SJC School News

Our CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION DAY AT SJC on the day after the musical was also a great day. The Holy Name Society arranged for Santa to visit all the classes. Mrs. Hernandez, Ms. Peck, Mrs. Shiu, and the Third Grade led us in a beautiful Advent Prayer Service. Mr. Jon Manongdo (Mrs. Manongdo’s husband) is a talented musician and youth minister at a parish in Fremont. He joined us to serve as our music minister, and we all enjoyed his joyful and exuberant songleading. We presented and blessed our Advent Reach-Out donations (totaling about $2,750 !!!) to Our Lady of Refuge Parish in the Santee area of San Jose. Thank you for your support of this project.

We also thank all of the SJC families who participated in the Family-to-Family Reach-Out Project for families in the Santee area. Senora Lopez and SJC families delivered Christmas presents to the children of this area on December 17. Your generosity made a huge difference in the lives of many deserving children. We thank you.

Read our other posts about our Advent Reach-Out Project below:

[Advent Reach-Out Project: Our Lady of Refuge - Week 2 Update]

[Advent Reach-Out Project: Our Lady of Refuge]

We are continuing our ADVENT JOURNEY here at SJC as we move into the second week of Advent. We have a tradition of participating in child-centered reach-out projects during Advent and Lent. This Advent we are focusing on a very special reach-out project, one in which the Catholic families of a lower income area in San Jose will be welcomed into a new church being provided by the Diocese of San Jose. The completion of this church is being funded by a special building campaign. We at SJC School, want to offer our support to this project, so that the children of the Santee area can have a church to attend every Sunday just like we do.

The new parish will be called Our Lady of Refuge, in honor of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The term, “refuge,” communicates safety and protection, a perfect image for Our Blessed Mother and for all mothers, as they gather their children into their arms, keeping them safe from harm. Mrs. Hernandez has been in touch with the pastor of Our Lady of Refuge, and he is so touched that our community is reaching out to the children of his parish in this way. Mrs. Hernandez is preparing a slide show so our children can see how this Advent Reach-Out Project will make a huge difference in the lives of children who have so much less than we do. Please spend some time speaking to your child about this project, and encourage him/her to give generously.

The “adult” campaign for this project was conducted during the Sundays of late October and early November. If you did not get a chance to donate during this time, but would now like to do so, please feel free to send in any donations with your children. You can make the check out to SJC or to the Diocese of San Jose/Our Lady of Refuge.

[Advent Reach-Out Project: Our Lady of Refuge]

Each Advent, we sponsor an Advent Reach-Out Project. This Advent we are reaching out to our local church and we are supporting the efforts of our Diocese to open a new parish in the Santee area of San Jose. For years, SJC has reached out to the people of this area by supporting the Family-to-Family Reach-Out Project for Misión Guadalupana in Santee (a project initiated by Sister Dorothy from SJC and Sister Guadalupe from the Misión). SJC families reach out to Santee families and provide Christmas and Easter gifts for their children. These families have now received the “Good News” from our Diocese that a new church will be opened to serve them, Our Lady of Refuge Parish. We would like to continue our support of these families by joining in this building project. We will invite students (and families) to offer donations to the Our Lady of Refuge Building Project during the Advent season. This act of unselfishness will help us to prepare for the birth of Jesus.