On June 20-24, 2022, thirty-nine professed friars from the Provincial Custody of St. Francis Anthony Fasani in Vietnam gathered for their five-day annual retreat at the “Foyer de Charité” Retreat Center in Phú Dòng, Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam.
Father Joseph NGUYỄN (Văn Phán), a diocesan priest of the Diocese of Phú Cường, gave a good retreat with content focused on the stages of the journey of one’s consecrated vocation: desiring, seeking, meeting, unifying and proclaiming.
On the fourth day of the retreat, the friars celebrated the Solemnity of St. John the Baptist and prayed for the six friars in the Custody who have St. John the Baptist as their patron saint. At that time, half the members of the Foyer de Charité community were attending an ongoing formation program with another community, so our friars were asked to sweep the grounds of the retreat center after breakfast.
On the way back to the St. Anthony Friary in Hồ Chí Minh City, the student friars stopped at the parish cemetery of the family of Friar Peter NGUYỄN (Hữu Phước) to pray for his father who passed away three months ago.
We give thanks to God for having gathered the friars together to spend some blessed time with Him in prayer and to share some fraternal time with each other.
Friar Joseph NGUYỄN (Chính Luận), Custodial Secretary
