Vietnamese Marian Shrine Blessed At Rosary Rally

ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer

Published: November 11, 2004

RIVERDALE—A 13-foot statue of Our Lady of Lavang stood as the centerpiece of the annual Rosary Rally, held this year for the first time at Our Lady of Vietnam Church.

The Oct. 24 celebration, led by Archbishop John F. Donoghue and followed by a Mass, was a marriage of cultures, genders and generations, who prayed on a sunny, breezy day amid large shade trees.

With the stirring, steady beat of a bass drum, the procession began, led by the Knights of Columbus honor guard in their white-plumed caps, followed by priests of the archdiocese, including Our Lady of Vietnam’s pastor, Msgr. Francis Pham Van Phuong, and the archbishop.

Deacon Bert Berding, of St. James Mission in Madison, welcomed the crowd, many of whom stood along the lawn facing the large statue of the Blessed Mother.

“This is certainly a joyous occasion, especially with the sun finally coming out after such a dreary day,” he said.

After thanking the archbishop for “his continued support of the Rosary Rally,” Deacon Berding introduced Serra Club member Pat Carden, who led a prayer for vocations.

Msgr. Phuong expressed his “deep joy” at having his parish host the 33rd annual Rosary Rally. He told the congregation about the statue, which is made of solid marble and sculpted by Phan Chi Lang from Da Nang, Vietnam.

Msgr. Phuong offered his message in both English and Vietnamese and then assisted the archbishop as he walked throughout the shrine, blessing it and the statue with holy water.

The soft tapping of rosary beads could be heard as the Marian prayer began. Archbishop Donoghue led the first decade in English, while Msgr. Phuong led the next decade in Vietnamese. The third decade was offered in Spanish, while the fourth was in Latin and the fifth was prayed in Chinese.

As the rosary ended, young Vietnamese girls, dressed in white dresses with crowns of white daisies adorning their heads, came forward two by two, holding small bouquets of flowers in each hand. In between the two rows of girls were young boys dressed in suits holding a candle in each of their hands.

The girls performed a dance in front of the statue of Our Lady of Lavang, as Vietnamese music played in the background. As they finished, the girls placed their bouquets at the foot of the statue, and the boys placed their candles in a golden urn on the statue’s base.

In a symbol of people opening their hearts to Mary as Jesus’ mother, hundreds of colorful balloons were then released into the sky as the crowd cheered.

In his homily during the Mass, the archbishop spoke of the human need to be connected, to feel cared for and loved. This is especially evident in the way a young child reaches out to his mother and father.

“But even as we see and answer to our children’s needs, God sees us—He sees us as His little children, and He answers our needs,” he said. “He ties us together and keeps us as one family. He does this by making us desire, above all things, to receive the love of His Son, the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave everything He had, who gave His own life, that we might be saved—that we might, like our little children, feel the arms of God encircle us with His love, and feel the gaze of His eyes settle upon us with forgiveness, with mercy, and bless us with every hope.”

He spoke of the “complexity of events” that make Catholics one family “on this special day, when the Vietnamese Catholics of Atlanta join with all Catholics to celebrate the woman who is mother to us all, the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

“We are the sons and daughters of a million circumstances, circumstances that have been woven together into a single strand, by the power, and by the all-seeing wisdom of our God,” the archbishop said. “God has acted through history, to bring us together.”

Some are immigrants, some are the sons and daughters of courageous ancestors who came to this country, he said. But all are joined by God.

“On this day, we are especially thankful for the very special means God has given us, to know as deeply as we can know, the power of His love which brings us together,” he said. “For through our Lady, our Lady of Vietnam, our Lady of the Rosary—through her, we can easily and daily call to mind all those events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, which reverberate in our lives and bring us the peace we all long for.”

The archbishop also offered a prayer that others would know the intercessory power of Mary.

“And let us pray, that all mankind may understand the gracious guide God has given us by creating and then blessing in the most perfect way possible, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of our Savior Jesus Christ,” he said. “And let us pray, each and every day, that miraculous prayer that Mary has revealed to us in her holy Rosary, the means by which she shares with us, the power and the grace of our Lord’s life.”

Following the Mass, a Vietnamese feast of egg rolls, fruits and vegetables awaited the crowd.

Father Dung Nguyen, judicial vicar of the Metropolitan Tribunal and a native of Vietnam, said that the devotion to Mary is strong in his homeland.

“We work less there, and there have been a lot of struggles that people have gone through, so the faith is strong,” he said. “You still see many people going to daily Mass, almost everyone.”

Father Nguyen also said that the new statue and shrine at the church are a blessing for the entire community.

“It’s an occasion of great joy for our archdiocese and for any Catholic, that now they can come and offer prayers in the shrine,” he said.

A.P. Nguyen, also a Vietnam native (no relation to Father Nguyen), has been in the United States for 20 years.

“People in Vietnam really believe in Mary,” he said. “We will do whatever it takes for our faith. Mary’s role is very important in the life of our community.”

Nguyen, who owns his own mortgage company, said that images of Mary are found in many Vietnamese homes.

“Anytime you go into a Vietnamese Catholic’s house, you see Mary. I even have an image of the Blessed Mother in my office,” he said.

For Huyen Huynh, a parishioner of St. Patrick’s Church in Norcross, Mary has been a role model, a mother and a giver of miracles.

“I was very down once, and I was praying. I was telling Mary, ‘I wish you were here so I could cry on your shoulder,’” she said. “All of a sudden a woman came behind me and patted me on my shoulder. I asked her if Mary had told her to come to me. She said that she didn’t know why she had come to the church but had known she was supposed to come and comfort me.”

Huynh has prayed the rosary nearly every day for the last seven years and sometimes even twice a day, she says.

“It began like a habit, but then if I didn’t pray the rosary, I would begin to miss (Mary),” she said. “Vietnamese people have a big faith in Mary as a mother who loves us.”