by Rose Ampon for the NSW Women’s Office, 2 March 2024
Mary Mackillop Hall, St. Aidan’s Church, Rooty Hill
Â
The annual activity of the NSW Women’s Office organised by the Local Area Council sisters with the leadership of Sis Cay Cabrera was held last Saturday, the 2nd of March 2024. This activity always coincides with the global celebration of the International Women’s Day.  It was a well-attended affair, with 68 sisters from CFCA and HOLD present.
The afternoon’s activity was ably emceed by Sis Rona Redoblado. As with all CFCA activities, we started with a praise and worship led by Sis Doris Macahilig. We had a very inspiring speaker in the person of Sis Lyn Pangilinan. She spoke about the ‘Feminine Genius’, she shared excerpts from the final exhortation of St. John Paul II to women and she expounded on the four aspects of the feminine genius: receptivity, sensitivity, generosity and maternity. Snippets of her own life experiences made the one-hour go by so fast as everyone were all eyes and ears. After her talk we listened to the personal sharing of two strong women from our community, Sis Rhoda Santiago and Arlene Salinda.
After listening to the spiritually uplifting talk and sharing everyone had fun with the physically energising Zumba exercise, that was specially prepared by the sisters in the Macaraeg unit. There was also a surprise from the organisers with Sis Aster Aguirre giving gifts to lucky attendees. The fellowship that followed gave us time to catch up with other sisters from the other clusters all over NSW, even those who travelled all the way from Newcastle, about 165 km from the venue.
It was really an afternoon well-spent with our sisters in the community and all are looking forward to the next one.
