“Today, you are being asked to become new wine!”

Written by KOR SocCom

Jeonglim-dong, Daejeon, Korea, 21 January 2025 -- “New wine must be put into new wineskins. To choose a new wineskin is to exercise the courage to overcome comfort. It is not easy to stretch the comfortable in our daily lives, but as long as we remain in old habits and stick to familiar spaces, we will not be able to enjoy the abundance of new life in Christ.” These were the words of Fr Marcello Baek, Provincial Superior, in his homily at a Mass in Jeonglim-dong, Daejeon, with the participation of more than 60 people including SDBs, FMA, Cooperators, young people, and Benefactors.

The Mass, which began at 10:30 a.m. on 20 January, was a sacrament of thanksgiving with a blessing of the newly renovated Jeonglim-dong novitiate community building.

The building was built in 1992, and over the course of more than 30 years, it has deteriorated significantly, causing various inconveniences and difficulties in terms of structure and function, so the building has been undergoing major improvements since last summer, and was finally blessed that day.

The new building, which is decorated in a bright white color scheme, makes people's hearts light up from the moment they enter, especially the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, the eternal landlord who welcomes them with a hug as soon as they enter the entrance. A replica of a mural in the chapel of the Sacro Cuore community in Rome fills the front facing the altar, and the relics of the saints (St Andrea Kim Dae-gun, St John Bosco, St Artimides Zatti, Blessed Philipp Rinaldi, and Blessed Bariara), who are enshrined in the front of the altar, explain the true new wine that this house contains.

Currently home to 8 Salesians, including two novices and the novice director, it is truly a religious house where the entire community lives, prays and works together, not only in the novitiate but also in the Salesian Education and Pastoral Center and Don Bosco House, the home for some disadvantaged youth.

“Thanks to your prayers and help, we have a new, comfortable and beautiful house, and we thank God and everyone who has given us such a good place, and we will repay that love by creating a loving fraternal community, giving our lives to the children, and working together to help each other grow into good Salesians,” said Fr Felix Wee, rector of the community as well novice director, at the end of the Mass.

“We can liken it to entering a new home, to being put into a new wineskin. Today you are asked to become new wine, not just in form or in words, but to become new wine that is truly Christian and religious life that connects the awakening of conversion to action,” said the Provincial, who concluded his homily with the exhortation, ”As new wine in new wineskins, may all the members of the Jeonglim-dong community spread the rich fragrance of Christ, whose brilliant light will lighten and delight the hearts of all.

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