

The Birth and First Activities of Antiochia

The pastoral activity of young people of Antiochia was created among students of Theological faculty in 1991. In preparatory year of Theological faculty in Litoměřice was about sixty capable students. The prefects of that time Petr Bartonek and Marek Dunda observed the conditions to carry out such an action. The idea emerged from their heads long before then but they start to realize it these days. The basic thought of the program is that young people spend their holidays in a parish of small religious eagerness. This should help finding ways to get closer to native inhabitants, so that they can meet Christians and find out that Christian religion is something close to their hearts.

The first place to do this was Vysoké Žibřidovice u Starého Města pod Kralickým Sněžníkem. Single runs were carefully planned for these first holidays in Žibřidovice. Each run had its head and several asistents from the preparatory class of Theological faculty who took their friends with. It was arranged that each run would continue in the activity of the former run, whose participants would try to hand over all the contacts and information they had. Students of the preparatory year gathered regularly to pray together for this plan. They were preparing various programs and catechesis for the participants of Antiochia.

The first run came with more than thirty young people and their big deal was to make a good start. Moreover, they managed quite well. Groups of people set out for Žibřidovice and other village Žleb, they had almost uninterrupted adoration in front of the house of God, which the members of Antiochia took turns at. In the evenings, they played a game called School. It was a kind of arcade game in an old abandoned shool building. In addition, local boys played it a lot. We gave a dancing party in Staré Město in the second half of the first week. A band from south Moravia came and it meant a big propaganda for Antiochia. We were puzzled when we were told that parties were hardly organized in this town. We get to know why after midnight. There was an unwritten rule that each party has to end with a fight and local people beat properly the others. This explained why we felt a bit odd when people gradually faded out and only the fighters and we stayed. We won on knocked out teeth. Luckily, everything came out fairly well.

Next runs of Antiochia picked up the threads of the first run and made many new personal contacts. In Žleb, they prayed rosary every afternoon and sometimes they come together for a night-long adoration. The latter were accepted with a great amazement of local young people. One of them checked the praying people a few hours after midnight and threw in "Jeez! They are really praying in there!"

Many friendships were made and members of Antiochia sometimes visited their new friends. The second year of Antiochia happened during the summer holidays in 1992.

On holiday in 1992, the idea of Antiochia was carried over to north Bohemia. Students of Theological faculty chose four parishes, which provided perfect conditions for Antiochia; these were almost no religiosity, usable church and presbytery, and easy communication with clergyman. Each place was chosen to suit us to try some new methods. In Úštěk we tried Antiochia in a small town. In Chcebuz prevailed small groups of participants and Antiochia got on only after we helped to find a thief who stole petrol from car. In Krešice, the priest exposed the sacrament and the participants waited a few days for him to put the sacrament back on its place, so that they can stop the adoration.

In Kravaře, there was a prayer centre. This pilgrims place was to support the activity of other places of Antiochia with its prayers. In Kravaře, there were larger groups of participants and Blochin University under terms of Antiochia took place here in one run. We used a special element in this year of Antiochia. In the first run there was so called Rapid Company consisted of a few enthusiastic young men. When there was a problem, they drove to the place and helped with solving it. All four places pan out. It brought either several conversions or prolonged cooperation with local members of Antiochia. Antiochia in Úštěk had worked for several years and was effective either in the spiritual field or in human relationships.

Another interesting event was the pilgrimage of all Antiochias in the first run. All four groups met on the hill at Úštěk on the place Ostré. This happened at the time when our bishops consecrated our country to Madonna at the pilgrimage to Velehrad. Father Jaroslav Stříž celebrated the mass at our meeting and Antiochia was consecrated to Our Lady as well.

We did not specialize only on children and young people in first years of Antiochia. Our attention was devoted to other generations. We always emphasized the prayer and personal contacts. There were many enthusiastic people at the beginning of Antiochia, who were willing to go the extra mile for Antiochia.

Lot of new avid people follows their footsteps.