Graceful Day

 

Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog! In today’s post, I’m going to share about the Saint Mary’s Way activities that took place some time ago. Happy reading!

A while ago, my school held a co-curricular activity called Saint Mary’s Way. This activity aims to deepen our Catholic faith and encourage us to share love and kindness with others. The SMW activities were carried out in groups, and each group had different objectives. Some joined the school choir, the parish choir, visited orphanages or nursing homes, taught Sunday school, and many other activities. As for me, I chose to join the school choir. Why did I choose the school choir? Because many of my friends are in the choir, and most of them also selected this activity, so I felt more comfortable joining the school choir.

My group consisted of  9 people from different classes some from 9.1 and others from 9.3. My group members were Filia, Jovita, Maria, Dewa, Rachel, Priscil, Putri, and Mika. We were assigned to serve as choir singers at Kamuning Church and Melania Church. We started practicing from Monday to Friday, a full week of practice, because we would be serving at Kamuning Church on Sunday at 7:30 AM. Thank God, our practices went smoothly, and we were able to serve well during the mass.

Actually, we were scheduled to serve for two weeks first at Kamuning and then at Melania. However, due to several obstacles, most of us couldn’t join the service at Melania except for Dewa. Some of us had to attend the Confirmation retreat, while others had different commitments they couldn’t miss.

After the choir service was done, it didn’t mean that SMW was over. We still had several tasks to complete, including preparing our group presentation for our classmates and parents. Once we finished our choir duties, our group started working on the activity report, which took us around 2–3 days to complete. After the report was done, we divided roles for the presentation. On Thursday, one day before the presentation, all ninth graders practiced presenting in the school hall. Unfortunately, our group did not get a chance to rehearse because time ran out, so we had to present spontaneously the next day.

The next day, on Friday, October 17, 2025, we finally carried out the presentation. Sadly, our group received a rather late time slot, so we felt a bit bored waiting for our turn. Thankfully, when it was finally our time to present, we were able to do it confidently without feeling too nervous. We were proud because we delivered a good presentation in front of our classmates and parents.

After the presentation, the SMW activities were almost finished. There was only one more task left: making and decorating our personal reflections about our SMW experience. These reflections would later be displayed on the school bulletin boards to inspire the seventh and eighth graders. Once we completed our reflections, the SMW program officially came to an end. This wasn’t my first time serving in a church choir, as I had served multiple times before, but it was my first time singing at Kamuning Church since I usually served at Odilia Church. I felt very happy to be able to serve at Kamuning with friends and teachers, and especially to perform well during the mass.

Before I end my story, I want to explain a little about why my school held the SMW program. This program was created to replace the previous year’s P5 project. Since P5 no longer exists this year, SMW became the replacement activity. The purpose is to encourage students to share love with others and strengthen our Catholic faith. It also serves as a way for ninth graders to practice and embody the values of Mother Mary, the protector of our school. SMW activities weren’t only about acts of service they also included learning outside the classroom, also known as outings or learning visits.

Some may wonder what about the seventh and eighth graders. Their SMW activities were different. While ninth graders presented their church activities to parents and students, seventh and eighth graders participated in PERJUSA (Friday–Saturday Camp). Although PERJUSA is originally a scouting activity, it became part of SMW this year to replace P5. The activities for ninth graders were made different because ninth graders are expected to be role models for the younger students and encourage them to live out Mother Mary’s values and be active in church activities.

That was my experience participating in Saint Mary’s Way and presenting it in front of many people. I truly consider this as one of my valuable experiences because I was able to serve God. Thank you for reading, and see you again in my next blog post!