EAO Good Night Talk (73)
Ho Chi Minh, April 1, 2020
Dear confreres,
friends and Salesian Family members!
This is my first
“Good Night Talk” as I pledge to continue the good tradition of my predecessor,
Fr. Vaclav Klement. He has left us a great treasure of his good-night speeches
during his terms as Regional Councillor and Councillor for Missions. I am still
digesting this “deposit of Salesian charism in action” in our EAO Region.
1- So far, as the
whole world has been impacted with the spread of the Covid-19, all domestic and
international travels are being stopped to fight for the control of the plague.
I am still being in the Provincial House of Vietnam and waiting for the Visa to
go to Rome in order to attend the first meeting of May 1, 2020. Meanwhile, Fr.
Klement is coaching me for the new responsibilities. I am very grateful for his
teaching-on-the job.
2- Back to their
countries, many of our participants of the CG28 have been quarantined or
distanced themselves for at least 2 weeks. Let us pray for them to be safe and
let us continue to pray for the people and the countries impacted with the
disease, in particular, as you know from the news of ANS, our Salesians, in
spain and members of the Salesian Family who passed away in these days. We join
our prayers and self-sacrifices with those of the whole Church for them.
3- At the same time,
we listen to the call of the Pope addressed to the General Chapter 28: Dream about Great Dream”. In fact, his
message to the Chapter has been considered by him as a “Good Night”: I wish to offer you these words as the “good night” in
every good Salesian house at the end of the day, inviting you to dream and to
have indeed great dreams.
The Pope knows so well the Salesian traditional Buona Notte as the educative and pastoral instrument used by Don
Bosco to accompany his confreres and boys. As the community members were completing
the day and they were going to bed, resting and having “sweet dreams”, Don
Bosco gave them “Buona Notte” as his
discernment, his reading of the current events of the society, of the Church, identifying
the wills of God through these and communicated them to his priests, clerics,
lay brothers and students. Many of them indeed went to bed with “big dreams”:
the growth of the Salesian Congregation and the Salesian Family as a movement
to save the young at risk.
Let us dream that God will protect us from all negative consequences of
the plague. Wherever we are, as sons and daughters of Don Bosco, let us
continue to sow the seed of hope and trust.
Yours in Don Bosco
Joseph Nguyen Thinh Phuoc SDB
EAO Regional Councillor
I wish to offer you these words as the “good nights” in every good Salesian house at the end of the day, inviting you to dream and to have indeed great dreams. Be assured that the rest will be given you in addition. Dream open houses, fruitful and evangelizing; homes that allow the Lord to manifest to many young people his unconditional love and allow you in return to enjoy the beauty to which you have been called. Do dream ... And not just for yourselves and for the good of the Congregation, but for all young people without strength, deprived of the light and comfort of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith that sustains them, devoid of a horizon of meaning and life (Ap. Exhort. Evangelii gaudium, 49). Do dream ... and make others dream as well!