San Francisco District
Convocation & Honoring Jubilarians

Saturday, March 4th, 2006

Guardian Angels

As Ambassadors of Jesus Christ,
we are Guardian Angels to each others,
to our Associates&Partners, to our Students

Ecce Quam Bonum...

Together and by Association
Let's Celebrate our Brotherhood!

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Sunday, March 6th, 2005

Saturday, March 5

"Deepening our understanding of and appreciation for
our vocation as religious Brothers"
by Brother Tom Johnson

Friday, March 4
Opening Prayer : Water and Light

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March 6, 2004

Brothers' Convocation
photos by Brother Martin Vu

"Together and by Association"...

... whether alive : LEO, after 10 years of service of the poor

... or dead

centered on Jesus Christ

Honoring the Jubileans

photos by Brother Fidele Nguyen

February 7-9, 2003

January 27, 2001
50 years :
Bros. Nicholas Biehle - John Moriarty - Fidele Nguyen - Augustus Rossi
25 years :
Bros. Charles Hilken - Daniel Morgan - Michael Murphy

January 29th, 2000
Platinum - Diamond - Silver Jubilees of Brothers Ignatius - Theophane - Larry

October 2000

FROM THE VIDEO
Some Brothers and Partners talk about the Brothers' Community Life

Michael Sandrei, FSC.

"... I think a healthy and an unhealthy bebavior at the same time is, and I fall victim tho this as well... I live with a lot of devoted men, devoted men to Sacred Heart Cathedral and sometimes we become so devoted that we absent ourselves from community and sometimes that we are physically present but afterwards someone comes up and says, "Boy you look exhausted," and you've just sat through a gathering and you really haven't said much, or you've come late to a diner or you left early. You know you have to make accommodations for that but I think sometimes we become so overstretched or overworked or just too busy or too committed that we tend to forget that our community involvement or our community need sometimes suffers."

"... People that look at the Brothers need to see that we are living the vows unapologetically and we are uncompromising of our consecration and who we say that we are. I think they want to see an honest witness of who the Brothers are as individuals, but an honest witness of who the Brothers are together in community, in prayer, on a number of levels. So I just think it's going to take the Brothers living the vows, being Brother to one another with our Partners to our students, just doing and being who it is that we consecrate ourselves to be. I think if we can do that honestly and compassionately we're doing all that we can and it's up to the Spirit to work in and through that, in an through our consecration, in and through the way that we interact with one another.

Sister Olivia Vu, LS.

"... When I came to the United States, the Brothers sponsored us to live in Fresno for the first two years. When I look at them I ask "Who are they?" I knew the priests, nuns ans Sisters only. I didn't know the Brothers. During school time I saw many students around them, talking to them very friendly and open and welcoming to each one of them. Why do the students come to the Brothers? Because they need people to listen to them. That is the way I look at the Brothers.

"... Young people, they want to do the mission. They want to touch down with the poor people, to find the meaning of life. The Brothers look like the rich people you know and they don't need to live thke that. Young people want to find something - too comfortable now. They don't want to live that life. They want to change it. Sometimes it's very hard to think in another way or not easy for the Brothers to change. It's a big question right now for the young people. What should they do? Touch down to the poor or live the single life like this? "I don't want to become a Brother but I will serve the people in a different way. The Brothers are so nice, so easy, so welcome, so open, but that's not my style of life to live that way.'... "

"... A student looked at one Brother, he loved to work, he worked so hard, he didn't have time for himself. The young man told me, "I want to be a Brother but I don't want to be like him - too much work and no fun in my life." And sometimes that is not good for young people to see. "That's the model. I can see it now. This means I cannot have fun. I should come here? Work work work all the rest of my life and that's it?" ... "

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On the occasion of John Johnston's pastoral visit to SF District,
Brother David has been assigned Visitor for the 2nd term,
and the District celebrated Diamond/Gold/Silver Jubilees

October, 1999

LASALLIAN BROTHERS IN VIETNAM
EMBRACING THE CORE MISSION.
Presented by Brother Simeon, fsc

First we are profoundly grateful to the Divine Providence for having put us in a privileged situation - though not always clearly perceived as such - to carry out the core lasallian mission, that of "giving Christian education to the poor." This should be seen as a real bliss for us, and through the eye of faith we can identify greater opportunity and stronger motivation for us to live out our lasallian vocation.

Being devoid of schools and all their infrastructure enables us to devote more of our time and effort to embrace straightforwardly the lasallian "principal function" of evangelization and catechesis. Thus, we have been trying to respond to one of the most urgent needs of our youth, the one that is deliberately ignored. Meanwhile, in terms of poor, we are fully immersed in the world of the poor. Those most beloved children of God are right at our door, we do not have to reach out.

