Vocation discernment of one Salesian religious vocation
in two forms?
By VIE province formation team
HCM City, Vietnam, 30 May 2018 -- Also Vietnam-Mongolia province is preparing for the 7th EAO Salesian Brother Congress. In Vietnam and Mongolia there are 60 Salesian Brothers and another 18 Salesian Brothers from Vietnam are missionary ad gentes in all five continents. Knowing the highly clerical spirit of society and Catholic Church in Vietnam, many are asking, how is possible to foster the Salesian Lay Consecrated vocation in this environment. Also this year there are 23 novices in Ba Thon (VIE novitiate in Ho Chi Minh City) and some of them would become a Salesian Brother.
An interesting and deep insight in the dynamics of Salesian Brother or Priest discernment offers this sharing of one former Directors of Novices:
"From my personal experience, with personal talks and contacts, I came to the conviction that the best way for promotion to the Salesian Brother vocation is the presence of the Brothers, especially of the Brothers who are able to offer the teachings on the consecrated and the Salesian life and give spiritual direction. I looked for occasions to let all the novices to contact with the Brothers not only in my community. And as a result, I saw them impressed and attracted by some figures.
All these mean we need the Salesian Brothers working in the houses of formation, not only in organizing but also formative role. Very often the Brothers play a role as one who serves or helps the priests in manual works, or simply cares for meals and economic aspects, and the sensation is they can not work in a high education. So concretely, for us, province of Vietnam, we have plenty of Brothers, I desire their role be emphasized in the pre-novitiate and novitiate, where the future Salesians would get the primary ideas of probably choice of Brotherhood or Priesthood.
One year, our province has received from God a precious gift of 6 brothers among 15 newly professed. I deeply thank God for this gift - task as Novice-master responsibility. I feel consoled and I see in this the blessing from God... I was so happy seeing among the novices there were 8 who expressed in public the intention to become Salesian Brothers. Short time after, I heard that one of them decided to abandon this idea. I knew he loved this vocation very much, but under the pressure from the family, he gave it up. Months later when the novices presented the applications for the first profession, I was happy again because among the novices, there was another one with joy has chosen to join “the team of Brothers”.
Seeing the hesitation of the novices in deciding and the vacillation they suffered after making decision, my mind couldn’t be at rest. I said to myself: “When my turn come, how I can, as novice master, make the novices convinced of their vocation and help the future novices overcome such obstacles? I have no experience to help them!”
Looking for a good way of vocational accompaniment - promotion:
- At the end of the first month I gave a conference on the Salesian life with two dimensions, both are essential for the Salesian identity. I introduced to the novices the early times of our Congregation when the idea of the apostle for the young was predominant in Don Bosco’s mind and how God, through the intercession of the Blessed Mary, have indicated him to found the Congregation with the consecrated who could be priests, clerics and lays. I invited the novices to think, to pray and let me know their choice on the feast of Don Bosco.
- In the third month I invited a priest, who in our province is called “salesian researcher”, studious on Salesian themes, to give a seminar on the theme: why, at present, our Congregation pay a special attention to the vocational promotion, in particular that of brother. The conference was concentrated on the Salesian identity which is in certain sense, forgotten, or distorted with the declining numbers of Salesian brothers, because both priests and brothers are essential for our identity. This talk was a good occasion for all the novices to get a deeper comprehension about the Salesian brother and to have conviction that the brothers are not in any sense less Salesian than priests, and in choosing to be brother doesn’t mean because they can not become priests.
- In preparation for the feast of our Blessed Artemide Zatti, I had them read the spiritual readings about the holy lives of the Salesian brothers, we celebrated the Mass in solemn manner and we organised a ‘Congressino’ on Artemide Zatti in which all the novices had to deepen together the Salesian brother identity
- During the year, from time to time, in different conferences, we treated on the essential complementariety in the Salesian life between priests and brothers, in daily life and in the mission. As educators, the brothers are not inferior to the priests. As Salesian, living the proper charism in the Church, the future salesians have to free themselves from any clerical mentality in every form that would still remain among the people, and perhaps even among the religious... The accent must be on the lay aspect that they live in Salesian consecrated vocation. For example, Brothers have more facility to be more deeply and effectively involved in youth realities and the young feel at ease to talk with a person who is a lay as they are."
Thanks to God, since the early moments of my first year as novice master I recognized the positive signs in some novices for brotherhood. In the first weeks of the novitiate, they asked me if they could become Salesian brothers and if this vocation would be suitable to them. I told them: you should pray and you will know God’s call. Then I did pray to the Lord to guide me so I might be His effective instrument. I paid more attention to those who had tendency to this vocation. I looked for a way to foster these vocations. And here briefly is what was done:
In his turn one of the newly professed Salesian Brothers shared years ago in these terms:
"I must confess that, for those who choose to be brothers, they face the social pressure (family or Catholic community), therefore there are few who choose this way of life. I accept the consequences of this state of life implies. I am ready to receive what would happen as the cross that a lay consecrated person might carry, I believe because as St. Paul said, 'my grace is enough for you'. But my deep conviction now is the result of vocational accompaniment. I was able to discern more clearly and made me sure of my choice. As to me, the novice master first should pay a special attention to foster this vocation, then should explain well about the particularity of this vocation. In the novitiate I was impressed with the conferences on the brother identity and its essential role in the life of our Congregation. I chose this vocation not because of vocational brother promotion in the Congregation, but of my personal conviction.
I love this vocation, I feel this vocation is for me!"
