Retreat for our Vietnamese students with John Mulrooney MSC

John Mulrooney writes from Vietnam.

Our Vietnamese students have been on annual retreat for the past week in Da Lat and will finish tomorrow just in time to start the next gathering/discernment previously reported on the website.

I have been journeying with them on retreat with Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis) as there is such a wealth of  his teaching available to us. We have reflected on God’s love for us; God’s mercy and forgiveness; what it might mean when we ‘live by holiness’; how we have been called and sent; the call to ecological conversion; the call to synodality and the power of love. We have shared stories of MSC who have gone before us and can inspire us to mission.

We have been up in the mountain area of Da Lat and it has been quite chilly and very wet as it is the rainy season. I had hoped to escape some of the Bowral winter while here but I think I brought it with me.

Our students are a wonderful group of young men. Although ‘young’ is a relative term as they are in their 30’s and one is already in his forties. They live very busy lives. Most have been on pastoral placement the past five weeks immediately after finishing studies in the seminary; one day back in Ho Chi Minh city and on the bus to Da Lat; as soon as we finish retreat they go straight into the discernment process with Khoi and his team. No rest for them at all.

We give thanks for each of them and the gifts they bring to our mission to be who God is in the world.

We also pray with them during the reflection time ahead.