Our mission is mainly focused on the following sectors:
· Catechesis
· Remedial/vocational education
· Formation/permanent formation (of Brothers)

Our work is characterized by quasi-gratuity, flexibility, and abandon to God.

CATECHESIS

Almost all our Brothers, even those in their eighties, are directly involved in catechesis. This have been done in various ways such as:
· Catechism in parochial churches
· Catechist training
· YCS movement

and, sometimes, in an ingenious way: Bible sharing in English or French, for example, is such a "trick" of combination of studying the Holy Scripture and practicing a foreign language.

To go catechesis, the Brothers have to go into a real conversion. Our mathematicians and scientists had to put aside their formulas and go digging into Paulian epistles. The results show that they have been successful.

To cope with the lack of updated learning /teaching materials, brother Alloysius, a former mathematics teacher now in his eighties, has labored in writing textbooks and workbooks for those religious classes. His series of materials proved to be efficient and was quite widely used.

Catechist training constitutes our main effort. Where ever possible we stage training sessions to help those volunteer catechists refresh their religious knowledge and learn more appropriate ways to present it to their disciples. Young lasallian scholastics are very active in this sector. Many catechist rallies have been held in Maithon. Twice have a group of them gone on an exposure to CaMau, the southmost rural province of Vietnam where the means of transport is nothing but boat. The enthusiasm and eagerness shown in their reports betrayed their success and also their readiness to return to those remote and deprived swamps.

Somehow different from the common practice in western countries - all the above works are gratuitous. We are happy that they are as they were in the Founder’s time: beneficiaries have nothing to pay for their religious instruction.

REMEDIAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

To address the problem of inefficient teaching in public schools and also to earn some income for the community budget, most of our Brothers are involved in
· Tutorial lessons
· Boarding houses
· Language/Vocational centers

Tutorial lessons are given mostly in the community precincts. Parents are happy and confident to entrust their children to the Brothers’ care. Various are the subject matters, large is the range of age and, especially, flexible are the schedules. Brother Victor, for example, is able to set up a system of remedial classes amounting to 700 schoolchildren in Hue with the help of some volunteers and lasallian aspirants.

To have safe and favorable environment for their study, students or schoolboys from the provinces resort to the Brothers. Almost all our communities state in their Community Annual Projects their will to spare their space to set up and take care of boarding houses. Some 200 are currently accommodated in our communities. Many new lasallian recruits also come from this "nurseries."

We also managed to get official license for some of our language and computer centers. Up to now, thousands have got their certificates of English or computer skills and aimed with them, many of our learners were able to find quite choice jobs.

Parallelly, with the support of friends and former students, vocational classes for street or disabled children have been set up. Those zero-fee woodcarving and cycle-mechanic training courses help gird them with skills to earn honestly a living on their own.

LASALLIAN FORMATION

Fully aware of the fact that a good number of young people still want to join us, and realizing our own responsibility for the vitality of the Institute, the District Chapter has set up an aggressive plan of formation:
· Formation houses
· Formation staff and programs
· Vietnamization of lasallian writings

Communities with existing boarding houses are given the task of nurturing aspirants until they are mature enough to join the postulancy. So together with our Postulancy, and Noviciate, our newly built Scholasticate constitutes a complete formation infrastructure.

The program of formation of aspirants, novices and scholastics is to be duly revised and so that there will be "a complete, comprehensive and updated program of formation." Moreover, a project of formator training and a special status for the Director of Formation are being worked out.

Meanwhile, to help our young Brothers with low mastery of English or French, all the documents from the Generalate have been translated into Vietnamese. A project aiming at providing the Brothers with more Vietnamese versions of lasallian publications is being drafted in view of celebrating the centenary of the canonization of our Founder. This will also serve as an impetus for the permanent formation of the older Brothers.

CHALLENGES

Serious challenges are there waiting for us:
· To be up to the impending tasks we have to improve and update our competence in many aspects. An efficient project of permanent formation should be put into application.
· The lack of competence in foreign language many of our younger Brothers suffer is still to be addressed aggressively.
· Objective difficulties will not disappear tomorrow morning, so the Brothers should aware to strengthen their tenacity in being faithful to their lasallian vocation

HOPE

Not waiting for better working environment, we try to do our most possible making ours the words of our Rule "Despite the difficulties which they meet, the Brothers know, in faith, that God does not abandon his work but that it pleases him, to make it bear fruit day by day." (R. 141)

FINAL REPORT
photos by Brother Joseph Hung

"Together and by Association"
photos by Brother Jeffrey
      
        
   

October, 1998

Brother François Tran Van Anh, Visitor of Vietnam District,
Sister Mary, Superior General of Lasallian Sisters
with Vietnamese Brothers of San Francisco District