Christmas Time!

Wow, Christmas is upon us already!  It is always known as a busy time and this year at the novitiate is no exception.  It’s a great time of year though, and the events that we have had already have been great celebrations, and the events to come promise to be so too.

Last week kicked off the major celebrations with the start of Misa de Gallo on Wednesday. This is a novena of Masses that take place before dawn every morning until Christmas day and is a great Filipino custom (although a difficult one!) that helps to prepare for the coming of our Lord.

Then Friday, 18th Dec, was the FIR (Formation Institute for Religious) Christmas party held at Gap Farm in Davao.  This was a lot of fun and was very well organised with games, prizes, gifts, food, drama’s and other presentations from the different religious groups present, who have been studying together since the beginning of the year.  Thanks to everyone who was involved in this day and really made it an enjoyable occasion.

From then on, I think we have had or will have some kind of celebration every day until Christmas.  Saturday was the party organised by the Samahang Marista (Lay Marists) and hosted by the Marist Sisters in Matina.  When the Marist family get together it is always a special occasion and this proved to be no different on Saturday.  More games, more presentations, more gifts to be exchanged, and more food made this another great event to the credit of the organisers.  Thanks again to you all for a very good night and for all you have done throughout the year.

Sunday (today) sees the arrival of Fr. Tim Costello, SM to the Philippines and his welcome gathering here at Dumalag tonight.   He will be giving some classes for us here on priestly and religious formation over the next few days before Christmas.  Monday is the Christmas lunch we will host for the workers here at the novitiate house who have done such a wonderful job at looking after us throughout the year.  On Tuesday the Marist postulants, scholastics and priests from the Sta. Ana community will come for supper and will perform Christmas Carols for us (yay).  Wednesday we will have a kind of kids party in the afternoon for all the children in the neighbourhood which I think may be safer to watch than to take part in!  Thursday, Christmas Eve, we need to prepare food etc. for the following day, then we will attend the vigil Mass at the Maa City Jail, which has been part of our ministry this year and is sure to be a great celebration.  On Christmas day itself we will have our community Mass and midday meal together, and in the evening join the district house for, yes, a party!

Saturday the 26th Dec is a free day, and although some are planning to travel out of Davao to visit friends, I might just reacquaint myself with my bed in a happy state of tiredness…

I have posted some photos here and will continue to post photos of the above events as they happen, so be sure to return over the next week to see what we are doing.

Merry Christmas!!