12 Gifts of Christmas for Marawi

Misa de Gallo is one of the faith moving tradition that we Catholic Filipinos have. It is the time, that most if not all churches, are overflowing with Mass goers with the desire of completing the 9 consecutive dawn masses (whatever reasons they have) which culminates with our Christmas Eve mass. This tradition is an opportunity for us to deepen the faith of our people from merely “ritualistic” worship to a holistic act of gratitude to the Lord. Thus, with the need of our local church to get involve in Duyog Marawi, we propose to integrate this campaign in our Misa de Gallo so as to link our worship with our action.

12 Gifts of Christmas is a campaign that every parish is encouraged to do in the Archdiocese of Davao. We will motivate our faithful to be concerned with the plight of our brethren in Marawi. We need to raise 600 packs for the Community of Balindog and the Christian Minority Families who were affected by the war. The parish will gather a number of gifts packs based from the recommended list. Our strategy is that in every Misa de Gallo until Christmas Eve mass and 2 masses during Chistmas day, (whether in Parish churches, GKKs or other areas) we will have 1 gift or more to be offered during the mass. Thus after Christmas, each parish will gather the desired number of Gift Packs.

Each gift pack contains the following:

• 20 kg of Rice
• 1 kg Brown Sugar
• 1 kg Salt
• 1 kg Monggo
• 1 liter Cooking Oil
• *Add on if you want (Black Coffee, Milk, Milo)

This will be given as a support to each family for a month. On December 28, 2017, we will deliver the gifts to San Pablo Parish Pavillion for the final packing. On January 4-5, 2018 will be the distribution of the gifts in Balindong Marawi.

These food packs will not be given as Relief Assistance but more of a support to the main effort of Duyog Marawi which is Community Peace Building. These will be Gifts of “good will” coming from us who also believe in Peace Dialogue as a means to obtain lasting peace in our communities.

Let us see this as an occasion given by the Lord to us to attain the desire of New Evangelization by merging worship and action as an expression of our Faith. Let us convey the message — “Sa Pasko na ito, nakasimba ka na! nakatulong ka pa!”