Advent "P": Prayer and Poor

The advent season has ended and the time to celebrate Christmas has come. I was thinking of our advent season at Our Lady of Assumption (Cathedral). 

It was certainly marked by prayer, by joy and celebration. This year we were blessed with two Christmas' carols service. The first one organised by the town council, was held at our Cathedral. I could not join them as I was on my annual retreat but I am told it was beautiful. It brought different Christian churches together.

Two weeks' later we had another one organised by the children, the youth and young adults of the Cathedral. It was called "The nine lessons of Christmas".

Click HERE for photos of the celebration

Not only was it beautiful and well attended. It was the fruit of two months' work where everyone came together every Sunday at 1 pm. The amount of commitment and dedication was clearly seen on that day. All of them were really confident on what they had to do: the reading, the singing, the dancing... 

It ended at sunset allowing us to light our candles and sing together "Silent night". It took just one hour but helped us stop for a moment, come together, remember and celebrate that a child is born for us.

These four weeks were also marked by our sharing with the poorest. On the third Sunday of Advent members of the Catholic Women's League brought to the altar 60 heavy buckets full of food and toiletries. They would be distributed later that day. It was a long and impressive procession. We put all the buckets in front of the altar. We were left with hardly any space to move around.

It was on that Sunday that, following John the Baptist's call to the people:

If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.

we committed ourselves to see what we have at home and think of those who do not have. I did my part but wondered if the message had been clear. There was no reason to doubt. Before Sunday people started to bring clothes and food to be distributed.

The sodality of the Sacred Heart too decided to have a special event. It was held at "Hope House" (Manzini). On Saturday morning we met for an hour of prayer and to share some gifts with the poor. We read from Psalm 71. Some of us shared on how the Word touched us. After the prayer, gifts of food and toiletries were distributed among the 25 cottages. Not only they thought of those who would be there for Christmas, but also of those who had the chance to go home and will be back in the new year.

It's been a blessed advent season. Hope yours too. 

Happy Christmas!

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Enjoy some more videos from our Christmas' carols service

"I saw a star"

"Glory"

"Asiye eBethlehema"