austraLasia #2534
Michael Rua - not forgotten!
HONG KONG: 25 November 2010 -- It is certainly not China Province's fault that the item below is nearly a month old! No need to explain the delay as readers know this already. However, noting the hard copy of the English translation of Desramaut's book on Rua as it arrived today from Bangalore (and they have done a creditable printing job with it), and also having received a reminder from the HK Development Office that they have not as yet seen their article in print - here it is (word for word as provided)!
China Province has celebrated the centenary of the death of the first successor of Don Bosco, Blessed Michael Rua.
The celebration was divided into two groups: The Salesian Youth and the Salesian family .For the Salesian Youth Group, around one hundred teenagers participated in the celebration.
Fr. Antonio Leung led the opening prayer and shared a short film with the group which introduced blessed Michael Rua’s virtues and his loyalty to Don Bosco. After the film, there were some interesting games to let the teenagers think about the virtues and goodness of Don Rua and Don Bosco. At the end of the meeting, they took a group photo and attended the mass that followed.
For the Salesian family part, we invited Fr Simon Lam, Provincial of China Province to share the vocation, life, virtues and goodness of Don Rua. Fr. Provincial mentioned that the Salesian charism was passed on from Don Bosco to Don Rua. Don Rua paid special attention to missionary expeditions and sent Salesians all over the world. This was an important step of passing Don Bosco’s charism to the world. He emphasized that it was because of this transmission of the charism that we were now able to celebrate in the Salesian Family.
In the second part of the session, we invited Fr. Jo Jo and Fr. Edgar to share their missionary vocation. We understood that being a missionary is very difficult due to cultural, social and environmental differences that exist in the missions. They shared the reasons why they still had chosen to be missionaries. This was because they did not focus on difficulties but focused on the vocation from God. God’s grace will not let you down. Even difficulties are the graces of God. This reminded us to be more dependent on and faithful to God instead of our own ability. This was an example of the true servant of God.
Another inspiring sharing was that evangelization could be active or passive. Active evangelization was that we spread the good news through our words and works. On the other hand, the work of Jesus could also be revealed on those who tried their best to overcome physical handicap to attend mass everyday even under cold weather. This was a case of passive evangelization where no words or works of God had been proclaimed but you were touched by God through witnessing the person’s determination and perseverance.
After the session, all the participants were invited to join the Memorial Mass of Blessed Michael Rua.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2010 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
Michael Rua - not forgotten!
HONG KONG: 25 November 2010 -- It is certainly not China Province's fault that the item below is nearly a month old! No need to explain the delay as readers know this already. However, noting the hard copy of the English translation of Desramaut's book on Rua as it arrived today from Bangalore (and they have done a creditable printing job with it), and also having received a reminder from the HK Development Office that they have not as yet seen their article in print - here it is (word for word as provided)!
China Province has celebrated the centenary of the death of the first successor of Don Bosco, Blessed Michael Rua.
The celebration was divided into two groups: The Salesian Youth and the Salesian family .For the Salesian Youth Group, around one hundred teenagers participated in the celebration.
Fr. Antonio Leung led the opening prayer and shared a short film with the group which introduced blessed Michael Rua’s virtues and his loyalty to Don Bosco. After the film, there were some interesting games to let the teenagers think about the virtues and goodness of Don Rua and Don Bosco. At the end of the meeting, they took a group photo and attended the mass that followed.
For the Salesian family part, we invited Fr Simon Lam, Provincial of China Province to share the vocation, life, virtues and goodness of Don Rua. Fr. Provincial mentioned that the Salesian charism was passed on from Don Bosco to Don Rua. Don Rua paid special attention to missionary expeditions and sent Salesians all over the world. This was an important step of passing Don Bosco’s charism to the world. He emphasized that it was because of this transmission of the charism that we were now able to celebrate in the Salesian Family.
In the second part of the session, we invited Fr. Jo Jo and Fr. Edgar to share their missionary vocation. We understood that being a missionary is very difficult due to cultural, social and environmental differences that exist in the missions. They shared the reasons why they still had chosen to be missionaries. This was because they did not focus on difficulties but focused on the vocation from God. God’s grace will not let you down. Even difficulties are the graces of God. This reminded us to be more dependent on and faithful to God instead of our own ability. This was an example of the true servant of God.
Another inspiring sharing was that evangelization could be active or passive. Active evangelization was that we spread the good news through our words and works. On the other hand, the work of Jesus could also be revealed on those who tried their best to overcome physical handicap to attend mass everyday even under cold weather. This was a case of passive evangelization where no words or works of God had been proclaimed but you were touched by God through witnessing the person’s determination and perseverance.
After the session, all the participants were invited to join the Memorial Mass of Blessed Michael Rua.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2010 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
