This year, especially, there were also fathers, mothers, relatives of the ad gentes missionary confreres, the lay people and young people from the parishes, villages and hamlets where confreres are serving.
The theme of this year's mission animation day was "Builders of Dialogue", especially in view of the 150th anniversary of the first missionary expedition of the Congregation (1875 - 2025) and this year the Vietnam Province celebrates the 25th anniversary of the first missionary expedition (1999 - 2024). This historical moment invites all Salesians and all members of the Salesian family to give thanks, to rethink and to relaunch the missionary spirit.
The program started at 8:00 a.m. After a moment of welcome and warm-up, Father Barnaba blessed the meeting. Next, everyone in attendance watched a video clip on the theme and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Province's first missionary expedition, based on three keywords: Looking back to thank God and the 45 overseas missionaries who sowed the first seeds of the Gospel in Vietnam (1941 - 1975) and those seeds have produced the 109 Vietnamese SDB confreres who are missionaries ad gentes in 51 countries around the world from 1999 - 2024; from there, together we can rethink and relaunch our Salesian missionary identity to courageously set out to new frontiers to bring joy, love, and hope to everyone, especially to the young people and poor teenagers that Salesian confreres are serving. Father Dominic Dinh Quang Vinh developed the theme "Builders of Dialogue" with 3 ideas:
- Dialogue from the perspective of the Gospel and the Church
- Looking at the current situation, to build dialogue
- Salesians follow in the footsteps of Don Bosco to build dialogue.
Through the above 3 ideas, he invited all Salesians and all participants to follow Don Bosco's example of dialogue with the heart, with love. In particular, proclaiming the Gospel through dialogue with the culture and language of the people; as well as building dialogue in the digital world of the young people to help them find the true meaning and truth in Jesus.
The program continued with songs and dances that were lively and meaningful, contributed by young people from the parishes. The heart of Salesian Mission Day was the Thanksgiving Mass for the 25th anniversary of the first missionary expedition of the Province, presided over by the Provincial, Father Barnaba Le An Phong, concelebrated by the Delegate for missionary animation, Salesian Priests, Parish priests and joined in by all participants, especially the young people. The Mass was imbued with the spirit of true missionary and cultural dialogue, with the Mass in Vietnamese but the liturgy and songs were sung in both Vietnamese and Giarai languages.
In the homily, based on the Gospel of St Matthew 28:16-20 about Jesus' missionary mandate to his disciples, Father Provincial invited the community to set out to bring Jesus to those whom we meet, work with and serve in our specific vocation and environment with love and commitment.
The Mass ended with a sending ceremony. The Delegate for mission animation and a group of young people representing the community held lighted candles in their hands and courageously set out with the call and sending of God, the Church, the Congregation, and the Province. After Mass, everyone shared in the agape with joy and family spirit.
The Salesian Mission Day in the Western Highlands has ended, but the missionary spirit in the hearts of each individual is always burning to set out to the new frontiers that God, Don Bosco, the Congregation, and the Province call and send them to.
