Organizing a company Christmas Party is a big task to accomplish year after year for an HR practitioner like me.  Committees of various responsibilities need to be reminded, assisted and monitored about the status of their respective tasks.

This year, I requested Ms. Malou Domingo, our company’s Marketing Manager to deliver the Opening Prayer for LJC Restaurant Group’s Support Service Christmas Party.  When the party was on-going, I personally asked Malou for a copy of what she has prepared because I was impressed by what she has composed and rendered for the group.

I personally believe that the Opening Prayer is one of the most vital parts of any social gathering since it is a spiritual yearning for the awareness of God’s presence during the course of the revelry.  The prayer was unadorned yet grateful, pleasing, appreciative and sincere. It moved me!

Here is the simple yet pure and remarkable invocation written by Malou…

“We thank You Lord for gathering us today.

We thank You most of all for giving us a reason to celebrate each year…

… a chance to reunite with friends and co-workers,

… a chance to enjoy each other’s company

… and a chance to reconcile and to leave the past behind

so that we may look forward

to better working relationships in the coming year

2010 has generally been a good year for all of us

and we thank you for the blessings you have given.

There were setbacks yes

but we trust that these are only ways for You

to open up new doors and new opportunities for us.

Bless our gathering today and bless this place

and bless each and everyone and our families as well.

We will soon welcome a new year and we will step into it

with full trust in You who makes all good things possible.

Bless us with joy, peace, good health, prosperity

and most of all wisdom to know how to attain all these.

To You be Glory forever, Amen.”

And when I absorbed what Malou has said and I said my Amen, I knew that the party will be fun and will be a success.  And it definitely was!

Isang malaking palakpak sa ‘yo Ms. Malou!