Thursday, February 24, 2022
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! Happy New Year!
Have
any of you ever celebrated Tết (Luna New
Year)? What would we, as Vietnamese Catholics, do during Tết? Let me tell you.
The first thing we do is to go to church to celebrate the meal
that Jesus is inviting us to. We receive blessings from God and the church, and after
that we receive blessings from our parents, grandparents, Godparents, and from
each person that we meet. We also go to
different houses to receive blessings and share meals with extended families,
friends, communities and more.
We are also ready to welcome
all friends and relatives that come to our home with blessings with plenty of
food and laugher. We practice being in
the present moment, being kind, helpful, happy, and being as loving and welcoming a person as possible during the New Year celebrations. We also pause everything and enjoy the
company around us.
Most of the blessings are received verbally and most of the time it is included in a red envelop with “ lucky money” called bao lì xì. The younger you are the more red envelopes you get. For my family, lots of us would start the blessing with, “last year, past”. “ New Year, coming”. "I wish, I bless, and/or I’m praying for you to be filled with God’s love, peace, longevity, happiness, joy, luck, ect…
And every first day of the New Year is a special Mass. The church would read the same Gospel from Mathew 6: 25-34, “…Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.” The main petition for this Mass focuses on praying for PEACE for ALL and reminding us to trust in the prominent power of God. We are encouraged to lean on God and to live in the present moment.
Being here in Chicago, I was fortunate to be able to attend a Vietnamese Mass and had a chance to celebrated Tết with the Vietnamese community at the Holy Child Jesus Parish and with the CDN and Hyde Park communities.
Every year, Tết reminds me of the many blessings I have received from God. It’s also a time to remind me to be more aware of living in the present, the importance to be at peace, and learning again to recognized God all around me. It’s a time to call me back to the table, the church, the community, the family. In addition, Tết reminds me of the welcoming and unlimited invitation to the Lord's Supper to each of us and especially for me. If Tết season is gone and as the days go by, I know for sure that I am always welcome at the Lord's Table and I can always receive many blessings there. The only thing the Lord requests is for me is to show up. And so, YOU ARE TOO!
Happy Tết! Happy Lunar New Year! Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!
Friday, February 11, 2022
Prayer: Lifting our hearts and minds to God
It is “only when we humbly
acknowledge that we do not know how to pray as we ought,”[1] that
we are “ready to receive freely the gift of prayer”.[2]
This describes my approach to prayer during the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate
(CDN). Prayer is an integral aspect of our Dominican life. It frames our day
and marks the ordinary as well as the extra-ordinary occasions in our communal
and private lives. During the past six (6) months of the novitiate, we have been
introduced to new and familiar forms of prayer (such as St. Dominic’s nine (9) ways
of prayer; Visio Divina and contemplative prayer). We have also been given opportunities
to lead prayer within our community as well as at other formation events (such
as, the inter-community novitiate programme).
Our prayer is truly enlivening. I especially enjoy praying the psalms through Dominican Praise; Lectio Divina; Visio Divina; Taizé prayer; St. Dominic’s nine (9) ways of prayer; praying through our senses; praying through movement; and praying utilizing art (for example, mandalas). Through prayer, I channel my hopes, cries, intentions, joys, petitions and even my doubts toward our loving God. Prayer is a sacred space in which I commune with God and others.
Left: Taizé prayer Right:
Altar of Remembrance for All Souls Day
I truly appreciate the consistent efforts that are made to ensure that prayer is inclusive. For example, it incorporates different languages, cultures and genders. Prayer thus tends to be representative of the diversity of those who gather. Inclusive prayer often draws me deeper into prayer and strengthens my bond with my prayer community. It is also a testimony of God’s love for all of creation.
Recently, we celebrated Tết (Lunar New Year) and invited some of the novices of the Hyde Park
community to join us for prayer, dinner and recreation. It was a truly beautiful
celebration. Women of many languages, ethnicities, ages and religious congregations
joined in one heart and mind to offer praise and thanks to God. We prayed;
chanted; shared on the readings; interceded for all of creation; and asked the
intercession of the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Dominic. This unity in prayer is lived out in other aspects of our lives and is a testimony
to the world that we are indeed one in Christ. In this way, like Dominic, we
preach our prayer.
It is indeed a gift to
commune with God and others. This gift of prayer carries great responsibility. God empowers
us to live that which we proclaim and believe in faith. I desire to go deeper
in prayer; to daily live out the prayer that the Holy Spirit places upon my
heart and mind; and to inspire others to do the same by God’s grace.
Lunar New Year Prayer and Celebration with Hyde Park
Novices
Thursday, February 3, 2022
Where Will my Journey Take Me?
"We walk by faith, not by sight" 2 Corinthians 5:7
Since arriving at the novitiate on August 14, 2021, I have physically journeyed 1,245 miles! How do I know that? Because my Fitbit tells me each day how many miles I walked on a given day. But how many more miles have I spiritually journeyed with God since arriving here at the CDN in August? And is there a spiritual Fitbit to measure that? Back to those questions a little later.
For those who know me, you may know I love to walk. But that wasn’t always the case. I grew into the practice of walking when I set my mind on becoming "healthier". I started by just walking around the block because that’s all I could do when I started on this walking journey four years ago. Little by little I began to enjoy being outside in nature walking. I began to understand how to see God's beauty in nature and how to love God’s creation. My love for walking really kicked in when I decided to train to walk the Way of St. James (the Camino) in Spain. I read Joyce Rupp’s book, “Walk in a Relaxed Manner: Life Lessons from the Camino” and it was then that I understood that walking could be a prayer and a spiritual journey as well.
One
of the reasons I believe I was attracted to the Dominican Order was because I
learned that St. Dominic used his many “walking journeys” as a time to “talk
with God and about God” to anyone he met on his journey. I felt a very strong connection to St.
Dominic’s way of journeying with prayer. This has now become a very important
practice in my daily prayer life here at the CDN. I get up at 5AM every morning
so that I can go out before community prayer to walk and talk with God. I call this my
“journeying with God” time.
I have come to treasure my time here at the CDN because it
gives me the space and time to (literally and spiritually) journey with God and more importantly, the
contemplative space to listen to what God is saying to me. My spiritual
journey is well on its way in some areas, but only just beginning in other
areas. So, my spiritual Fitbit is reminding me to keep up the journey with God
and to trust that God knows where God wants my journey to take me. I have a
great inner peace that I am on the right journey and that God is leading the
way. Here at the CDN, I have learned to trust what God is speaking to my heart,
especially as I track the spiritual miles that I spend walking and talking with God. Where will
God be taking you and your spiritual Fitbit today on your journey? Peace, Joy and Blessings for the Way.
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