Bro. Jean Paul Muller's good night talk
K’Long, Vietnam, 9 August 2018 -- The first day of the EAO Salesian Brother Congress was lived in a warm family spirit and constantly blowing wind and fresh rainy day in the 1100 meter altitude located retreat house of K'Long. Two 90 minutes sessions - one within the own province members and second with the mixed group participation offered a beautiful occasion for the personal storytelling and sharing.
Fr. Ivo Coelho succeed to present in very attractive way the personality of Venerable Simon Srugi, a true champion of dialogue of life with the believers of other religions during his life time in the Holy Land (1877-1943). Each of the present Salesian Brothers and Priest also received a simple souvenier with an image of Brother Srugi. Following province sharing offered the first chance to open to each other in his own language.
The third and last session of the day (3-5 PM) was the first Workshop spent in mixed groups with a task to digest and interpret the rich materials gathered during last one year: evaluation of each province journey, reflection on the two forms of Salesian religious vocation as well the variety of personal interviews. Each group secretary contributes to the Assembly sharing that will follow on the second day.
Finally the first evening was spent as 'Fellowship Night' with very colourful mixture of dances, songs, videos, sharing of souveniers from all 12 present provinces and was concluded after 10 PM with traditional 3 Hail Marys. Everybody especially appreciated the interactive dances and the special video presentation done by the Blessed Istvan Sandor inter-regional community for the specific formation of Brothers (FIN) fully present in the EAO Congress (Rector Fr. Arnold Sanico).
In his Good Night Talk Br. Jean Paul Muller shared the life story of St. Edith Stein, full of deep faith, life courage and tireless commitment as follower of Jesus in the most turbulent period of the 20th century. As his main concern the Economer General identified the courage to receive fully the not-so-comfortable question of the GC28 'What kind of Salesian Brother for the Youth of today?' Indeed this is also the theme of his already prepared talk that will be deliver on August 10 (Day 2). The handouts, full text and PPT presentation of his talk are available on the Boscolink.
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