{"id":328854,"date":"2017-01-17T04:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T03:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/luce-ardentes-visit-to-vietnam\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:06:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:06:08","slug":"luce-ardentes-visit-to-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/luce-ardentes-visit-to-vietnam\/","title":{"rendered":"Luce Ardente\u2019s visit to Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"img57\"<\/a>\u00abThese were days of \u2018fire\u2019, with the three monk-friends coming from \u00a0<\/strong>Thailand<\/a>:<\/strong> Phramaha Thongrattana Thavorn, Ajarn Suchart Vitipanyaporn, Bhikkhu Jayabhinunto and Mr. Khamphorn who accompanied them\u00bb, Marcella and Luigi, Christian friends recounted, about the second week of December spent with the Buddhist monks in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Our friends stressed how \u00abthe atmosphere we breathed in these days was one of great openness and new horizons.\u00bb\u00a0And continued by saying: \u00abit was like living in a fable, so to say.\u00bb Some historical notes.<\/strong>\u00a0The meeting of the monk, Phramaha Thongrattana Thavorn with the \u00a0\u00a0spirituality of unity<\/a>\u00a0goes back to 1995. He had come to Rome to accompany his disciple, Somjit, who was living for a short period in the community of monks before his marriage, as is the tradition of young Buddhists.\u00a0<\/strong>Phramaha Thongrattana, which means \u2018fine gold,\u2019 and on that occasion had met <\/strong>Chiara Lubich<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and was strongly impressed. She too was impressed by him and on his request gave him a new name: Ardent Light. <\/strong>From then on this monk did his best to live and announce forcefully and with enthusiasm the ideal of universal brotherhood, \u00a0the ideal of \u201cmummy Chiara\u201d (as he still calls her today). At the funeral of Chiara Lubich, in 2008, Ardent Light <\/strong>declared his wish to tell the Buddhists \u00abhow much good Chiara did to my life as a monk. I feel that she continues to give me an interior drive and the strength to bring the ideal of fraternity to all. She no longer belongs to you Christians, but now, she and her ideal are the legacy of the entire humanity.\u00bb \"img53\" To go back to December 2016 in Ho Chi Min:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00abThe first surprising fact \u2013 they said \u2013 was\u00a0the bond of friendship that came about between Ardent Light and the Most Rev. Thich Thien Tam, monk in charge of the Pho Minh Pagoda, representative of both Theravada Buddhismo and of Mahayana in Vietnam.\u00a0The latter is a personage who represents all aspects of Buddhism in Vietnam at international level.<\/strong>\u00a0As a consequence of the trust and friendship generated between them, Rev. Thich Thien Tam had asked the competent authorities permission for the three monks to stay in the temple instead of a hotel as according to protocol. \u00bb. Various interreligious (and not only) events were held, \u00a0<\/strong>such as their visit to two Christian communities, including lunch. The monks also took part in the Christmas feast, usually held for the local Christians, but they were welcomed with great joy by everyone. Then followed the two visits to social projects<\/strong> brought ahead by Christians inspired by the spirituality of unity. <\/strong> And then, the<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>interreligious meeting<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>at the Diocesan Pastoral Centre of\u00a0 Ho Chi Minh City, attended by representatives of five religions.<\/strong>\u00a0On that occasion, Ardent Light spoke of his friendship with the Pope at that time, John Paul II and \u00a0with Chiara Lubich<\/strong><\/strong>.\u00a0He explained about what she used to call \u201cthe art of loving\u201d: a love that addresses everyone, and one that takes the initiative, that is able to be the other\u2019s \u201cneighbor,\u201d that even goes to the point of loving and praying for one\u2019s enemies\u2026 Marcella and Luigi recounted <\/strong>that <\/strong>\u00abThe eyes of some of the leaders present filled with tears \u2013 and to tell the truth, also those of our community.\u00bb\u00a0The two hours of true dialogue concluded with the visit to the Archbishop emeritus<\/strong>, Cardinal J. Baptiste Phan Minh Man<\/strong>, who had so strongly worked for the creation of the interreligious dialogue at the Diocesan Pastoral Centre. The last day was dedicated to the visit to some temples,<\/strong>\u00a0and acting as guide was Fr. Bao Loc, priest in charge of interreligious dialogue for the Diocese of Ho Chi Minh City. \u00abNow new, unexpected horizons have opened before us,<\/strong> It is now up to us to continue the experience we have lived these days. Chiara\u2019s legacy, of being always a family, is a reality that touches the hearts of everyone, when it is really lived.\u00bb By Gustavo Clari\u00e1<\/em>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the name of interreligious dialogue based on the Spirituality of unity, three Thai Buddhist monks visited some Buddhist leaders and groups of Christians in Ho Chi Minh City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}