By Mr Lionel D’Souza for BISMumbai

The Sunday School children of St Dominic Savio Parish, Wadala East, celebrated Christmas with an outreach to the underprivileged children of the night study class, for the third consecutive year. These night classes take place from Monday to Friday in the parish for children that come from very humble backgrounds. On 18 December 2022, 128 children of the Sunday school from the second standard to the Confirmation batch, along with 14 Sunday school teachers, hosted 59 children and 4 teachers of the night study class.

After attending the 9.15 a.m. Eucharist, the Sunday School children assembled in the parish hall. The study class children and their teachers, were then ushered into the hall amidst thunderous applause.

The children then started playing the different fete games set up for them. Games like pushing the ball, threading the beads, shooting the cups and other games kept the children enthralled. After the games were done with, the study children were made to sit and the Sunday school children sat and spoke to them. Snacks were then served for one and all.

The Parish Priest, Fr Kenneth Pereira, addressed the gathering, focusing on the theme of Christmas sharing, and thanked the Sunday school teachers for taking up this initiative. In his talk, he spoke of how the feast of Christmas invites us to imitate Jesus who shared his grace with humanity. He exhorted the children to be generous in their daily lives: at homes, in the school and among friends.

As the programme came to an end, each of the study class children and their teachers was given a hamper containing some essential foodstuff and toiletries as a Christmas gift. The Sunday school children were also given a gift in return. Christmas music was played for the children. The study class teachers thanked the Sunday school teachers and children for this outreach.

Even without it being said explicitly, the message went across, that celebrating Christmas is not so much about having parties, but about ‘reaching out’ to the less fortunate ones, in imitation of God the Father, who reached out to humanity by sending us his Son as a baby born in Bethlehem.