A CATHOLIC GROUP HAS DONE IT! They preached the Good News of the Gospel to the poor, disadvantaged and homeless people of Yaumati. Through their narration of the Christmas story, they gave the message that God is Love and he has come to earth to share this Love with everyone especially the poor and unloved.
The Catholic group called PAULINE COOPERATORS participated for the first time in this year’s annual Christmas Party that the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s Sisters) gave to their regular “food guests”. The Party was held in the open space of the Yaumati Community Centre on Saturday December 16. About 80 street people attended, by invitation.
This year was a very unexpected and surprising time for the “honourable guests”.
The Pauline Cooperators took centre stage and Ivy with the right-pitched voice spoke to them about God and his message of salvation for all. With eloquence and persuasion, her voice loud and clear, she told them that Jesus Christ was born a Jew but he did not come to save only the Jews. He came to save all of us, Jews, English, Americans, Chinese.. the rich and the poor, and even the sinners
The Pauline Cooperators had rehearsed well the narration of the Christmas story from St Luke 2:1-20. They had printed out this Gospel passage and given a copy to each “guest”. The story of how Jesus was born was narrated with different voices to make the story more interesting for the listeners. To motivate their attention, the listeners were promised prizes if they answered correctly questions that Ivy would pose to them later.
The “honourable guests” seemed to have enjoyed and understood the Christmas story since they participated actively in the question and answer game. Their broad smiles and beaming faces when they claimed their prizes (a Christmas crib and some nice biscuits) showed their delight and response to our Good News Preaching. To reinforce the message, two Pauline Cooperators held a huge poster of the Christmas scene and displayed it to the seated guests. The final surprise was a gift of a small book called THE EIGHT BEATITUDES with a beautiful picture of the Christmas scene inserted inside the front page. Some “guests” immediately started to look at the book.
The second part of the Party was a brass band performance by three young musicians.
All joined in the singing of Christmas and popular hymns and songs. Finally Santa Claus arrived with his bag of the much-awaited gifts from the Missionaries of Charity, and the hot lunch boxes. As they carried their goodies bags and lunch boxes, they also carried a spiritual gift of the book THE BEATITUDES which is hoped will sow a seed of Christ’s message of love and salvation.
Alan Ng &
Fung Kit Chu
APC Members
What St. Francis of Assisi said is so true:
"It is in giving that we receive."
For the Pauline Cooperators, this Christmas party has really warmed our hearts with the joy of giving and receiving. The smiles on these under-privileged participants’ faces showed us that they could feel our love and care. Seeing how happy they were, we were happy too. Seeing the smiles on our faces, they should be able to feel that we enjoyed being with them too.
We also felt joy for being able to serve as the Lord’s tool. Thank God for giving us the opportunity to proclaim the Good News of Jesus’ birth loud and clear in front of people.
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Thanks to Sister Grace who arranged with the Missionaries of Charity to allow us to do our share of evangelization in their Christmas Party. The Sisters took care of the material needs of the “honourable guests” by giving food and clothing, and we took care of their spiritual needs by giving them the Word of God in the book and in our direct telling of the Christmas story. Together we have shown that Jesus is both Man and God. And he lived among us so that we can become also man and god.
After having participated at the Christmas Party that the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's Sisters) gave to their regular “food guests” in the morning on December 14, 2013, the Pauline Cooperators also held their own Christmas party in the afternoon. Before the Party, the Pauline Cooperators met for their monthly meeting at the St. Paul Sisters' home. We began with an hour of Adoration during which we read the Word of God – the Gospel of that day – and we shared our understanding of that Gospel. Then we prayed and sang and concluded the Adoration with a beautiful Christmas hymn.
At the much-awaited small Christmas Party which followed the meeting, the St.Paul Sisters and the Pauline Cooperators enjoyed the food, the fellowship, the fun and the warmth of the decorated house. Altogether we were 18 people.
This year our party food was a steamboat menu. After the first party in Yaumati, we went to Tai Wai market to buy all the ingredients for the steamboat. Besides the sumptuous Christmas dinner, we also exchanged Christmas gifts. We were very curious to see what gift we had been given. And each one was excited and happy to receive the exchanged gift. The St Paul Sisters gave each Pauline Cooperator a Chinese book as their Christmas gift to us.
Finally, all of us sat down together for some chatting and sharing.. We reviewed our feelings and mission at the regular Book Displays with the sisters during the year 2013. We also shared our expectations and our hopes to do better in the coming year 2014.
Pauline Family Celebrated Christmas 2013
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