Fr. Tom Cassidy, SCJ, writes from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) where he is visiting with the formation community:
The study hall was turned into a chapel because our regular chapel was not large enough to welcome everyone for the feast-day Mass. Of course, this will all be rectified by next year’s celebration as work continues on the new chapel that will be done sometime before the end of the year. It certainly should have enough room for the entire district.
Our Mass for the feast was scheduled for 9:30 a.m., so it came as a bit of a surprise to me that our day still began with morning prayer (and Adoration) at 5:30 a.m. Apparently high days are no different from regular days — and I was looking forward to a little more sleep time!
Fr. Francis Vu Tran, SCJ, as the district superior, was our main celebrant. Though I didn’t count them I think there were about a dozen SCJ priests concelebrating. Though most days our Mass has been in English today it was in Vietnamese. To my foreign ear Vietnamese can be a beautiful language to listen to as, for example, when the congregation says the confiteor together it comes off almost as a song.
As part of our Mass we also had the renewal of vows of those in temporary vows, and two of the brothers were installed as Eucharistic Ministers. There were five brothers who renewed their vows in addition to the five who made their first profession last Thursday.
With photo opts taken care of it was time to dine! For today (as was also done for First Vows) a catering service was hired to provide the meal and service. We started with a beef dish, went from there to shrimp, to fish and vegetables cooked at the table and ended with some very delicious mango.
After the dinner everyone scattered to their rooms for a rest followed by a soccer match between Dehon I and Dehon II. For all it was a pleasant day and even Mother Nature held off her rains until the night time hours.
Happy Feast Day!
Walk with us! 