SHARING FROM COMMUNITY-TALLER TAN BINH, VIETNAM

RECIE, SSJ. GIANG, SSJ (Junior), THIET, SSJ (Junior) & VICKY, SSJ

FOUNDATION DAY, January 10, 2020 (NOVITIATE DAY)

Heeding the call of Pope Francis “… GO TO THE PERIPHERY…” our community decided to go out in order to seek the least and those considered the last in our society- the poor.

In view of this, we celebrated the 146 Years of the Foundation Day of our Congregation- SIERVAS DE SAN JOSE here in Vietnam last January 10, 2020, with a simple gesture of love and concern for our less fortunate brothers and sisters in our vicinity: the beggars, the lame, the blind, the widows and the orphans. In order to raise some funds for this purpose, we went out for Caroling last Christmas. We visited some of our friends and benefactors to gather funds to augment our money for the poor. Through their generosity and support our outreach activity became a reality. We were able to raise enough money to buy goods for the poor for this TET holiday season (Chinese New Year).

Giang (SSJ junior), our aspirant Soa & our searchers 
Vu and Thu ready for the visit and sharing

A woman worker selling sweepstakes ticket
along the street of Saigon

A widow and her child sick of encephalitis 
with Thiet (SSJ junior)

a lame with Huong, our searcher

a mother and her daughter with Giang,ssj

With our aspirant Soa and searchers Huong  and Thu

Our encounter with them stirred in us mercy and compassion. We talked to them with so much concern and solicitude. We listened to their stories of struggles, of their faith and trust in God amidst their sufferings, in a gesture of nearness and solidarity.

At 6:00 PM, we celebrated the Holy Eucharist as our thanksgiving to the Lord for these fruitful years and blessings He unceasingly showers upon each one of us especially for the gift of our Founders Fr. Francisco Xavier Butinya, SJ and St. Bonifacia Rodriguez Castro. The simple and solemn mass which was presided by Fr. Ryan Jimenez  of the Rogationist Fathers was attended by our searchers, Huong and Thu together with Phoung,our young Vietnamese junior who came with her brother to grace the occasion.

our two searchers with Soa (aspirant)

SEARCHERS IMMERSION IN THE COMMUNITY & ADVANCED CELEBRATION OF TET (Chinese New Year)

Our searchers Thu, Huong and Vu stayed with us for 3 days (January 10-12) for community experience of our life and mission. 

On January 11, our community celebrated in advance our Tet festivities with barbecue party (roast party) of fish, meat and root crops. A toast of drinks with loud cheers is an important part of the Vietnamese party.  

Then we ended that day with the Vietnamese tradition of giving Tet Lixi ( lucky money in an envelope ) to the younger ones. 

Giang, Thu,  Huong,  Soa,  Thuy, and Recie joyfully received lixi. 

A very touching  moment of this Vietnamese tradition is  when each younger member of the family gives her Tet ( New Year’s ) message to the elderly ones.

Our aspirant Soa giving her Tet ( New Year ) message

Our searcher Thu giving her Tet (New Year) message

ACTIVITY WITH THE MIGRANT WORKERS

Last January 12, 2020, C-T Tan Binh, Vietnam joined the Year End party of the Migrant workers at St. Paul Parish in Binh Tan District to say good bye to the Past Year and to welcome the New Year which is commonly known as TET/ Lunar New Year. This event is the highlight of the tradition in the country to welcome New Year together with their families and to remember all their loved ones and beloved dead. These migrant workers who work in the nearby industrial zone are involved in some Parish organizations and activities and have been active for a long time since they were gathered and organized by a Diocesan Religious Congregation who gave them formation sessions and spiritual accompaniment. Due to the transfer of the Sister-in-charge to another place, for almost two years now, the group đid not have formation sessions and eventually dispersed. In order to realize our community project which is to make our Charism visible and transmit it to women workers in Ho Chi Minh City, we started contacting them and eventually we were able to connect with them.

We took the initiative to work with these workers and had the first session in mid of October 2019. Since then, the regular meetings for formation sessions and spiritual nourishment continued. We have once- a-month session with them and our presence became a sign of hope for all. They are happy with the efforts and time we are extending for them. 

We present to you some photos of our encounter with migrant workers last October, 2019. It was Thiet (SSJ junior) who facilitated the session.

Photos of our celebration with the migrant workers last January 12, 2020:

Picture taking for the good memories of bonding and friendship

The joy of being together in our journey

the workers giving us gifts as their gesture of gratitude

We hope that in the near future, more members would join the group to enable us SSJ to  share our Charism with a greater number of men and women workers in Vietnam.