I had an opportunity to go back to visit my home country, Vietnam during 2014’s summer. It was good for me to be back after many years away from home and also it was a great time for me to be allowed to do my apostolate work during summer there. Although I was born and grew up in Saigon, when I came back, I realized that things have changed a lot since I was away from the city. I spent three weeks with my family. During that time, I just paid some visits to the altar-servers in the parish by joining with them in their weekly meetings. I was asked by them to give a short sharing of the Gospel in their meeting, because I was actually the one who initiated it when I was in charge of them, and that custom has been keeping up to the present.

Lord, renew in your Church the spirit you gave Saint Augustine. Filled with this spirit, may we thirst for you alone as the fountain of wisdom and seek you as the source of eternal love and truth.

Happy Feast Day to the Assumption Family!

On Saturday, July 12^th, 2014, forty-two high school juniors from Instituto San Roman, an Assumptionist high school in Buenos Aires, Argentina, arrived at Assumption College in Worcester to inaugurate a four-week summer program in English. The program is the realization of four years of discussion, planning, and organization. The idea for this initiative goes back to a visit of the College in 2010 by parents of two current students and friends of the Assumptionists, one of whom, the father, is an alumnus of the high school and the other, the mother, a member of the campus ministry team. In proposing the program, they saw it not only as an effective way to enhance the language skills of their students but also to lay the groundwork for a global network of initiatives among Assumptionist-sponsored schools.

Almost five years ago, as I was admiring the recently renovated parish hall, I looked over at the cathedral and suddenly a Scripture passage  came to my mind from the lips of King David: “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the Lord dwells in a tent!” (II Samuel 7). The cathedral seemed ugly to me, especially the exterior; the interior, on the other hand, I found quite beautiful. And at that very moment I felt an urgent call within me. It was a call of love for the house of the Lord and I heard the voice of Christ saying, “Zeal for your house consumes me” (John 2:17). And that is how the adventure of renovating our cathedral church began.

JERUSALEM - The Assumptionist Community of St. Peter in Gallicantu welcomed some 70 visitors for the annual celebration of First Vespers on the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, on Saturday evening, June 28, 2014, at 6:00pm. Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, Nuncio and Apostolic Delegate, presided.

The Assumptionists inaugurated this event several years ago. Visitors are invited to begin the celebration on the stone stairway that dates to Maccabean times and on which Jesus certainly would have walked since it was one of the main thoroughfares between the Pool of Siloam and the Upper City. It was along this stairway that tradition locates the denial and repentance of Peter.

It is with great pleasure that the Assumptionists welcome Nicholas Collura to be the Vocation Coordinator for the U.S. Territory. Most directly, he will be working with the Vocation Director, Bro. Ronald Sibugan, A.A. and the Vocation Committee which also includes: Fr. Joseph Zhang, A.A., Bro. Blair Nuyda, A.A., Tomasz Jaster and Sr. Clare Bertero, O.S.F. The office for this newly created position will be located in Worcester.

Named for Rutland Resident Britney Gengel, Who Lost Her Life in 2010 Earthquake in Haiti.

Leonard "Len" and Cherylann Gengel of Rutland, Mass., lost their daughter Britney four years ago in a massive earthquake that hit Haiti. Vowing that her death would not be in vain, the couple—along with sons Bernie and Richie—have kept alive Britney’s dream to help the poor island nation’s children.

Britney was a 19-year-old sophomore at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., who had traveled to Haiti to do mission work with the organization Food for the Poor. She died when the hotel where she was staying collapsed during the 2010 7.0-magnitude earthquake, which killed over 300,000 people and displaced a million others. Wanting to establish a memorial to their daughter’s legacy, the Gengels started the Be Like Brit Foundation, wrote a book about their daughter, and raised money to build the $2 million, earthquake-proof Be Like Brit Orphanage in Grand Coave, Haiti. The 19,000-square-foot facility, which opened in January 2013 and is shaped in the letter “B,” houses 45 children. It’s expected that up to 66 children will live there by the end of 2014.

Will Help Nonprofit Organizations in South Africa, Ecuador, England, Across the U.S.

Seven Assumption College graduates are participating in a post-graduate “Year of Service” program, helping nonprofit organizations in Ecuador, England and across the United States. The new alumni, who graduated from the College on May 17, 2014, have gone directly from the classroom to assisting in bettering the lives of others.