Stations of the Cross

I posted on this page the different versions of the Stations of the Cross that we used at my parish. The Lent 2007 is an adaptation, bilingual with slideshow and music accompaniment. The Lent 2008 is a shortened version, putting together by Class Vào Đời II, with a skit for each station. The third one was used by the Salesian January Leadership Retreat in 2007.

ABOVE ALL - TÌNH CAO SÂU

by Michael W. Smith

Verse 1
Above all powers, Above all kings
Above all nature, And all created things
Above all wisdom, And all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

Verse 2
Above all kingdoms, Above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what You're worth

CHORUS
Crucified, laid behind the stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall, and thought of me
Above all.







TÌNH CAO SÂU

Vượt quyền quý cao sang, quyền thần thế gian
Vượt ngàn kiếp sinh linh, trên hết muôn dân trần hoàng.
Ngài từ xưa đó đã có trước khi trời đất
Ôi, quyền năng Thiên Chúa có ai sánh bằng.

Một lời Chúa ban ra, thì liền có ngay
Mặt trời, ánh sao đêm, muôn thú cá chim từng bầy.
Người từ bụi đất, Chúa thổi hơi ban sự sống
Ôi, tình yêu Thiên Chúa, ôi sao tuyệt vời

Trên thập giá, Ngài chịu chết đau thương
Chịu chôn huyệt đá, trời đen khóc thê lương
Sống kiếp người đắng cay hay khổ đau
Chúa không e ngại, vì yêu đoàn con
Tình cao sâu.

SANCTUARY

Lord, prepare me
To be sanctuary
Pure and holy
Tried and true.

With thanksgiving
I'll be a living
Sanctuary
For you.





My translation:

Ước mong một đời
Làm nhan thánh Chúa Trời
Được trong trắng mãi
Được yêu chẳng phai.

Đếm ơn mọi ngày
Tình yêu Chúa thắp đầy
Nguyện xin hát khúc
Cám ơn Ngài.

THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU

Chorus:

There is none like you
No one else could touch my heart like you do
I could search for all eternity long, and find:
There is none like you.






My translation of the Chorus:

Có ai bằng Chúa đâu
Ai yêu con thiết tha, chạm hồn con thẳm sâu?
Con có kiếm muôn nơi trọn đời, nhưng vẫn là chân lý:
Có ai bằng Chúa đâu.

in preparing for DHNS - notes

Be Deeply Rooted so to be Far Reaching


I'm actually so happy when reading Long's email about some suggested themes for the next DHNS MDN. It is clear there are two themes they want to incorporate, and the reason I'm so happy is because these are the two very essential aspects of the identity of a member of TNTT, or even for any Catholic at all.

1 - Coming back to our root which is the Eucharist
2 - Reaching out to others through service, thus the awareness of the mission work led by cha Thong and cha Chuong

These are the two movements that a person goes through over his/her growing up. There are points in their life, the only way for them to reach the, so called, "spiritual being," or God, is through service: doing good deeds for others. There are also other points when they feel that the only way to reach God is through deep praying and worshiping. There is nothing wrong with either approach, but too much of one while lacking the other only reflects a spiritual life that is not yet wholesome: that person will continue sensing something missing in their life.

Is there a starting point: prayer first or service first? There may be several different points of view on this question, but in my experience, it really depends on the developmental stage of a person or an age group in a social context. For younger people, they may be at the stage when it is harder to grasp the spiritual as something one can communicate through prayer. They need something concrete. They also need to be able to "feel" what they are doing, and feel that what they are doing is really going somewhere. For groups of people who are more experienced in life, especially spiritual life, who are more capable of abstract thinking, and who are more able to reach the conviction that God does exist in the things that human can't touch or feel, they may be more likely to find God's presence through their praying and worshiping.

The important thing to remember is, however, that it doesn't matter where we start, we have to keep moving. The moment we think we have reached your destination in spiritual life, our spiritual life is dead. It has to keep leading us to the deeper and deeper levels. Meeting God through prayer and worship will purify our intention and and strengthen our charity, so we can serve people with a more unconditional love. Serving people with an unconditional love will lead us to a deeper conviction that we and our human family will forever need God who comes to satisfy our hearts' desire through prayer. The cycle keeps on to lead us to the deeper and deeper levels of reality.



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But for a Catholic, is that all: prayer and service? what makes us Catholic unique?

So we understand the role of prayer and worship and service in our spiritual life. What makes us Catholic unique from the rest is: more than prayer which is a human action, we have liturgy which is a divine action through human act.

--> Need to develop more on this thoughts

--> Maybe I can work on sketching or suggesting some applications for a Eucharistic way of life (spirituality)

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The four aspects of youth development = a suggested model for a youth convention


1. Human aspect: all the fun activities such as sports, competitions, games, community buildings, dramas, sight-seeing, youth rally (with the band)

2. The encounter with Jesus:
(a) the personal encounter: private prayer, adoration, praise & worship, faith-sharing sessions, quiet time for meditation, perpetual adoration (expose the Sacrament overnight with someone adoring all the time)
(b) the encounter within the Church: sacraments, liturgy

3. Membership in the Church community --> at this convention, it could be teaching NSs (and HTs) what it means to be a member of the Catholic Church: teachings about the Eucharist, for example ...

