Youthful energy filled the Jesuit scholasticate in Ho Chi Minh City as some 250 primary and secondary students from Xuân Lọc Diocese showed up for “Come and See (John 1:39),” a day dedicated to building friendships and promoting vocations to the Church, especially religious life.
Fr Francis Xavier Nguyễn Hai Tính SJ, Director of Saint Joseph Jesuit Scholasticate (SJJS), opened the event with a Mass concelebrated by Fr Francis Xavier Nguyễn Thanh Hùng SJ, Assistant to the Delegate for Formation, Fr Anthony Trần Khắc Bá SJ, Prefect of the Humanities and Philosophy Programme, and Fr Dominic Lê Văn Luận SJ, Treasurer of SJJS.
As it was Assumption Day, Fr Tính focused on the use of the word “queen” in Psalm 45: “At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.” He explained that “queen” does not only pertain to the Blessed Mother, who has been assumed into heaven, but also serves as a metaphor for the Church, of which the students are an integral part.
“You belong to the Church, dear students,” Fr Tính said. “You are the image of the Church that is young. When you gather and join to celebrate the Mass, you make the Church more glorious as gold of Ophir.”
After the Mass, the students gathered at the sports yard of SJJS, where they explored posters about the lives of the saints for a fun trivia game. Those who answered correctly received simple gifts, such as bracelets and keychains, produced as vocations-promotions materials.
Following these warm-up activities, the SJJS formands led the students on a tour of the campus. They visited the library, the study room, the vegetable garden, and the chapel. The most striking feature of the tour was the introduction to proper waste segregation, a response to Pope Francis’s call in his encyclical Laudato sì.
“Our efforts at education will be inadequate and ineffectual unless we strive to promote a new way of thinking about human beings, life, society, and our relationship with nature,” said the Holy Father in his encyclical. “Otherwise, the paradigm of consumerism will continue to advance, with the help of the media and the highly effective workings of the market.”
Over lunch, the students enjoyed song-and-dance presentations and listened to vocation stories from some Jesuit formands and women religious from different congregations in Vietnam, including the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Xuan Loc Diocese, the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Immaculate Mary, the Daughters of Mary Escolapias, and the Sisters-Disciples of Jesus in the Eucharist.
The occasion culminated shortly after lunchtime, allowing the students sufficient time to travel back to their homes before dusk.
Sch Trần Đặng Minh Ngọc, S.J. is in his third year of philosophy studies at SJJS. He comes from Đồng Nai Province and completed a baccalaureate in Logistics before joining the Jesuits.