July 13th was celebrated in a novel way at Auxilium Convent High School Lonavla this year. The Corona virus kept everyone homebound yet it could not dampen the spirit of our celebration of the feast of St Mary Mazzarello. Sr Sheela Furtado, the headmistress declared a holiday from online classes. The stage was set for a virtual celebration. Std VIII, IX and X and XII celebrated in the morning while the V, VI and VII celebrated in the afternoon. A prayer service was sent to all teachers on the school whatsapp group and an online meeting was held in order to plan the celebration .Each class teacher scheduled a meeting time given to her class.
The school Sisters Srs. Sheela, Sangeeta, Shobha ,Rexella and Shanti put in a lot of effort . The videos and songs were operated online by the Sisters with their respective classes allotted to them. The teachers conducted the prayer service in collaboration with the sister assigned to their class. It was a prayerful experience. Students were silent and maintained a prayerful disposition. After the prayer service, there was a short video on the life of St Mary Mazzarello. Sr Sheela also spoke to the classes via online video. She expressed her joy at being able to connect online with students and parents at home. She spoke about the virtues of our Foundress and extolled her example of reaching out to the suffering people even risking her own health and well-being. Sr Sheela ended by extending warm wishes to all the teachers and students.
Technology does come to our rescue enabling us to connect with the Salesian Family. “Be cheerful even in these hard times” resounded as a feast day message from Sr Sheela. The Primary students were also wished in their respective whatsapp groups. We are sure that St Mary Mazzarello showered down her blessings on all of us here in Lonavla and everywhere.