4. Mission: sent out to serve others --> raise awareness of cha Thong's and cha Chuong's mission works, I suggest some concrete plans and long term projects so the kids can go home and do it and do it for a long time.


================================================================================================
The Fourth Day: Now that we have fun at the Convention and all, what's next?

- Ongoing formation on the Eucharist:
* Nghia Si
* Huynh Truong (I think more important, since they will in turn lead Nghia Si, but it really depends on the condition of each Doan)

- Mission
Got to work w cha Chuong and cha Thong on this. Can we make a commitment? for how long? what involves?
--> get cha Chuong & cha Thong on board to plan for this before presenting the projects to NS

Four days until the Feast of John Bosco

"It is enough that you are young for me to love you." (St. John Bosco)

Considering the sensitivity of our time and our current situation, such saying could be misinterpreted, but for me it reveals the secret of JB's holiness that I am so drawn to.

- Unconditional love. You can compare notes with me: in any relationship at all, the more unconditional love exists, the more meaningful and fruitful that relationship will be, the longer that relationship will last. JB's love for the young creates saints at early age, creates rapport between him and his students that lasts beyond his life time and his geographical location. God is not mentioned in this quote, but if you're on the same page with JB, you'd understand this is the very good news that Jesus wants to communicate to everyone: it is enough ... for me to love you.

- "... that you are young ..." Face it, if you are an adult, loud noise, rowdiness, spontaneity, immaturity, carelessness, etc ... are not something that you are naturally attracted to, unless you see it as the whole-package deal - you love the young, you love what comes with them. It doesn't mean you endore those traits; it only means you accept the young people in your life for who they are. What comes with young people is also the pure enthusiasm toward goodness in life, the passion that they seek for and instill in what they do, ... The late Pope John Paul II once said that young people were not the future but the present of the Church. JPII had the same heart that John Bosco had. If you embrace the goodness of the present moment, you will embrace the beauty of young people.


This saying of John Bosco is enough for me to work on for my whole life. I have to come to God regularly to ask for the grace that can purify my heart to love unconditionally; I have to learn the charity that enables me to accept people for who they are, then I believe the unconditional love of God will do the rest, whether it is through me or through anyone or anything else.


Watch movie about St. John Bosco on youtube

The joy of road trips

A couple close friends gathered at my house one night, and after having some food and drinks, one of us was crazy enough to come up with a suggestion to do a road trip, and the rest was crazy enough to enthusiastically support the suggestion. First we thought of going to Florida, which was at least 5 hours away, but then we decided on Savannah so it would be a little closer, 3.5 hours. One of the guys went back home to borrow his mom's van so eight of us could be in the same vehicle, and while doing so he also picked up another spontaneous guy. While waiting for the van to come pick us up at my house, some of us, including myself, started having second thought. Is this a good idea? One girl had a business meeting at 12 noon, and I had an appointment at 10 the next morning. All thoughts of common sense popped in our heads: the driving would be tiring, especially when it was at night; we would have nothing to do since the beach was closed at night, and no restaurants or other attractions would be open that early in the morning; the appointments that people had the next morning ... But since we had decided, and some were just too excited about the spontaneity, we just kept going with the plan.



We left my house at 1:30 in the morning. The middle bench was pulled out so there was more room for people to sit on the floor to play cards. The music was on and loud. Fun conversations were flying around. Typical fun stuffs of a road trip. But they didn't last too long since it was between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning, so one after the other eventually fell asleep.



At 4:45 am, we made it to the beach and we were dead tired. We walked around the beach, took some pictures, enjoyed the stars that became so clear in the total darkness of the sky and the beach. We also tried to walk in the water but since it was too cold we quit immediately. After less than an hour, we were on our way back, but not before being the first customers of the day to a local McDonald. Needless to say the general atmosphere in the van on the way back. There were only two drivers for the whole way, and the rest were sleeping. The business meeting had to be canceled, and my appointment was postponed. We made it back to my house at 10 am.

When saying goodbye, someone said through his yawning, "Well, it's been fun, but the next time you suggest something like this, I'll beat the crap out of you."

And everyone laughed, but their eyes were only half way open. Everyone was just too tired.



A pointless trip, some may say. Pure craziness, and pure youthfulness, all spontaneity. Seriously, seven hour driving in the night and early morning for less than an hour taking pictures in the dark, and having McDonald breakfast! Just pointless and crazy. Even I couldn't believe myself being part of this adventure.

But the value is in the road trip itself. It is in the "on the way," in the journey, in the process, more than in what to do once we reach the destination. We will continue talking about this crazy trip for a long time after the event. The next time any of us eight sees each other, it would take only a small reminder of the trip: Savannah, road trip, etc... for us to have a good conversation, "remember that night ...?"

I grew closer to my friends. We have one more shared experience. It doesn't matter what we got to do at the beach, we were together on the way there, and we were there together, ...

Being present to one another through it all, that is what it's all about.

Christmas 2008