Gulf Pine Catholic

14 Gulf Pine Catholic • April 20, 2018 Vietnamese sisters invite public to celebration of important milestones LONG BEACH -- On Sunday, April 22, at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, Sr. Cecilia Nguyen, CCSS, will celebrate the 25th Anniversary of her Profession of Vows and Sr. Mary Nguyen, CCSS, will celebrate in thanksgiving her Profession of Final Vows. A bilingual Mass of Thanksgiving will be at 2 p.m. and a reception with entertainment will follow immediately after Mass in the Community Center. Sr. Cecilia Thuy Thanh Nguyen, CCSS , is originally from Vung Tau, Vietnam. She fled with her family from the Communist regime in Vietnam in 1975 as a child and settled in New Orleans. She is the second child of six children of three boys and three girls. Sr. Cecilia is the only religious in her family. She felt God’s call to become a religious when she attended Abramson High School in East New Orleans along with her best friend, Sr. Maria Lan Tran, who is now a cloistered Carmelite nun in Flemington, New Jersey. She attributes her religious vocation to her fam- ily, especially her paternal grandmother, with their deep Vietnamese Catholic values and traditions. Her friend- ship with Sr. Maria Lan Tran in high school confirmed her decision to dedicate her life to God as a religious. Sr. Cecilia refers to Sr. Maria as “Mary” and to herself as “Martha.” They complement each other, and pray for each other every day. Sr. Cecilia made her Final Vows with the Community of Charity and Social Services at their Mother House in Ham Tan (Phan Thiet), Vietnam. Sr. Cecilia has served as a religion teacher and director of religious education (DRE) at several parishes, including Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and St. Martha par- ishes in Houston, Texas; St. Ambrose in Annandale, Virginia; and currently serving as the DRE at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic in Long Beach. Sr. Cecilia has been with the Diocese of Biloxi for the past seven years. For Sr. Cecilia, when asked: “What are the joys of religious life”, she simply smiles and says: “The great- est joy that I experience in religious life is to know above everything else that my vocation is a GIFT from God, and if it is a gift, then it is given by God. None of us can say we are worthy of this call, but to humbly live daily with the belief and conviction that God loves us in a very special way by calling us to this state of life. As for the other joys, they are countless…to have the opportunities to teach the children and serve their families in a parish setting, to be the listening ears to families who are struggling and witnessing their joy and happiness in life, to be able to reach out to those in need, especially those living in our local Gulf Coast communities and in Vietnam, to live and pray in com- munity with other Sisters...” Sr. Cecilia looks forward each July to travel to Vietnam for about four weeks to help struggling fami- lies in her beloved country. She and her Community have assisted more than 100 college students obtain their college degrees, built several libraries, funded more than 200 high school and college scholarships, distributed more than 1,000 bicycles so poor elemen- tary/high school students can commute to school, and just recently built The Mother and Child Orphanage in the vicinity of their Mother House in Ham Tan, Phan Thiet, Binh Thuan, Vietnam. As for the challenges and difficulties in religious life, Sr. Cecilia says: “The greatest sacrifice for me is not to have children of my own, but I see all the chil- dren under my guidance whom I have served and cur- rently at St. Thomas as ‘my own spiritual children.’ I have so many of these ‘spiritual children’ here in the Gulf Coast and in Vietnam. The other challenges include leaving my family for life, and not able to see them except on special occasions. The everyday chal- lenges, as you know, include being faithful each day to our calling…getting up early to go to daily Mass, say- ing our prayers, making sure that we fulfill our duties and obligations at work even going the extra miles to make sure everyone is happy. Because we live in an era of disconnectedness with God and the spiritual world, it is vital that we embrace silence and solitude so that we can avoid the many distractions in life and be trans- figured into Christ.” Being faithful to this silence and solitude can be challenging at times. When asked: “How would you promote religious life to young women who are discerning a vocation?”, Sr. Cecilia replies: “I would tell these young women that God calls us to all walks of life, and the happiness and joys that go with that life whether it is married life, religious life, or single life will depend on us. If we allow God to dwell in us to be the CENTER and FOCUS of our life, then everything else follows har- moniously. If God calls us to religious life, married life, or single life, He will reveal that call to us. The sure confirmation from God that it is HIS WILL that He calls us to religious life is that we truly experience that joy and peace that the world cannot give us. I would tell these young women to abandon themselves to God, and He will show the way. It is profoundly comforting to hear the song: ‘Be not afraid, I go before you always… Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.’ Jesus already promises ‘rest’ even prior to following Him. I understand this ‘rest’ to be ‘eternal life with God in heaven.’ What more can we ask?” Sr. Cecilia’s favorite Ignatian hymn is ‘Take, Lord, Receive’ …and the words to this hymn are: “Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, understanding, my entire will. Give me only your love and your grace, that’s enough for me. Your love and your grace are enough for me.” This sums up the reason for the upcoming celebra- tion of Sr. Cecilia’s 25th Anniversary of her Profession of Vows. The religious life, after all, is a call to a life of commitment to daily prayer, sacrifice, and solitude. Sr. Cecilia embraces this life with deep gratitude to God, her family, her religious community, her St. Thomas parish, her friends, and the entire people of God, and we are happy to celebrate with her at this important phase of her faith journey. She chose for her motto to remind all of us that God must be first in our life: “My soul rests in God alone, from whom comes my salva- tion” (Psalm 62.) Sr. Mary Ngoc Thi Nguyen, CCSS , grew up in Yen Thanh, NgheAn, Vietnam. She is the oldest of nine chil- dren of six boys and three girls. Sr. Mary is the only reli- gious in her family. She felt the call to join religious life when she was in the eleventh grade after learning that her late founder, Bishop Paul Hoan Thanh Nguyen, was recruiting young women to join the religious community he founded, The Community of Charity and Social Services (CCSS) in Ham Tan, Phan Thiet, Vietnam. A relative of her family took his daughter to CCSS and asked if Sr. Mary wanted to go too, and Sr. Mary responded “yes”. When Sr. Mary joined CCSS in the year 2000, it was Bishop Paul who influenced her final decision to remain with the Community. Her family and parish church also influenced Sr. Mary in her deci- sion to become a religious. Sr. Mary attended CCD each week and every evening during the summer. Daily Mass with her family with frequent reception of the sacrament of reconciliation laid a solid foundation for her as a child to consider the possibility of dedicat- ing her life to God. Father Anthony Luyen Duc Hoan, her pastor while she was growing up, also helped determine and guided Sr. Mary toward embracing religious life to serve God and humanity. Her paternal and maternal grandparents were very much influential and set a good example for Sr. Mary to follow. They were faithful Catholics who attended daily Mass and received Holy Communion every day, and taught their children and grandchildren to follow the Commandments and live according to God’s Holy Will. Like many other Catholic grandparents, Sr. Mary’s grandparents always reminded her and her sib- lings to go to daily Mass very early in the morning at 5 a.m. and to pray every day. She and her siblings joined the church’s choir, served as altar servers, and participated in the Youth Sr. Cecilia Sr. Mary SEE IMPORTANT MILESTONES, PAGE 19