We considered ourselves deeply privileged to attend Simbang Gabi, the series of nine masses that is an essential part of a Filipino Christmas.

Our lovely MsJ invited us and so we popped along to the theatre in our local international school that had been set up for mass, as it is every weekend, and packed with devout Filipinas, mainly women and mainly domestic helpers which is the norm in this part of the world. We appeared to be the only “employers” there.

The young priest gave his homily in English, rather than Tagalog, which surprised me, and tuned into to the daily concerns of his audience, asking them to be devout and find meaning in their lives of cleaning and shopping. He admonished them about the dangers of gossip on social media and that true inner happiness does not entail posting a cleavage selfie on Facebook.

Apparently if you attend all nine masses your wishes will come true, and a Christmas tree had been installed with handwritten wish cards, that the priest blessed at the end of the service.

Filipine culture is renowned throughout Asia for its love of singing and, there was a lot of it in this service. Though I didn’t know any of the songs – curiously they seemed to be in the style of the seventies, which made me wonder what people sang before then – and I have no religious faith, I felt so happy to be accepted into this intimate community event.