Christchurch Vietnamese Community Honours Our Lady
The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not only a day of special significance for the Church in New Zealand. Our country's national feast day is also shared by the Church in Vietnam. Tradition holds that Our Lady appeared in La Vang in Central Vietnam 227 years ago, to comfort Catholics facing persecution. The Vietnamese Catholic Bishops' Conference reports that this year, the annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang saw a grand procession of 90,000 Catholics from the Marian monument to the Basilica altar to mark their national feast day.
On Sunday 17 August, the Christchurch Catholic Vietnamese community came together at Our Lady of Victories church in Sockburn to pray for Vietnam and place it under the protection of the Assumption of Mother La Vang.
Trang Dinh, from the Christchurch Vietnamese Community, told Inform that "The whole Mass was beautifully celebrated by Fr Viet Tran, Fr Tang Phan, and Fr Simon Eccleton. We all dressed up in our formal dress code, especially the ones who carried Mother Mary. We processed around Our Lady of Victories church and each parishioner offered their flowers to Holy Mary afterward. Offertory was more special with candles, flower bouquets, fruit baskets... and after Mass, we got a chance to sit down together to share lunch with yummy foods, lots of laughs, and love."
