Share Your Bread

Phạm An Nhàn

Greetings from the Show-Me State!  Hope these lines find you well - energized by the spirit of the Easter Season and the vitality of springtime.

My name is Phạm An Nhàn.  I am in my fourth year of formation with the Jesuits (Dòng Tên).  Cha Long and chị Hường recently invited me to be part of the Young Companions’ Corner.  Having long wanted to contribute to Đồng Hành, I gladly accepted the invitation.  So here I am.  Perhaps the best way to introduce myself is to share a piece of my life - a bit of my “bread,” you might say - with you.  This will then be followed by a brief explanation about this new column.

Born in Saigon in 1972, I am the fourth child - and the only boy - of five children.  Although life after 1975 was hard, I was fortunate to enjoy a fun-filled childhood.  Some years ago, we came to the United States and settled in Minneapolis.  I studied biology (pre-medical curriculum) at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.  Those four years of college was easy; the difficulty came when I felt stirred to explore religious life.  Upon graduation (and not sure what I wanted), I spent a year working as a volunteer among the mentally handicapped of L’Arche.  The initial spark of interest in consecrated life seemed to gain more impetus as I was gradually introduced to Ignatian spirituality and the Jesuits.  The constant restlessness I felt a year ago was gradually yielding to a newly found peace and zeal of living a radical life as a Jesuit.  So I joined the Jesuits in the fall of 1997.  And it has been a wonderful journey.

There you have it - my life journey in a nutshell.  I hope that as time goes on, we’ll get to know each other more.

Now, what about this “new column” I mentioned earlier?

This column is called Share Your Bread, which captures well its purpose.  This column is for all of us to share our faith, our stories with each other.  The general format of the column consists of a topic or a theme focusing especially on faith and other issues that are relevant to you.  As a start, I will offer my brief reflection of the topic.  The bulk of the column will consist of a reflection done by one of YOU, who will be called witnesses.  I have always found personal witnesses touching and invaluable in my own spiritual life.  Putting forth Share Your Bread, I hope we can all share and benefit from the richness of each others journey of faith.

Since I have already done my “reflection” above, I will save my topic-focused reflection for next time.  For now, it is my pleasure to introduce our first witness.  She is Anh Thu (Annie) from New Jersey.  I’d like to thank Annie for writing this reflection on such short notice.  Her reflection is on her Easter Triduum experience - indeed most appropriate for this time.  I hope this reflection adds much to our lives during this blessed season.  God bless!