Tam Ha-Thu Duc (Vietnam). On October 12, 2019, at the Provincial House of Tam Ha-Thu Duc, the missionary sector of Mary Help of Christians Province (VTN)celebrated Missionary Day to give the sisters and the young people the courage to go out towards the new peripheries of the city.
Together with the journey of the universal Church to live the Extraordinary Missionary Month! Urged by missionary ardor, the sisters and young people who represent the groups of the diverse communities met to enthuse the Province to work together to re-light the missionary spirit, so that it would catch fire and make the light of the Gospel shine forth. It is significant that, from the morning, we were all united in the Celebration of the Word and of the Eucharist to renew together the command of Jesus “to break the oil jar of our life” so that the Gospel perfume may shine everywhere. Fr. Jeronimo Nguyen Dinh Cong, Director of the Pontifical Missionary Church (PMS) in Vietnam, was present.
At the opening of the encounter, the Provincial, Sr. Rosa Vu Thi Kim Lien and Sr. Marta Hoang Thi Thuy shared some words with the sisters to reawaken the missionary identity of every Christian, especially of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, in the children of Don Bosco and of Mother Mazzarello.
This was followed by a presentation: “He is tall and banal – a missionary lesson from the Maximum Illud” by Fr. Jeronimo. We can summarize the content of the theme in these words: evangelization is truly a noble mission, but it tends to be trivialized when the disciple is only preoccupied with accomplishing the mission according to his will rather than according to the will of God.
In the Encyclical Maximum Illud, Pope Benedict XV emphasized that evangelization is the only mission of the Church, which is called to organize missionary activities through: prayer, the promotion of missionary vocations, and financial assistance. He introduced the Pontifical Missionary Church as an efficacious way to renew the work of evangelization. The thought of Maximum Illud was taken up by Pope Francis when he invited us to continue to reflect on the theme of ‘Baptized and sent’. Beginning with that reflection, the Pope today invites the believers to be courageous in the mission of evangelization.
The sharing continued in a dialogue between Fr. Jeronimo, the sisters, and the young people on the evangelizing actions that each one of them is carrying out and the opportunity to learn from the apostolic initiatives that were implemented to accomplish missionary activities that are increasingly according to the directives of the Church.
The meeting closed with a meaningful ritual of departure and a time of fraternity. After the greetings, everyone left with enthusiasm and renewed energy in the hope good harvests now await the harvesters of the Kingdom.
