On Saturday March 28, the youth of Dalat deanery hold 12th traditional meeting at Don Rua community with the topic “Make your heart firm”, based on the Lent message 2015 of Holy Father.

About 800 young people came from various parishes, groups of students, apostolic groups and religious communities in the deanery. The schedule consisted of 3 parts : presenting the exhortation Gaudium Evangelii, celebrating Palm Sunday Mass, and praying activities with the topic on Jesus Christ’s salvation.

At 4:15 PM, the program began with motivating dances of young boys and girls. They were the groups of DonBosco aspirants, of Holy Mother association, of Taize movements..

At 4:45 PM, Fr.Gregorian Nguyen phu An Dong, in charge of the deanery youth, had some words to open the 12th youth meeting at Dalat. After that, Fr. Dominic Nguyen van Manh introduced briefly the main points of the exhortation Gaudium Evangelii together with the Lent Message 2015 of Holy Father. Also he showed concretly some places where the people carried out effectively in actions the contents of the exhortation : Dilinh lepers village, Tanung orphanage, Baoloc disables shelter, blinds home and some other places, in order to display concrete examples for the young to imitate and share more concern.

Then, Fr. Paul Le duc Huan, the Vicar General, in the name of Diocesan Bishop celebrated Palm Sunday mass. At first, he called all to pray for the Bishop, not being able to be there because of illness. In the homily, Fr. Paul recalled the meaning of the event Jesus entering Jerusalem to carry out the salvation plan. He was the new Pascha who brought us new life. At the end of the mass, the president of the youth had some words to express gratitude to the Bishop, to Fr Vicar General, to all concelebrating priests. He also thanked Fr Thomas Do kim Long, Rector of DonRua community for warmly welcoming them and genorously opening the house for them to hold this youth meeting, on the occasion of 200th anniversary of DonBosco’s birthday. He thanked also everyone who took part in the day meeting.

During the mass, the youth had nearly $240 as collection to help the poor in the very far areas of the diocese. This sharing was the response to the call of Holy Father and also of the diocesan bishop throughout the lent season : “We can express the charity sharing to the poor, via charity organizations of the Church. The lent is the most appropriate time for us to do this, although our contribution is small and humble.”

After the supper in the evening, the convoking praying activies began, with focus on meditation about Rosary. The participants were from the parishes in the deanery : Du sinh, Chinh toa, Minh giao, Thanh mau, from Trinh vuong community and DonBosco aspirants. The stage was full of various and attractive lights to convey the impressive love of Christ for the mankind, particularly for the young. Some evoking thoughts intervented after each scene to help praying.

Befor closing the youth meeting day, Fr Paul Quach quoc Binh, parish priest of DonBosco Dalat, had together with all the young a short prayer, all gave blessing of God to all.

The young boys and girls went back home with joy and promised to carry out the mission of evangelization.