“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)
On 28th April, the Second Sunday of Easter also known as the Sunday of Divine Mercy, scholastics of the St. Joseph Jesuit Scholasticate of the Vietnam Province, who have just graduated in philosophical studies, organized programs to promote vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life for young people of Hanoi Parish (Xuân Lộc Diocese), and Châu Pha parish (Bà Rịa Diocese).
The vocation promotion program was facilitated by Fr Peter Pham Cong Tung, SJ, Minister of the Sacred Heart Novitiate. In his homily on John 20:19-31, Fr Tung SJ emphasized on Jesus’ Mercy. He explained why Jesus gave peace to His disciples 3 times and why Jesus let Thomas put his finger into the nail-marks and put his hand into Jesus’ side. Fr Tung ardently advised: “let’s love by the heart of God and fulfill His Love by each person’s hand.”
After the Mass in Hanoi, the program was continued with some warm-up activities such as, games, dances and songs to gather more than 1000 young people.
Through the presentation about Catholic vocations, the youths had a chance to understand deeply about the context of the Catholic Church, and the meanings of the vocations. Vocation is a call in which a person is invited to reflect on his/her desires or dreams to recognize what God is inviting him or her to do. During the program, many young people also raised their concerns on vocations such as, What is vocation? How many vocations are there in the Catholic Church? How can we realize that we are able to live in consecrated life? How can we distinguish a religious from a seminarian? And what should we do to find out a suitable congregation or to grow up in our vocation?
Also present during the program were some sisters of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ and the Daughters of the Heart of Mary. They used beautiful songs and joyful performances to introduce about their spiritualities.
The last part was a vocation Gameshow which helped participants easily and joyfully review the contents of the whole program. Before going home, each participant received beautiful gifts from the promoters such as, key-chains, bracelets and prayer cards, etc.
Hopefully, the Church will have more and more laborers working for the Lord's vineyard.
Pr. Nguyen Van Duong, SJ
The vocation promotion program was facilitated by Fr Peter Pham Cong Tung, SJ, Minister of the Sacred Heart Novitiate. In his homily on John 20:19-31, Fr Tung SJ emphasized on Jesus’ Mercy. He explained why Jesus gave peace to His disciples 3 times and why Jesus let Thomas put his finger into the nail-marks and put his hand into Jesus’ side. Fr Tung ardently advised: “let’s love by the heart of God and fulfill His Love by each person’s hand.”
After the Mass in Hanoi, the program was continued with some warm-up activities such as, games, dances and songs to gather more than 1000 young people.
Through the presentation about Catholic vocations, the youths had a chance to understand deeply about the context of the Catholic Church, and the meanings of the vocations. Vocation is a call in which a person is invited to reflect on his/her desires or dreams to recognize what God is inviting him or her to do. During the program, many young people also raised their concerns on vocations such as, What is vocation? How many vocations are there in the Catholic Church? How can we realize that we are able to live in consecrated life? How can we distinguish a religious from a seminarian? And what should we do to find out a suitable congregation or to grow up in our vocation?
Also present during the program were some sisters of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ and the Daughters of the Heart of Mary. They used beautiful songs and joyful performances to introduce about their spiritualities.
The last part was a vocation Gameshow which helped participants easily and joyfully review the contents of the whole program. Before going home, each participant received beautiful gifts from the promoters such as, key-chains, bracelets and prayer cards, etc.
Hopefully, the Church will have more and more laborers working for the Lord's vineyard.
Pr. Nguyen Van Duong, SJ 
