To You - My Friends

D B L, sss

To you - my friends,

It is cold and windy outside. Montreal’s winter is kind of weird this year.  As I sit in my room, looking outside my window, the street is quite empty... What would one expect in this kind of weather?  More than that, what would one expect when it is Christmas Eve 2003? Yes, I am writing you this letter during Christmas Eve, when everything is calm and peaceful, when every heart is longing to love and to be loved. We prepare ourselves many weeks in advance to search the best gifts for those we love. When we find them, we hope that they will love our gifts; and beyond, we hope they see that underneath all those material gifts lies the greatest gift of all: love, a love we give and wish to share.

As this letter is written, I was alone in my room. I know this is the time for gathering among the family members, among the ones we love to be with, among the friends we care for... Well, with all the festive celebrations going on everywhere, I am here, alone, and what can you say? It is Christmas Eve, and I’m just all by myself in a room. Well, you may ask why don’t I go out, be with someone, do something I would usually do on Christmas Eve?  To be honest with you, I would say I did plan and my plan did not work out. Yet, I still treasure everything that happened so I take the time to reflect on some of the experiences I had for the past year...

1. The first retreat of the year - Denmark and the lost journal.

Have you ever written any journal in your life? Have you ever reread the thoughts you have for things happened in your life that somehow shaped up who you are today? I have been doing this for so long and I have always enjoyed it. Talking about writing journal, I remember the journal I once lost... and what hurts the most was to lose what I have written there. So my friend, I would like to share with you the story of the lost journal. 

On the flight going to Europe on 16 Feb 2003, a long flight, I couldn’t sleep at all. So I started on my new journal, the one I’d received as a gift from someone dear to me, with a quote from Act 1: 8: “You will be my witnesses”. I reflected and meditated on how I could be witness to our Lord, just as Ignatius of Loyola put himself as he stood in front of a cross with three questions on his mind:

1. What have I done for Christ in this world?
2. What am I doing now?
3. And above all, what should I do?

I wrote pages after pages: my own experiences, my thoughts, my reflections, but most of all, my encounter with all of you on my journey in the retreats and among many things you had shared in person or through emails. I wrote many pages reflecting on everything in my life, starting with the first retreat of the year in Denmark.  However, the worst thing happened! I lost that journal on my flight back on March 10 2003.  That journal captured all of what was “me” in those pages during 3 weeks in Europe. On the flight back from Europe I opened my journal and read it slowly as many flashbacks from the retreats in Denmark and Belgium came to my mind. And I lost it after that. Now what is left are only memories in my heart. Yes, what have been written and lost are only words; what rest imprinted in my heart and mind are the people with the desire to search for God and fulfill His will in every small things that they have done in their lives. I lost that journal and I am still sad when I think about it, but what I keep in my heart is a treasure that nothing can erase because it is the footprint of love in my life. As I thought of it, I can see there is an analogy with my lost journal and the word of God in my daily life. You see, everyday the word of God helps me to see that I am a treasure in God’s eyes if I let the word of God become my flesh; it will be alive! So I wish every one of us could take the resolution (like what we always do, like people always ask us) of the New Year’s arrival: “each day I will grow deeper in my relationship with God by His word”. Yes, wisdom is gained every time the Bible is opened.

Well, I say to myself now, “Not bad for the lost journal!”

2. The Stations of the Cross

Those who were in the retreats with me over the past years certainly remember the Stations of the Cross by an “antique” projector. Yes, I still remember the retreat in New Orleans in 2001 when we ran like crazy to search for the machine to run the slides and we ended up with nothing. We tried to project the slides by the overhead and we had a good laugh from our “supernatural high-tech man” with this craziest idea. When things went wrong like that, you see, we could do nothing but to laugh at ourselves and accept our limit. However, this year, good things happened when I learned there is a program that can capture all the pictures I wanted. The thought of using the PowerPoint to create the presentation for the Stations of the Cross came to my mind. Well, I started asking people to help me learn how PowerPoint works. The long nights trying to figure out how I can import the picture and texts were the price I had to pay.  I slowly began the Stations of the Cross by myself.  When I was done with mostly everything, I showed it to some youths and old folks from our DH family here in Montreal. Some feed back: “You did a wonderful job cha Long BUT (ahh... wouldn’t it be much better if life is without the BUT word!) it would be better if ...you would love the PowerPoint with an upgrade Microsoft XP, it gives you more features, etc...” and so it went on and on.  Now, reaching to the final version, with gratitude, I would like to express my THANK YOU to everyone who direct and indirectly helped to make this project a wonderful project. I know that many people will benefit from it. As for myself, I’ve learned to work together and be humble to listen to all the suggestions made and see the outcome of it: Awesome!!!

