After a time of preparation for the Encounter with Jesus, the educational community and the students of the Colégio Internato dos Carvalhos (CIC) celebrated Christmas ‘in family’, during the morning of December 15. Carefully prepared by the Pastoral Council and the Direction of Projects and Causes, it also counted with the presence of two Claretian missionaries of the Province of Fatima, members of the Pastoral and Youth Team of Spain (PJV_Spain), Fathers Martín Areta and Tomas M. Joustefen, who presided over the celebration.
Due to the measures taken by COVID19, the activity had to be divided: at 9.30 am for the 10th grade classes, at 10.45 am for the 11th grade classes and at 11.55 am for the 12th grade classes.
Here is a short report prepared by the CIC:
Throughout the celebration, marked by the Christmas joy of CIC families, there were also moments of reflection, prayer and fellowship. At one point, all those present were asked to reflect on themselves, to identify the positive and less positive attitudes in life so that, in an attitude of self-transformation, they could forget the less good ones and follow the path of goodness, a path that brings us closer to others and to God.
After the reading of the Gospel of St. Luke, which served as the motto for this journey in Community until Christmas, a group of pupils tried to represent the difficulties experienced by Mary and Joseph until the birth of the Child, difficulties also experienced by the educational community in recent weeks, as a way of living Advent in the CCC, “On the way to Christmas”.
At the time of the offertory, symbolically, each class delegate and/or sub-delegate placed near the Altar some food from their respective class baskets, as, in recent weeks, a food collection campaign was carried out at CIC to help needy families in our community – This is Christmas! – The more human we are, the closer we are to God.
At the end of the celebration, at the different exits of the Pavilion, hundreds of messages were written by the students on posters, a sign that the Gospel was welcomed within each one; however, the journey does not end at the Crib, as it did not end for Mary and Joseph, the journey continues and challenges us to a transformation – let us allow ourselves to be transformed by the Love of God who became Man in the Child who is born.
Towards the end of the celebration, there was a moment of Community Prayer, and we challenged all families to do the same this Christmas, because in a society that is fragile, the world needs us to be “signs of a New Humanity”.
As António Marto, Bishop of Leiria-Fátima, said these days in his message for Christmas 2021, “Christian Christmas cannot be reduced to a social feast. It must be lived as the feast of the Son of God, who came to bring to mankind the tenderness and peace of God, fraternity and joy for all”.
