austraLasia 1428
"Build the 'ban' with heart"! Thai Province 2006 slogan
HUA HIN: 4th February 2006 -- A word of explanation: 'ban' or perhaps more accurately in transliteration, 'baan' means 'home'. Fr Theparat Pitisant, Thai provincial marking his first year in office yesterday at Province Day celebrations in Hua Hin, well south of Bangkok, drew together in neat synthesis a number of inspirations which would nurture the slogan in the province for 2006: Benedict XVI's new 'ode to love', but especially the ten Saints he quoted, Don Bosco included, showing us how to love at the social level; the saints themselves who learned in prayer how to love God; Mamma Margaret, as Don Bosco's teacher of love; The Rector Major's most recent invitation to young people (cf www.sdb.org SYM message) 'to love is your vocation'. Fr Theparat brought all this together in a plea to confreres for 2006 to 'be a year for generating life, forgiveness, building community; a year of service; a year for loving our brothers and the young'.
The event was attended by 30 priests, 10 brothers, 7 young Salesians in formation, 5 postulants and 60 aspirants from Ban Nazareth and Hua Hin (including 10 diocesan minor seminarians from Surat Thani). That's about half of the province, and included several confreres from Cambodia. It included a special moment when the Hua Hin students and aspirants presented a moving drama of Mamma Margaret's ten years in Valdocco, from her 'call' at the Becchi, to her moment of irrevocable decision to stay despite the garden incident. The day also included some tangible signs of provincial solidarity as 'better off' communities offered material support for formation communities and the missionary outreach in the North - about which more later. Then the older Salesians took on the younger mob in a football match, and lost!
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
"Build the 'ban' with heart"! Thai Province 2006 slogan
HUA HIN: 4th February 2006 -- A word of explanation: 'ban' or perhaps more accurately in transliteration, 'baan' means 'home'. Fr Theparat Pitisant, Thai provincial marking his first year in office yesterday at Province Day celebrations in Hua Hin, well south of Bangkok, drew together in neat synthesis a number of inspirations which would nurture the slogan in the province for 2006: Benedict XVI's new 'ode to love', but especially the ten Saints he quoted, Don Bosco included, showing us how to love at the social level; the saints themselves who learned in prayer how to love God; Mamma Margaret, as Don Bosco's teacher of love; The Rector Major's most recent invitation to young people (cf www.sdb.org SYM message) 'to love is your vocation'. Fr Theparat brought all this together in a plea to confreres for 2006 to 'be a year for generating life, forgiveness, building community; a year of service; a year for loving our brothers and the young'.
The event was attended by 30 priests, 10 brothers, 7 young Salesians in formation, 5 postulants and 60 aspirants from Ban Nazareth and Hua Hin (including 10 diocesan minor seminarians from Surat Thani). That's about half of the province, and included several confreres from Cambodia. It included a special moment when the Hua Hin students and aspirants presented a moving drama of Mamma Margaret's ten years in Valdocco, from her 'call' at the Becchi, to her moment of irrevocable decision to stay despite the garden incident. The day also included some tangible signs of provincial solidarity as 'better off' communities offered material support for formation communities and the missionary outreach in the North - about which more later. Then the older Salesians took on the younger mob in a football match, and lost!
______________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
