Pha Nguyen
The following account of Holy Week Missions was contributed by Pha Nguyen of Lincoln, NE. Pha is a junior at Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Indiana.
My experience on this Youth Mission in Cincinnati, OH was super awesome! On Wednesday, we had mass for all the missionaries and received the Missionary’s uniform, which included a t-shirt and a cross to wear on our neck. The guys were very blessed to stay at the Archbishop’s building, so there was a lot of room for us to play basketball, football, inside-soccer, and little games of Ninja.
On the morning of Holy Thursday we went to an all-boy Catholic school. There were only 30 kids, and only three of them were actually Catholics. Why? I don’t know. We were explaining to them what we Catholics do during this Holy Week, day by day. Between each day we paused for a couple Minute to Win games. I was in the older kids group, and surprisingly they knew a lot more about the Holy Week than we expected.
There was one 15 year old named Devonte who loved basketball. He wasn’t a Catholic, but at the end he told one of us he wanted to become a priest. That struck me a little bit, because you normally don’t know of a kid that wants to become a priest who doesn’t know a whole lot about the faith. And that got me thinking again deeper about my path to the priesthood. Then on the afternoon we were on the streets asking people if they could spare us some time for a faith survey. Most of the people ignored us, but a number gave us some time. I’m kind of shy talking to people, so when it was my turn to ask, I sort of hesitated and tripped over my words. But I think my comments here and there helped them a little bit. Around 9:00 we went to the cathedral to visit our Lord for a Holy Hour. I had my eyes shut and on my knees I spoke to our Lord. I felt really good that day; because I know what I did that day was for Him. In the back of the cathedral, the choir was rehearsing for the next day. They sung something that sent goose bumps crawling up my spine. And that moment I knew Christ was on my side and would be with me throughout my mission.
On Good Friday, all the missionaries (that includes around 50 teenage girls and around 30 family siblings, and 11 high school guys) met at the cathedral to split up into three groups, because there were three routes we had to choose. We walked and carried the cross (it was about 6ft tall and 30lbs or heavier) and asking people for prayer intentions on the way to Mt. Adams. The path we had to walk through was very shoddy and unkempt. “Why did we choose to walk through this path?” Because everyone felt we were called to go there and give testimony to the people, so we just started walking that way. The guys were carrying the cross; while the girls and the families were stopping people asking them for prayer intentions. Lots of the people said they are doing fine, so they didn’t give us a prayer intentions, but those who were open to us we were able to give at least three to four intentions. The fearlessness, amazing joy, and most of all great charity of the girls greatly impressed me. They went in groups of five or more just in case something were to happen; they even went through alleys and started to look for people to talk to. Throughout the walk we prayed the rosary for the intentions we received from the people.
On Saturday, we went to St. Leo’s Parish, to get ready for the Easter vigil that night. The guys were organizing some games for the kids that came to the parish. The girls were there also, mainly taking care of the kids, just like the Mother Mary taking care of all of us. When the guys finished with the jobs that were assigned to us we jumped outside and joined the kids. There were about 40 kids and they were all African-American, because of the neighborhood we were in. There we practiced being apostles for Christ, so we all did what we could to play along with the kids. Personally I don’t have a problem hanging out with the kids, but seeing the guys with me actually trying to get involved with the kids helped me and helped them a lot.
So in the end this Holy Week Mission in Cincinnati helped me to realize that I could be more open to the people around me, and most important of all to trust in them because what they do for me and for my brothers and sisters is coming out of their own heart, not stopping until they have given their best. I’m truly thankful to God that he had sent me to this mission.
