JY BANDS - VOX CHRISTI | KAIROS GLOBAL | MARCH 2019

Author: Ron Sunny, Pune, India

Vox Christi is a musical outreach of the Jesus Youth movement, based in Kerala, India, with members from various walks of life. We do not restrict ourselves to any specific genre and enjoy a mix of rock, EDM, a country flavor and more (shall we call it Independent Praise Rock?).

We celebrated 10 years of being the ‘voice of Christ’ (Vox Christi) with a concert at the World Youth Day 2019 in Panama, featuring mostly our own compositions (and boy, what a night it was!). We even had a chance to minister during the Catechesis. We witnessed the Spirit taking charge of it all, taking us all ‘into the holy of holies,’ and even led Mark (a Panamanian), who was apparently just walking past the church that morning, into a God-experience. His testimony, along with the many others we heard later, reminded us that God was definitely in charge; not only for the past 10 years of the band’s life, but even in our journey ahead. 

This WYD was an out-of-the-world-experience for 7 members of the family who could go this time - Gemon Kurian, Evugin Emmanuel, Ron Sunny, Elriya Elvis, Bijo Thomas, Yesudas Pananchickal, and Bedwin Taitus. From bowing in awe-struck silence before the Blessed Sacrament, along with Pope Francis and all nations gathered there, to going gaga to some crazy Panamanian beat, with people we met for about a minute or so- everything about this told us that we were part of one big celebration! Part of one amazing family, called the Catholic Church. With one common factor – God our Father’s all-inclusive, infectious Love!

Undoubtedly, what will stay with us after WYD 2019, will be the self-less love that we were drenched in throughout the trip. Be it the local folks who offered us rides even when we did not ask for it, or the guy who gave us all the water he had carried for himself on that hot afternoon, without any hesitation whatsoever, or be it Cathy and George (an amazing Panamanian couple) who left no stone unturned to make sure we felt loved and cared for- we were blessed with countless occasions of pure and joyous giving. So infectious was this spirit, that we could hardly stop ourselves from imitating them. So infectious was this spirit that we recognized it at once - this was same the unconditional love of our Lord Jesus.

‘Here I am the servant of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy will’ – in light of this 10-year journey and our WYD experience, that really sums up what we stand for. And with excitement for what is in store, with St Paul, we, Vox Christi, can only acclaim, what we have seen so far is only “partial and incomplete!” 

Onward Amigos!