Laic@s Josefin@s: diciembre 2020

Christmas is the season of joy, peace, and love. It is a special season to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and spend to it with our loved ones. Christmas is essentially a reminder of God’s love to all of us. Through this celebration, we are reminded to share also our blessings specially with the less fortunate.

The first ever virtual LJ-SSJ Christmas party was held on December 20, 2020 via Zoom. It was hosted by LJ Malasiqui Cluster.

In order to inspire everyone to join the event, LJ Malasiqui made a beautiful video invitation and posted it to LJ-SSJ Integration, the common chat room of all of us LJs and SSJs.

The celebration was quite different because of the pandemic. We may be distant from each other but the participants bonded together virtually like the Lay Josephines, Siervas de San Jose and the different lady Josephines from Silay Mandaluyong, Murphy, Quezon City and Malasiqui.

The virtual party started with a short program where Sr. Felma M. Ramones, SSJ, the LJ Link coordinator, inspired us with a message that despite the pandemic “Tuloy pa rin ang Pasko” (which means-pandemic cannot stop us from celebrating Christmas), coupled with God’s love and protection for all of us.

Previously we have unanimously decided to divide ourselves into clusters according to location: Quezon City Cluster, Murphy Cluster, Mandaluyong Cluster, Malasiqui Cluster, Silay cluster and the latest Iloilo Cluster. Each cluster prepared a Christmas presentation. LJ Silay Cluster was judged as the Best in Presentation. It was, indeed, a showcase of talents from the participants.

Exciting games and a raffle were also participated by the attendees. Questions about the life of Fr. Butina were also asked to commemorate his 121st Death Anniversary. All the prizes were courtesy of the very generous Dra. Connette Sta Cruz, LJ National Coordinator.

The virtual get together ended with the messages from Dra. Connette Sta. Cruz and from Sr. Marcie Sta. Cruz, SSJ Provincial Coordinator, and with a Closing Prayer. Every one of us left the platform with smiles on our faces having experienced the joy of celebrating the birth of Jesus as one Josephine Family. We continued the celebration together in our respective clusters.

The celebration was just simple with the aid of technology but it brought the LJs and SSJs closer and more connected despite the pandemic. This is another graceful occasion our good Lord bestowed on us so that we may continue to grow spiritually and live out the charism and mission of the SSJ within our family and in our workplace.