Like every year at the end of November, the large hall of the Jaffa Convent is completely transformed to host the Christmas bazaar. This year, it will be open from 28th November to 7th December. This service allows the population, both Christian and non-Christian, to buy ornaments and Christmas objects such as cribs, candles, stars, trees etc.
The profits will then be divided into two parts: the first will subsidise part of the Sunday school activities, and the second is sent to Rome and placed in the basket of offerings from all the Christian communities in the world for the Pontifical Mission Society of Holy Childhood and supports the needs of children of the poorest Churches.
How did this activity start?
Here’s the story:
There has been a youth group, the Sunday School Leaders, in the Jaffa parish for many years. It was founded in 1989 by Fr. Abdel Masih, and was encouraged by the subsequent parish priest, Fr. Ibrahim Najib. The young people are pupils from the final years of high school and attend the Holy Land Secondary School.
In all these years they have served and still continue to serve the Christian children of Jaffa: the Latins (i.e. the Roman Catholics),the Orthodox, the Melkites, the Maronites, the Copts and Protestants. The activity is the normal activity of catechism and social activities for children, especially on Sundays and during the summer holidays, organizing school camps that are generally highly successful.
Since 2000, as National Director of the Pontifical Mission Society of Holy Childhood and then, since 2001, as the parish priest of Jaffa, I have tried to broaden the horizons of these young people putting some of them in contact with Rome, through the various missionary meetings held by Missionary Childhood in Italy and in other parts of Europe. My aim was to direct the great potential of elements of the Church of the Middle East towards a missionary action which for me, as for the rest of the Church, consists of “leaving the ghetto of one’s parish, religious and social community, the so-called TA’IFA in Arabic, to look towards the horizons of the universal mission, in the genuine meaning of bearing witness, because a Christian is the witness of Jesus before the whole world, especially exercising the service of charity. This idea is an integral part of the teachings of St. Francis.
This is all in the sincere conviction that our Christians, especially young people, rich in their historical experience of the church in the Holy Land, have something to say to the whole world. The Jaffa group of young people have broken down the barriers of TAI’FA, through the service and exercise of charity, in the first place towards the children of all the Christian churches of the Holy Land that are in a worse situation than theirs. This is followed by greater openness, through Missionary Childhood, to the whole world.
These young people have matured the experience of Jesus who is truly their friend and a fundamental part of their lives. Over the years, they have worked at projects such as :
1. South Africa: purchase of beds for a children’s hospital.
2. Liberia: supply of school furniture for children who have survived the war.
3. Bethlehem: purchase of hearing aids for the deaf and dumb.
4. Philippines: building a house for a poor family in the Philippines.
I am fond of recalling the last project which is very close to my heart: the preparation and sale of the 2009 calendar. The proceeds will be used to build a second house for another poor family of the Philippines through the GAWAD KALINGA plan of aid of the Couples for Christ prayer group, which is active in the parish of Jaffa. The first house was handed over in 2007. This is a sign of true love not only towards the families in the Philippines i.e. help for the real poor, but also a deep approach in Jesus between the Filipino community of Jaffa – thousands of foreign workers,. and the Arab Christian community, the mother church. It has been an attempt at parish communion through a project of sharing in charity. In Jesus, with Jesus and for Jesus, all the social and cultural barriers existing between the various ethnic groups are destroyed.
Since 2000, this young parish group of Jaffa has sent 90,482 shekel (more or less equivalent to US$23,200) needy people all over the world. As far as I know, this is an exceptional fact, considering the context of our youth.
I thank the Lord, the Secretary Father Patrick of the Pontifical Mission of Holy Childhood and all the friends of the Secretariat in Rome for the fraternal support given to Missionary Childhood here in Jaffa Tel Aviv. For me it is proof that even in the Holy Land, pilot projects of a living church can be carried out and that our young people can do miracles when they can see Jesus in the poor.
Peace and good and Happy Christmas.
Fr. Arturo Vasaturo ofm, Director of Missionary Childhood of the Holy Land
The profits will then be divided into two parts: the first will subsidise part of the Sunday school activities, and the second is sent to Rome and placed in the basket of offerings from all the Christian communities in the world for the Pontifical Mission Society of Holy Childhood and supports the needs of children of the poorest Churches.
How did this activity start?
Here’s the story:
There has been a youth group, the Sunday School Leaders, in the Jaffa parish for many years. It was founded in 1989 by Fr. Abdel Masih, and was encouraged by the subsequent parish priest, Fr. Ibrahim Najib. The young people are pupils from the final years of high school and attend the Holy Land Secondary School.
In all these years they have served and still continue to serve the Christian children of Jaffa: the Latins (i.e. the Roman Catholics),the Orthodox, the Melkites, the Maronites, the Copts and Protestants. The activity is the normal activity of catechism and social activities for children, especially on Sundays and during the summer holidays, organizing school camps that are generally highly successful.
Since 2000, as National Director of the Pontifical Mission Society of Holy Childhood and then, since 2001, as the parish priest of Jaffa, I have tried to broaden the horizons of these young people putting some of them in contact with Rome, through the various missionary meetings held by Missionary Childhood in Italy and in other parts of Europe. My aim was to direct the great potential of elements of the Church of the Middle East towards a missionary action which for me, as for the rest of the Church, consists of “leaving the ghetto of one’s parish, religious and social community, the so-called TA’IFA in Arabic, to look towards the horizons of the universal mission, in the genuine meaning of bearing witness, because a Christian is the witness of Jesus before the whole world, especially exercising the service of charity. This idea is an integral part of the teachings of St. Francis.
This is all in the sincere conviction that our Christians, especially young people, rich in their historical experience of the church in the Holy Land, have something to say to the whole world. The Jaffa group of young people have broken down the barriers of TAI’FA, through the service and exercise of charity, in the first place towards the children of all the Christian churches of the Holy Land that are in a worse situation than theirs. This is followed by greater openness, through Missionary Childhood, to the whole world.
These young people have matured the experience of Jesus who is truly their friend and a fundamental part of their lives. Over the years, they have worked at projects such as :
1. South Africa: purchase of beds for a children’s hospital.
2. Liberia: supply of school furniture for children who have survived the war.
3. Bethlehem: purchase of hearing aids for the deaf and dumb.
4. Philippines: building a house for a poor family in the Philippines.
I am fond of recalling the last project which is very close to my heart: the preparation and sale of the 2009 calendar. The proceeds will be used to build a second house for another poor family of the Philippines through the GAWAD KALINGA plan of aid of the Couples for Christ prayer group, which is active in the parish of Jaffa. The first house was handed over in 2007. This is a sign of true love not only towards the families in the Philippines i.e. help for the real poor, but also a deep approach in Jesus between the Filipino community of Jaffa – thousands of foreign workers,. and the Arab Christian community, the mother church. It has been an attempt at parish communion through a project of sharing in charity. In Jesus, with Jesus and for Jesus, all the social and cultural barriers existing between the various ethnic groups are destroyed.
Since 2000, this young parish group of Jaffa has sent 90,482 shekel (more or less equivalent to US$23,200) needy people all over the world. As far as I know, this is an exceptional fact, considering the context of our youth.
I thank the Lord, the Secretary Father Patrick of the Pontifical Mission of Holy Childhood and all the friends of the Secretariat in Rome for the fraternal support given to Missionary Childhood here in Jaffa Tel Aviv. For me it is proof that even in the Holy Land, pilot projects of a living church can be carried out and that our young people can do miracles when they can see Jesus in the poor.
Peace and good and Happy Christmas.
Fr. Arturo Vasaturo ofm, Director of Missionary Childhood of the Holy Land