North Viet Nam
By Fr. Kim Dien, SDB
Trai Gao, Vietnam, 25 January 2018 -– After a month of preparation, this morning of Jan 21, 2018 in Trai Gao Parish under the care of Salesians happily welcome 8 groups of altar boys from different parishes in Thai Binh diocese and other dioceses to come for the day of celebrating the feast day of St. John Bosco.
Following are the groups of altar boys: Quang Nap parish in Phat Diem diocese with 25 participants under the leadership of fr. J.B. Duong Hoai Duc, SDB; Duong A parish in Bui Chu diocese with 15 participants and accompanied by fr. John Tran Thanh Kim, SDB; and other 7 groups in Thai Binh diocese: Hoang Xa parish with 23, Bong Tien parish 24, An Lac parish 14, Doi Trach parish 12, Kinh Danh parish 8, Van Mon parish 18 accompanied by 5 Franciscans, and then 18 participants from the host parish of Trai Gao.
Before the Holy Mass, the media staff of Hoang Xa parish prepared media tools in order to broadcast “live” all the activities of the day to internet. At 9am, all the altar boys had a procession in honor of St. John Bosco around the church. After the procession, they had a Holy Mass with Fr. Lorence Nguyen Kim Dien, SDB presider together with other Salesians and diocesan priests.
Beginning of the Holy Mass Fr. Lawrence invited all the people to offer this Eucharist as a thanksgiving to God for giving us St. John Bosco as father, teacher, and great educator of youth, and he also invited all participants to pray for this day of gathering to be a happy and blessed day.
In his homily, the presider talked about different Saints as Ignatius, Francis of Assisi, and St. John Bosco as different models for us to become saint. He particularly encouraged the young to follow the example of St. John Bosco to become saint in serving God in holy joy.
After the Holy Eucharist, they had a very interesting and cheerful Don Bosco Quiz, with three steps of warming up, speeding, and getting destination. Finally, Van Mon parish became the champion team, Hoang Xa parish was the second runner, Kinh Danh the third place, and the fourth was Quang Nap.
After lunch, nine teams had football games together for the Don Bosco prize. After the whole afternoon for different tense and exciting football marches. Trai Gao parish boys became the champions, the second runner was Bong Tien parish, and the third place was Kinh Danh parish. Besides, all the teams attended to this friendship games happily received an encouraging prize.
Finally, before going home one of the participants delivered a thanksgiving words to all the organizers, and then Fr. J.B. Tran Van Hao, SDB gave them a short speech in order to inform them about next activities and also to invite them to become good sons of Don Bosco in serving others in love.
