First of all, I want to wish all of
you:
Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year
May your world be filled
with warmth and good cheer this Holy season, and throughout 2014!
How was your Christmas and New Year
celebration?
As for me, I spent Christmas in Shenzhen, my
second Christmas in Shenzhen. I still go regularly to Holy Family Church
Shenzhen on Saturdays till Tuesdays
except if there are community activities or workshops in Hong Kong. My activities in Shenzhen are attending the
Mandarin Masses; being with the parishioners either in chapel, in their homes
or outing including attending the feast day of the other Churches; praying with
whoever needed; helping the Sunday School, the religious articles store, and Summer
School http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2013/08/sharing-summer-school-2013.html; bringing
books/booklets/prayer cards; besides enjoyed
the visit of Sr. Maureen, Sr. Shirley, Ms. Jody, Mr. Koeswanto and
family, Mr. Richard Widjaja and friends.
As Sr.
Agnes wanted to visit a leprocy center, so I accompanied her with a parishioner
of Holy Family Church to a leprocy center in Kaiping. Sr. Agnes and I left 6 o’clock from my place,
took a bus from Luo Hu bus station to Kaiping then to Nan Lian Lu Kou. Sr. Lin, whom I met in a leprocy center in Shunde,
asked one of the residences to pick us up and we arrived at the leprocy center
around 12.00 pm. We chat for a while, had
lunch at Sr. Lin’s place, and then continue our conversation with the
residences. We gave a small gift to each
residence, total around 41 persons, mostly elderly man. It took seven hours to go back to my place. For sure, the residences were grateful for
our visit. Our parishioner was also
grateful for this visit as it’s her first time to visit sick people and first
time to visit a leprocy center accompanied by two sisters! I invited several parishioners to go but they
couldn’t make it. 
I
organized a talk on Theology of the Body for the parishioners on Nov 21. There were more than 30 parishioners attended
the talk and they wish to have another talks in the future. It’s the first talk in our church.
Our former Sunday School
teacher is back to lead our Sunday School so it is more organized. The children and volunteers wear white pants, more
volunteers including the parents take turn to help. I help to give away the top
uniform, set up the back room of the church to be the classroom and
clean it up, and take picture of the children with their parents and then put
it on the paper frame, which I got from Diocesan Commission for Marriage and
Family Hong Kong. We will distribute it
on Holy Family feast day celebration on Dec 29, 2013.
An Advent wreath, with two purple candles, one pink candle
and one white candle, was placed in
the altar as we began the Advent season.
Fr. Lu, several parishioners and I attended Mass for the
feast of Immaculate Conception at the Immaculate Conception Church, followed by
dinner. Twelve sisters from several
dioceses in mainland who are working in Shenzhen including myself for the first
time sat together in a table so we started to exchange contact numbers.
On the second Saturday
and third Sunday of Advent, several parishioners decorated the church after the Mass. Several of them
went directly from work without having supper and stayed till around 1.30 a.m., so
they had supper at church almost midnight. I helped to
decorate both
the front and back stairs and also the wall near
back stairs.
Fr. Lu, several parishioners and I visited a leprocy center in Huidong on
Dec 21, 2013. Twenty one of us went for
two and a half hours in four cars. There
are 11 elderly men and women, seven of them are Catholics. We helped to decorate the chapel including
setting up the manger; give winter clothes, rice, cooking oil, shawl, and red
envelopes; organized Mass and also praise and worship. All of us didn’t have lunch and several of us
didn’t have breakfast too. It’s the
first time for most of the parishioners, as for me, it's the 6th leprocy center I visited and my 8th visit to a leprocy center.
For sure, the residences are so grateful for our visit and wish for our
next visit in their new place. Then, we
went to the beach nearby. Here is the link of the pictures: http://share.shutterfly.com/
There so many people wanted
to attend both the 7.30 p.m. Mass and 11.00 p.m. Mass on Dec 24 so the ushers should work
hard to make sure that the Mass would be as solemn as possible including holding
hand to avoid the people to go to the church whenever it’s
full packed. The front and back of church and also the stair to the fourth floor were full packed. Several of them are neither Catholics nor attend
Mass regularly. The children attended the evening Mass and sang“让爱转出去 (=Let love spread away)”with sign language http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzQwMTIxOTU2.html and “Jingle
Bells” in Chinese. I was responsible to
take the pictures of the children so I sat with the children at the front rows during
the evening Mass. The choir sang beautifully and there were nice Mass booklets for Masses on Dec 24, 25 and Holy Family Feast Day. The church was also full
packed for our first praise and worship, led by Fr. Lu
and several young adults, in between the
evening and vigil Masses. After being
blessed at the first floor, the statue of Baby Jesus was brought in procession
to the altar (at the third floor) and then was placed in the manger in front of
the church. The bookstore was moved to the
first floor to have bigger space. I
sat outside front church for the vigil Mass after stopping during procession to
help bringing the religious articles up to the church. The Santa Claus threw candies after the Mass.
The church, inside, outside and
back room, was full packed on Christmas Day Mass even
though it’s not public holiday. I was moved during
homily. Forty non-Catholic men and women
sang three Christmas songs after closing prayer. I helped at the religious article store in front of the Church before and after the Mass. A
parishioner invited Fr. Lu, several guests from Shijiazhuang,
and me for lunch. The inside church was full during Christmas Day
evening Mass, even though it’s not the first Mass for most of them this Christmas
season.
Here is the link of the pictures during Christmas
celebration: http://share.shutterfly.com/
While in Hong Kong, I am still visiting the inmates in
both Lowu Correctional Institution and Tailam Center for Women besides being
the only leader of Financial Literacy Program at Pathfinders and helping the Putonghua
workshops at Stanley House. I also had
several activities e.g. attending the deaconate ordination of SVD, two of them
are Indonesians; Asian Liturgy Forum http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.hk/2013/11/article-asian-liturgy-forum-2013.html; Maryknoll Sisters Asia East World Section
followed by annual Maryknoll Family barbeque hosted by Maryknoll Society, Hong
Kong diocese jubilee celebration and Christmas carol at Stanley House. It's a holy coincidence to meet Fr. John Eybel, MM at Maryknoll House.
And, last but
not the least, I want to thank you for all your support, love, hospitality, gifts and especially your prayers during this year. It’s been a year of lot of “God
with us” experiences especially how God prepares my ministries both in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
Hong Kong, December 26, 2013
With love and prayer,
Sr.
Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.
Let’s
do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible
