Spiritual Bouquet Letter
Dear Chaplains, Assistant Chaplains, and VEYS Youth Group Leaders,
This past April, I had the opportunity to collaborate with other youth leaders in the LEVEL I youth leader training in Seattle before leaving for Rome. In the seminar, “Living in the Eucharist,” I asked the youth leaders, “Has anyone ever experience the sweet taste of love?” Has anyone ever loved, to have loved and be loved? I asked them to contemplate on the romantic loves they have experienced, to determine which of those loves to be the most beautiful memory. Most answered that their first love was the most beautiful and romantic memory.
If their first love is to be their most romantic love, the life of a Level I Youth Leader is also the first love they will experience and begin with Jesus Christ. They can learn how to love Jesus by Living in the Eucharist. They can come together with Jesus through their actions, by attending Mass and receiving the Holy Communion. They can show their love of Jesus through actions of sacrifice and apostolic work. They can whisper love words by the sincere words of prayer in their lives.
If our first love makes most of us anxious, then the life of a VEYS youth group leader is also the beginning of our anxious love with the Eucharist. For VEYS youth group leaders, they can face this anxiety by recording the love words they whisper in these pages; they can bestow on their lover the many sacrifices and gestures of goodwill in what we call a Spiritual Bouquet (Bó HoaThiêng).
Upon reflection, these young people are not the only ones who recognized the significance of their first love. I am one, who has once loved Jesus, to have said my vows with Him to become a leader in the Eucharistic Youth Society, and to say that I want to be in love, and be loved by Jesus Christ. However, I can only carry out these ideals when I completely live for the love of Jesus, when I become one with
Jesus. By Living in the Eucharist and completing the Spiritual Bouquet, only then will I truly be a VEYS Group Leader, a lover of Jesus Christ.
So before we begin our journey to The Promised Land Convention V, this is an opportunity for each of us to rekindle our love with Jesus Christ, making the love between us and Jesus more and more profound. To be more adoring, and to be more and more poignant by Living in the Eucharist and completing the Spiritual Bouquet, starting on the 1st of June until the 1st of July.
Starting June 1st, the organizing committee invites you to take part in this Spiritual Bouquet, and is launching a competition between the different regions to Live in the Eucharist and complete the Spiritual Bouquet. Each region will send its own notice and begin the campaign of Living in the Eucharist and completing the Spiritual Bouquet to pray for the Convention. When the different regions come to the Convention, the president of each region will need to collect the Spiritual Bouquets of all youth group members (youth included) from each division, especially from VEYS youth leaders and bring them back to the Convention. During the Convention, there will be time set aside to announce the results from each region, to determine which region put forth the most effort to Live in the Eucharist and to complete the Spiritual Bouquet. After the Convention, the top three regions will be introduced on the VEYS website so that others can
follow their example.
This is an opportunity that the organizing committee anticipates all members of VEYS to take part in, so that all youth members will know and learn how to Live in the Eucharist and to
complete the Spiritual Bouquet. It is also an opportunity for us, as VEYS youth group leaders to help all members in our division to know Jesus, learn to understand Jesus, and learn to love Jesus just as we have once known, understood, and loved Jesus ourselves.
Best Regards (with Four Fingers),
Rev. Francis Vũ Anh Trần, SCJ
Chaplain, Coming to the Promised Land V Convention
“FOLLOW ME – HÃY THEO THẦY!”
=
To know God clearly + To love God intimately +
To serve him full heartedly + To follow him faithfully
Để biết Chúa tỏ tường+ Để yêu Chúa tham thiêt +
Để Phục sự Chúa hết cả tâm hồn con + Để Theo Chúa mot cách trung tín