While this project was going on, we came to our pastor in our local church to explain what we wished to do as a service to our community. First, our intention was to do it for the young people, only with the objective of working together with different church youth groups such as: the choir, the Youth Eucharistic Movement, and the young-at-hearts as well. Secondly, we wish that by doing so, we could make our contact to the young people.  The date was set. The time came. We went to the meeting with all the youth groups expecting a few questions. We did prepare for everything unexpected. I was kind of surprised to see how our pastor here welcomed the idea with an open heart and he offered us to share the Stations of the Cross for the whole parish on Good Friday, instead of with only the youth. How wonderful the new was to us, but at the same time, we felt like we were not reaching our objective. Despite all that, we said to ourselves, “we do not perform a spectacle to amuse people, but we hope this Station of the Cross can help people to get in touch with the passion of our Lord Jesus.” So we continued the journey with lots of hard works from everyone in different areas such as: setting up, reading, music, microphone system, technical tasks... The Dong Hanh family in Montreal was there, working together, young and adults, supporting one another side by side on this journey. How wonderful to see the sense of a community in mission.

The Stations of the Cross went so well. The church was packed. The spirit was there, guiding the people and calling them to pray. When everything was over, our pastor came to us, gave us a hand to clean up, and thanked each one of us.  What surprised us more is that he asked us to share the Stations of the Cross again next year. Deo Gratias!

3. October Feast - Ban Phục Vụ retreat

I knew the term “October Feast” from Germany, Munchen, to be exact, where million litters of famous beer from different parts of the country are drunk, and where millions of people gather to celebrate. But that was in Germany, and here I was in Virginia, celebrating my October Feast with Ban Phục Vụ Phong Trào, in which all the people from different parts of the country get together here, to taste the LOVE and celebrate the CALL to follow Christ in different ministries that we are called to serve. But what was it really mean to be here? I believe there are no other words that could express it better than a passage from Saint John: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.  It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.  This I command you: love one another.” (Jn 15: 14-17).

How wonderful it was to be there in Virginia during autumn? New England fall was so beautiful, and it was more wonderful because we gathered with our Dong Hanh Family members, those who have the heart and mind to serve one another with COMPASSION. Moreover, in this gathering, we had the presence of Ms. Lois Campell, the president of CLC - USA (Christian Life Community). I have heard a lot about her from our ex-president, anh Phạm Hữu Quang, and other people as well. I learned more about Ms. Campell and the council of CLC � USA from our present president, A. Lê Thanh Liêm, when he returned from the meeting with CLC � USA in New York last July. What I have seen and felt from Ms. Campell was her open-mind and the friendly welcome of CLC-USA for our movement. What I saw is the embrace of understanding and of loving. Now, I have met Ms. Campell in person, a simple woman, yet, very passionate; humble, and yet, visionary.

There were 40 people who attended Ban Phục Vụ retreat. The gathering was a great opportunity to open our hearts and share with one another the joy, the happiness, the concerns, and questions.  Over all, I believe this was the opportunity to experience the community in search for the best way to serve one another.

What captured my attention was the presence of some young adults from different regions: Northeast, Midwest, and Canada. With an open heart and spirit filled with love, they came here to experience what we called a family reunion. Somehow, I could feel that they are the living force from our family.

Looking forward to the New Year with an attitude of hope: one resolution.

