Began the Consecrated life with Don Bosco ‘s Charism like Jeremias

By Gia Thi, SDB

Bathon, Vietnam, 14 August 2016 -- On Sunday August 14, twenty new confreres did their first profession to be the Salesians of Don Bosco at Ba Thon church. Ba Thon is a Salesian community of VIE Province with the novitiate and a parish of which the community is now in charge.

Presiding the Mass was Fr. Joseph Quang, the Provincial, with the concelebration of Fr. Jos Am, vice-provincial, and about 60 Salesian and diocesan priests. There were also the parents, relatives, benefactors and friends of the new professeds and a good number of Ba Thôn parishioners. The total number was over 1.000.

To begin the Mass, Father Provincial asked everybody to pray much for the new professeds. They had spent a period of 4 years as the aspirants, 1 year as the postulants and one year in the novitiate under the guidance of Fr Jos Le ngoc Anh, the novice master, to make the discernment of the Salesian vocation. A group of 13 new novices of this year 2016-2017 was in charge of the liturgical animation of the mass.

In the homily, Father Provincial explained the meaning of the 1st reading and focused on the courage of Jeremias in fulfilling the mission entrusted by God. The Prophet was chosen by God with a special mission: Standing against the whole nation, against the kings, the priests and the people of Judes. The prophet’s life was attached with all important events of Judes. He carried out his mission with strong courage and was always faithful to God’s plan. He bravely proclaimed prophetic message, talking about the coming calamities caused by their sins. From these ideas, Fr Joseph invited the new professeds to be generous and courageous like the Prophet in following Don Bosco and in living Salesian mission entrusted to them by God. Such courage asked our confreres to be the ‘Man of God’, ready to be self-giving and always bring love to the young men.

After the ceremony of profession, each new confrere received a book of Constitutions and Regulations (new 3rd version) from Father Provincial as a sign of belonging to our Congregation.

Before ending the Mass, one new professed said some words in the name of the professeds to express their gratitude to Fr. Provincial and to those who had accompanied them on the journey of Salesian vocation.

Father Joseph Nguyen van Quang, on behalf of the Province also said thank you to new professeds’ parents and to all those present in the mass. He repeated Don Bosco’s promise: “He who generously donated his son to the Lord will get Jesus in his family, replacing his son.”

The mass ended at 11.30 AM. Everyone enjoyed the agape party and a short live musical performance of the new novices and new professeds.

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ENTERING THE NOVITIATE: 13 Young men to follow Don Bosco

Bathon, Vietnam, 14 August 2016 -- Last Saturday at 5:00 PM, Fr. Joseph Nguyen Van Am, Vice-provincial of VIE province presided the mass of receiving 13 new novices at the chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at Ba thon Noviciate.

To the annual tradition of the noviciate in Viet Nam, the ceremony of reception of the new novices usually happens in the evening mass, one day before the day of the first profession of the current novices. The Rectors of Ba Thon, Cau Bong, Dalat and all the salesian priests of Ba Thon community concelebrated the mass.

In the homily, Fr. Joseph talked about the important role of the religious formation, especially the formation in the noviciate. He invited the new novices to open their hearts and to entrust themselves to the directions and the accompaniment of the novice master and to other formators as well; above all, they had to let Jesus help them to be transformed with the inspiration and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the noviciate, those who knew how to build up the intimate union with Jesus and entrusted their lives to Him, would always be happy and found the deep motivation in following Jesus and in living Don Bosco’s charism.

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