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.
_________________
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 . RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2011 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
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.
_________________
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 . RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2011 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
