Christmas Letter 2015

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,  

         How was your Christmas celebration?  Hopefully you have more time to be present instead of "buy presents", wrap people in hugs instead of "wrap presents", send love instead of "send cards", donate food instead of "shop for food", make time for people instead of "make cookies", be the light instead of "set the lights", and enjoy party without stress instead of "plan parties" (Jody McKinney).

We just finished our beautiful Christmas carols and vigil Mass at our main chapel followed by refreshment.  

As you may know that I left Hong Kong on December 7 after a farewell at the Holy Family Church including sending off to Hong Kong on my last day in Shenzhen: http://anastasialindawatimm.blogspot.com/2015/11/sharing-2015-thanksgiving-letter.html and with our region including Columban Sisters.  It’s not easy no leave but I believe it’s time to let go and move forward to my second part of renewal and reflection phase.    There is time for everything.

               I enjoyed my time with our Retirement Community in Monrovia, including a party hosted by Fr. Gerry, MM, outing with Richard, Srs. Joy, Kathryn, Dolores, and Dorothy.

      My second stop was in Chicago to meet several friends, including sharing my life and ministry in China with our Integration House Community, attending Simbang Gabi at St. Thomas the Apostles’ Church and accompanying Bishop Xu and his group from mainland China.

     I arrived at Maryknoll Sisters Center on Dec 18 and started to go around our big house, for the first time after 6 years, including attending the Christmas party of Development Department and helping Santa Claus’ visit to our elderly sisters.         During Advent, I prepared the Christmas Campaign at Holy Family Church by inviting the parishioners to donate their Advent saving money in a plastic folder for our charity fund.  I also translated the last eight days of Advent Reflections by Fr. Robert Barron to Indonesian language and uploaded to my blog with their permission.

I was home for my first part of renewal and retreat last July and then went for pilgrimage to Shanghai, Taiyuan and Qingdao.  Here are several short updates about the last eight months of 2015.

      With the help of several volunteers, I organized three youth gatherings: pilgrimage to Fujian, pilgrimage to Zhaoqing and World Mission Sunday; two volunteer trainings and one couple gathering at Holy Family Church.

        I helped a Walk to Emmaus Week End, a workshop at Maryknoll Society House and Maryknoll Sisters Open Day as part of Hong Kong Diocese programmes for the Year of Consecrated Life besides continuing to visit inmates both in Lowu Correctional Institution and Tailam Center for Women in Hong Kong.   

      I attended our annual Maryknoll Barbeque, Memorial Mass for Maryknollers, Maryknoll Society Thankgiving Day celebration, Symposium on “The Influence of Christianity on the Chinese Society”, Asia East World Section Meeting in Jeju Island, Indonesian Oikoumene Vocal Group Competition, Reflection Day led by Fr. Tanguy-Marie POULIQUEN, Annual General Meeting of Prisoners’ Friends’ Association, the Priesthood ordination of Fr. Vincentius, SJ, and School Opening Mass of MCS. 

      Thank you very much for all your support, hospitality, love, gifts and especially your prayers during this year.  

May the Blessings of Peace, the Beauty of Hope, the Spirit of Love, and 

the Comfort of Faith be your gifts this Christmas season!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

New York, December 24, 2015

with love and prayer,

Sr. Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.

Let’s do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible