Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
First of all, I want to wish all of you:
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
May your days be filled with
peace and joy during Christmas season
and throughout 2015!
How was your Christmas celebration?
I am still volunteering at Holy Family Church
Shenzhen on Saturdays till Tuesdays except if there are community activities or
workshops in Hong Kong so I spent Christmas in Shenzhen.
Besides regular activities, I also organize youth gatherings, couples
gathering and altar server gathering with the help of several volunteers at Holy Family Church.
An Advent
wreath, with two purple candles, one pink candle and two white candles, 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. There
was reserved seat during Mass and reserved dinner table for the sisters.
Starting third Sunday of
Advent, several parishioners decorated the church in the evening. Several of them went directly from work
without having supper and stayed till around 1.30 a.m., so they had supper at
church. One of the parishioners and I decorate both the
front and back stairs. I sent Christmas gift from Fr. Lu to one of the
families who are on financial difficulties.
There were so many people wanted
to attend the 7.30 p.m. Mass on Dec 24 so the ushers should work hard to make
sure that the Mass would be as solemn as possible. The front and back of church and also the
stair to the fourth floor were full packed.
There was a TV at the first floor to show lively the Mass. Several of them are neither Catholics nor attend
Mass regularly. The choir sang beautifully and there were nice Mass booklets for
Masses on Dec 24, 25 and Holy Family Feast Day.
After evening Mass, there was a procession of statue Baby Jesus from
first floor to the altar and then it was placed in the manger in front of the church. The church was also full packed for the
performance show, in between the evening and vigil Masses. The children, Bible Study Group, Praise and
Worship Group, Choir and one of the laywoman sang several songs. The bookstore was moved to the first floor to
have bigger space. The Santa Claus threw candies after performance show. I was responsible to give away the bread to
the children before the Mass, sat with the children at the last row to keep
them as quiet as possible and gave away their Christmas gifts. The church, inside and
outside, was full for the vigil Mass. I
sat at the back church with several persons for the vigil Mass.
The church, inside and outside,
was full packed on Christmas Day Mass even though it’s not public holiday. Forty mostly non-Catholic men and women sang
three Christmas songs after closing prayer. A parishioner invited Fr. Lu, several
volunteers, 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 at this Christmas season. Once in awhile, the parishioners will go to the manger to pray.
Here is the link of the
pictures during Christmas celebration in Shenzhen : http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=a11b4020629da0676cdd16a80fdf8c46&sid=0EbuWrFm4ZM2NZ
I start a new cyber ministry through
group chatting. I ask three of the youth
to send Youth Catechism, Canon Law, letter of Pope Benedict XVI to the Chinese
in 2007 and the explanation of that letter by Cardinal Zen to our Shenzhen Catholic Youth group
chat, one number each day and then I forward it to eleven group chats. Total
members who receive this information are more than 1,200 persons (of 12 group chats) and living in several
cities. I realize that only small number of them may have time and
interest read it but at least they know there are these materials. A
person asked what is the different of catechism and canon law and then just
realized that she has a book of canon law in her book shelf. Two persons
asked me to join their group chat and become one of the resource persons. I
assume both of them didn’t know my state of life because they knew me from a
group chat. Several persons are grateful
for this cyber ministry and ask to forward it to their friends. One of
the priests called me “网络导师“ (=cyber
teacher). One of the group chat member start
to forward catechism to his group chat, one number each day. Now, I join 21 group chats with membership range from more than 10 members up to more than 400 members and different age range. I form three group
chats: youth group volunteers, priests, and sisters. For sure, I didn’t read all
their conversation and also only forward the information to eleven group chat
because of there is membership duplication and the nature of the group chat. I still
continue to share my life and ministry to my blog and the pageviews reached more than 74,000.
While in Hong Kong, I am
still visiting the inmates in both Lowu Correctional Institution and Tailam
Center for Women and helping the Putonghua workshops at Maryknoll Society House besides
being one of the financial team members of our region. The Financial Literacy Program at Pathfinders
ended last April.
Here were my several
activities after Easter while I was not in Shenzhen: Colloquium on Confucius organized by
Maryknoll Society including trip to Qufu-China, trip to Shenyang, Jilin and
Fushun to visit several communities and attend the farewell of Fr. John Vessey,
Maryknoll Convent School Speech Day, National Election of Indonesia, Study Day on Aggiornamento in the Church
and Vatican Council II, Feedback from our General Assembly delegates, Golden
Jubilee of Sr. Joanna Chan, Annual General Meeting of Prisoners’ Friends’
Association, International Conference on Ignatian Spirituality, Memorial Mass
for our China Region deceased sisters, Maryknoll Society Thanksgiving Day, Briefing Session on the Third Extraordinary
General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Pastoral Challenges of the Family
in the Context of Evangelization, besides enjoying the visit of Mrs. Selly and her family, Mr. Achun and his family, Mrs. Sharon, Mrs. Eliza, Mrs. Im, Mrs. Grace Kelly and her family, Sr. Joanna, Ms. Vivien Ng, Fr. Elmer and Mrs. Alice and also went home for vacation and retreat.
And, last but not 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.
Hong Kong, December 26, 2014
With love and prayer,
Sr.
Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.
Let’s
do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible
There were 9.00
a.m. and 3.30 p.m. Masses on Dec 28. The
later was the parish celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family. We invited other the priests, sisters and
parishioners from other Churches to attend the Mass and dinner at the nearby
restaurant. 
With the help of my Putonghua tutor, I edited the renewal
of marriage vow ceremony booklet of St. Theresa’s Church Hong Kong for our wedding
anniversary blessing ceremony and added two persons three legs activity. It was for the couples who celebrate their 5th,
10th, 15th,…wedding anniversary. There were seven couples who are celebrating their
wedding anniversary according to abovementioned criteria but only six couples
could participate the ceremony. Fr. Lu announced
the blessing ceremony after the homily. The couples walked with three legs from the main door to the altar with the music
of “Here Comes the Bride.” When they arrived at the front of the altar, Fr. Lu explained
the meaning of two persons three legs activity and read the renewal of Marriage
vows for both the husband and wife because he heard that it is not convenience
for them (or one couple, I am not sure) to say it in public. A
parishioner said that the marriage vow is once for a lifetime so we can’t pronounce
it again. I explained that it’s not my own
plan but it’s done in other Churches. Then,
Fr. Lu invited all the priests to lay their hands on the six couples while he said the blessings. I prepared a card “Virgin
of the Covenant (Icon of the Married Couple), Pastoral Letter of Cardinal John Tong on Proclaiming and Living the "Gospel of the Family" and booklet "Starting a Happy Marriage" from Hong Kong
Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Marriage and Family as their gift. 
The six couples were
responsible to brought forward the offerings after the collection. There were performances from our choir and
our guitarists after the Mass.
