I was born on March 15th 1980.  Because the date was close to the feast day of Saint Joseph (March 19), ‘Joseph Mary of the Child Jesus’ was my original baptized name, followed by Nhan Cao Do.  I was born an eldest and raised in a farming family of four siblings altogether to my father named Paul Luan Khac Do, and mother named Agnes Nguyet Thi Tran.  I have an older adopted sister named Anna Lam P. T. Tran; a younger sister who is two years younger than I am named Therese Hien T. M. Do and a youngest brother, seven years younger than I am, Joseph Duc Cao Do.  When I was two years old, we moved from Dong Nai province, my birth place, to the province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau where I spent the rest of my childhood life and teenage years.  Pre-school, Kindergarten and Elementary years, which were my most glorious golden years, sailed by smoothly.  During my fourth grade, which was 1989, my father alone had successfully escaped Viet Nam by boat, with the only hope: to seek for a better place, a better future for the entire family.  Despite our father’s absence, our mother took over his role and did her best to raise us up in all aspects, physically, mentally and spiritually.  Junior High school years (from grade six to nine) had also slid by unobtrusively.  Senior High or Secondary School (grade ten to twelve), however, was a little bit more challenging because the school that I intended to go to and got accepted is approximately twelve kilometres away from home, which I had to bike to and fro everyday; it was my first time going to school that far away from home.  At the beginning of my eleventh grade, Fall 1996, we have completed all the required documents for immigrating to a new country, Canada, where my father was graciously welcomed and accepted after four or five years living in the refugee camp in Indonesia.  My dad left the Island in 1994 for Canada.  Upon his arrival, he started looking for jobs and going to college at the same time.  During these times he also made an effort to sponsor all of us.  At that time my mother asked me to stay home in preparation for the departure of a new life in Canada, and that was rather an unpleasant ending to my Vietnamese academic years.

 

About nine years ago, on the 25th of January 1997 I was immigrated to Vancouver, B.C, Canada.  I was seventeen years old then, but to think of it, that date could be my second birth date, for a new journey had begun.  Everything changed.  I felt as if I was being born again from that day on.  Indeed, I had to start everything all over, beginning with schooling.  A month after my arrival in Canada, I have got accepted to my so-called “kindergarten years” at Britannia Secondary School as an ESL student.  Almost all of my subjects were suitable for the eight-graders, except English, Social Studies and Science, which I had no ideas how I was going to survive or fit in.  However, three years of wonder, of culture shocks, of adaptation had gone through.  I finally graduated from high school, yet it did not mean I was finished with it.  I took some more time completing my English 12 at Adult Education Centre.  At last, I have satisfied the provincial graduation requirements at the end of November 2001.  I live with my family at 1121 Boundary Road, Vancouver, B.C. V5K 4T4.  Since January 2002 I have been attended Dominican University College in Ottawa, Ontario, majoring in Philosophy.  At the end of my first semester in the university I took off some time to study English while I stayed at the Dominican priori in Calgary, Edmonton.  January 2003 I came back to Ottawa to continue my Philosophy.  During these years I am seeking to obtain my B.A.Ph. and at the same time, discerning the religious vocations and the lives of the Dominican friars.

 

In the process of developing, I knew it was tough sometimes for a particular person to leave something considered valuable behind, something one holds dear of.  That was the feeling and thought I had then.  What could be a bigger shift, the up-rooting stage that had happened to an individual in his or her early youth?  I did not realize about the fact that whether or not I was ready to face the totally new life; whether or not I was ready to push behind my normal ways of life, my background, my mother tongue.  Now, in certain sense, that same realization comes back to me as I am about to turn the page and write a new history of my coming days.  May He who guided me then, continues to guide me now, and always.

 

I am an aspirant of the Vietnamese Dominican Vicariate in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. During these years of studying and of observing the lives and vocations of the Dominican Friars within the studious, prayerful and communal life in the Order, here and there inclusively, and through the sharing of thoughts, ideas, opinions and guidance of those who have set their feet before me, I have superficially grasped and discovered for myself the idea of vocation and the environment in which each peculiar vocation helps and is helped to build up the whole community.  This superficial understanding of these special terms alone, I have spent some time to discern.  Ever since this intrigued quest started, I have been curious about my whole being: of who am I, of where am I from, and of where, what and how will I be.  These thoughts have been following me all the time, or rather I follow them in seeking to understand the questions of call.  Because of what I have discovered so far is only at the superficial level, I would like to have an opportunity to discern at the deeper stage the call which I believe to be my vocation by means of the year of novitiate, within the traditional religious Dominican Order.

 

I also acknowledge that to seek, to understand and to conduct oneself upon one’s vocation, an individual needs not only focus on each step of postulancy, novitiate, formation, examinations, preaching and working, but each step should be considered in a continuous process.  This process altogether helps and supports one to live and to recognize what one is really called to, and so one can choose freely to live up to one’s vocation in a conscientious way.  This quest of self-seeking and of fulfilling one’s call is not a momentary phase; rather it takes the whole of human life-span.  In spite of the long journey, I believe that, with a vocational vivacity, if there is a beginning, there must be an end, although there are times that one might stop and ponder of where he is going.  The providential care as I understood, only appears or startles a glimpse when one looks back and starts seeing things fit together and happily accepts the way things are.

 

Reflections by Br. Joseph Mary Do