Sunday 4 Jan 2004

The New Year is four days old already. How do I see the journey ahead with Phong Trào? It would be blessed for me to share with you all a part of myself. The reading of Saint Matthew for the feast of Epiphany somehow brought my attention to some different verbs in the Gospel.  The three verbs that I found most important and may serve as a guideline for us are: Searching, Finding, and Worshipping.  Somehow, I thought they capturre all of our Christian lives.

You see, we always have the custom to take some resolutions at the beginning of a year. With these resolutions we hope that our lives would be much better in the year to come. I wonder if we could add this resolution to our list: Every morning I choose to love. By choosing to love, I do need to follow Christ closely in order to understand what is love and in order to experience love myself. What does it mean to follow Christ closely for us in the world today? How can we follow Him? There are many ways to follow Christ, and as we choose to live the Spirituality of Saint Ignatius as our way of living our lives, we can learn from him what it means to follow Christ: “to follow the Lord means wanting to know Him better, to love Him more intensely, and to follow Him more closely in His mission (SpEx 104)”.

In November 2003, when I met our present President Lê Thanh Liêm, in a serious tone, he asked me, “Cha, I know that for over years you have contributed to our movement by your work among the youths and now we want to ask you to be the chaplain for the Youth Ministry officially. So, what do you think cha?” I paused for a moment and said to him: “Anh Liêm, give me sometime to discern about it before I decide to respond to this new service”. Well, that was a way to gain some time for me to see in which ways I can collaborate more.

December 2003, after a time of discerning, I decided to respond to this call to serve. As I said yes to this call, I began to hope and dream toward this annotation: “The Spiritual Exercises have to be adapted to the dispositions of the persons who wish to receive them, that is, to their age, education or ability, in order not to give to one who is uneducated or of little intelligence things he cannot easily bear and profit by” (annotation 18). By this hope and dream, I wish that during this year we can come up with a program to help each youth group discover the vocation of CLC as it is said in the vision of a CLC member: “The desire to follow Jesus Christ, sharing His lifestyle and mission, moves me to participate in the Christian Life Community as my particular vocation within the Church. In this apostolic community, we discern together the will of God for me and for us, according to the Spiritual Exercises and the criteria suggested by St. Ignatius. I wish to make this apostolic discernment with a competent and compassionate openness to the world, in deep communion with the Church. I expect the Community to send me in mission, supporting me and evaluating with me in a spirit of mutual and shared responsibility.  In all circumstances of my daily life as a lay person, with my family, and in my work, I wish to live fully the mission that the apostolic body of CLC has entrusted me, understanding it as my participation in the mission of Jesus Christ.”

To you my friend,

I would like to end this letter with a prayer. But before I write my prayer, I remember some of you came and asked me, “What is the center point of prayer?” I always responded with a simple sentence, “The center point of prayer is dwelling in God’s soul and let Him transform you as He wishes.”  May be some of you can understand what I meant when I said that, maybe some of you just walk away and wonder what I really meant. So let me tell you a story I found, it’s so cute when you need to speak about prayer. I remember this story came from one of the preacher for my congregation during our annual retreat:

There was a young man praying.  Suddenly during his contemplation time, the Lord came, stood in front of him and asked him: “I see that you are holding too many things in your hand. Would you mind if I take a little bit away?” The young man answered: “Sure you can. You can take anything you want”. The Lord took something out and left him there. Later on, when the young man was about to finish his prayer, the Lord again appeared in front of him and said: “Would you mind if I put something else in your hand to fulfill the empty spot I took away before?” The young man answered: “Of course you may”.

What did the Lord take away? And what did the Lord put back to fill the empty space? Do you know? The preacher just told us the story and let us figure out by ourselves the story.

So here we are, let us pray this prayer:

“Accept, O Lord, and treat as Your own my liberty, my understanding, and all of my will. All that I am and all that I have, You gave and give to start; now I turn and return all to You, looking to find Your hopes and will in all. Keep giving me Your life-giving gaze, and I neither need nor want anything else”. (St. Ignatius of Loyola)

Looking forward to see each one of you. Happy New Year and may God bless each one of you with His love.

DBLsss