New Chapel and Girls' Oratory at Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara, CA

New Chapel
With much anticipation, we received our new tabernacle during the first week of February! It was through the generosity of many benefactors over the past two years that our chapel was refurnished with a new floor, fresh paint, a monstrance, a beautiful tabernacle, and a Saint Joseph statue. When the sisters returned in December 2006 from the Third Order pilgrimage to Mexico, they also brought back a beautiful crucifix for our chapel. A couple days after the tabernacle was installed, Father Walter Mallo brought the Blessed Sacrament for us, and also blessed the tabernacle, crucifix, and monstrance. Our latest edition came to us all the way from Ecuador! Through the generosity of a sculptor in Ecuador, we received a beautifully painted wooden Saint Joseph statue! We pray for all the intentions of our benefactors and ask God to bless them abundantly for their generosity.

Girls' Oratory
Since the beginning of September, the girls’ oratory at Our Lady of Peace has been steadily increasing in number and activities! Every Friday night from 6-8PM, anywhere from ten to fourteen girls, aged twelve to seventeen, come to the Family Learning Center for prayer, pizza, and games. The traditional schedule is to first make pizza and set the table, then a short talk, followed by games, and lastly a pizza party. We close the night with a song to Our Lady. We completed our first service project in December by visiting a local nursing home and singing Christmas carols for the elderly. It was an adventure reaching the nursing home due to rush hour traffic, but through it all, the girls manifested their joy by singing and having fun in the car. Our more recent addition to the schedule is that on first Fridays we take away some of our time for games to pray the Holy Rosary and make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. Our plans now are to present a play on the life of Saint Bernadette for the feast of the Annunciation. We pray for the fruit of the girls’ oratory that through the intercession of Saint Bernadette and Saint John Bosco, our girls will be closer to Jesus and His Most Holy Mother.