A Special Collection

At Mass this past Sunday, as a parishioner held up a large photo of Cardinal Van Thuan, a nun made a special announcement. As she spoke about the late Vietnamese Cardinal, his remarkable life, the flight of his family from Vietnam and his cause for beatification, Gillian leaned over and whispered, "David Naglieri [her colleague at Salt + Light] is doing a documentary on him." Almost on cue, the nun continued moments later with, "a Canadian television station, Salt and Light Television, is producing a documentary on Cardinal Van Thuan, and we are here to take up a special collection to help defray the cost of this documentary."

We spoke to this nun after Mass, a lovely Brigidine sister from Ireland, and found out that Cardinal Van Thuan's sister is a member of our parish, hence the special collection. Not only were we made aware that the world is extremely small, but also that way over here in Australia, on the other side of the world, Salt + Light is having an effect. This little television station with humble beginnings after World Youth Day in 2002, is now reaching around the world, a testament to the hard work of Salt + Light staff and World Youth Day itself.

http://www.daughtersofstpaul.com/cardvanthuan/bio.html

On a very ordinary weekend here in Sydney, we went to a very ordinary Mass at our parish and were reminded that God works in extraordinary ways.