austraLasia #2809 A Seminar for SDBs in perpetual vows
[Late news: There is one Salesian
community in New Zealand, but located in Auckland. The
earthquake which has devastated Christchurch, killing 65
people, but possibly others as the search goes on, is in
the South Island, far from Auckland. But pretty much all
of New Zealand is a constant earthquake/tsunami zone. One
never knows....]
DAEJEON: 22 February 2011 -- Korea Province has a
tradition whereby confreres in perpetual vows come together
for reflection for two days. This year, given the
construction of a new youth centre building in Daejeon, some
60 confreres in perpetual vows came together there.
As is customary for these seminars, the
event began with a reading of the Strenna commentary for
this year, already translated into Korean, followed by an
interpretation by Bro Hilario Seo who was responsible for
the translation. His presentation made it easier for the
confreres to follow such topics as, returning to Don Bosco,
vocational culture, vocation animation and proposal. During
his address he also presented results from research carried
out by 37 young people who had taken part in a vocations
gathering, a regular occasion in the country, which he
compared with the results from 87 boys who live in Salsian
facilities. This gave the Province some idea of the extent
to which they have been capable of creating a culture of
vocations and offering proposals to young people living with
them.
In particular, this was the first time
that everyone was able to see and understand the DVD
presentation of the Strenna (created by Missioni Don Bosco
under the direction of Fr Donato lacedonio, from RMG) with
subtitles in Korean, thanks to efforts of Don Bosco Media in
Seoul.
In the evening the confreres relaxed,
sharing fraternally in an 'academy' which ended with the
good night from the provincial, Fr Stephen Nam.spoke of
'memorable' confreres who have lived their entire lives in
outstanding fidelity to the Lord, and to Don Bosco.
In this vein he spoke of Fr John
Lee, who died in January 2010, and who was a missionary to
Sudan for 8 years in his capacity especially as a doctor.
The documentary film entitled 'Don't cry Tonj', has
had enormous success in Korea and has been watched by an
estimated 10 million people, very many of whom have claimed
that it has been a deeply moving experience. Some have
admitted that it has moved them to seek holiness, just as
John obviously did. Fr Nam urged his confreres to
'tell the story' of Salesian lives like John to young
people, and be proud of our vocation with Don Bosco in order
to make them more fascinated.
In the morning of the second day, there
were addresses from two Salesians particularly involved in
vocation ministry: Fr Bernard Lee is responsible for SYM,
and Fr Bonaventure Kim is Delegate for vocation promotion.
Each community represented then took up these ideas and
looked at how they might put them into practice locally.
The seminar ended with a Eucharistic
Celebration.
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