Path to Purple

TNTT. Art. Prayer.

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Beautiful

Today, I went to Our Lady of Peace for Adoration. After I exited the church, a woman behind me said, “That’s a beautiful veil” and that compliment made me so happy.

Another fellow T9 and Sinai 24 Huynh Trưởng from Liên Đoàn Joan d’Arc also regularly wears a gold veil. I brought this gold veil because I was inspired by her and her faith. When I wear this veil, I feel her encouragement from after Cấp 3 when she told me she would pray for me. My gold veil gives me courage to be brave and not be afraid to show my faith.

The veil is indeed beautiful, but not simply because of the golden lace, but also because of what it means to me.

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Jesus helps you see

Shelter-In-Place Day 108

Our Lady of Peace allows 10 people inside the church. The only requirements are that you wear a mask, use hand sanitizer before entering, sit in the designated pews, and keep your distance from others.

As I sat and looked at the monstrance, I wondered why did I ever take this for granted. It has been so long.

I prayed. I don’t know how I finally got down to the real question, but I think Jesus helps you see.

Jesus, am I weak?

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Video Call

Monday, June 22.

It is pretty amazing how my previous Spiritual Director can tell how I am doing spiritually through just a simple video call and conversation. And despite how long it has been since we have last met in person.

He was quick to spot where I was lacking. And again, he did so in the most gentle way possible.

You need to take it to prayer.

At the end, he said, “Let’s pray for each other.”

Of course, I’ll pray for you. Always.

I need Confession

I wanted to ask for Confession earlier, but I also wanted to wait until Shelter-In-Place and the whole situation to calm down. It still has not. However, it was over 3 months since my last confession and I didn’t think I could wait any longer. In fact, I felt spiritually heavy like I was carrying a huge bag of sins around. I felt tired.

I contacted my Confessor and a few days later, I was finally able to have Confession.

After I confessed all my sins, my Confessor said, “Don’t be so hard on yourself.“

I didn’t think I needed to hear that until I heard it.

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Đại Hội Về Đất Hứa 7 – “Though many, are one body” (1 Corinthians 12:12)

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ” – 1 Corinthians 12:12

Next month, I was supposed to travel to New Mexico for Đại Hội Về Đất Hứa 7. However, due to the pandemic, the event has been postponed to 2021.

There was a T-shirt design contest and I decided to enter the contest for fun. Why not? It was the first time that I used the iPad Pro for art. It was definitely a new experience as I have only drawn on paper in the past.

I did a quick GoogleSearch on the theme (verse) for inspiration and found this image:

GoogleSearch image inspiration

I really liked the concept of multiple people looking towards the cross, so I based my design off that idea.

My first draft of the T-shirt design included little TNTT people climbing up a mountain toward the cross. I wanted to included a little bit of color in it so I made the mountain purple. However, there was a limit on the number of colors we could have so I had to exclude some colors. I ended up not really liking the initial design due to the fact I had a limit amount of colors that I can use and therefore making the design difficult to understand.

Initial Design

In the end, I changed the colors to make the design make more sense. Simple is better. I decided to put my design inside a white circle. I wanted the circle to represent the host (the little piece of bread that becomes the Body of Christ). Here, TNTT people are holding hands and climbing up the mountain to be closer to the cross (in this case, I used the TNTT cross). The TNTT uniform pants and skirts had to be gray due to the limited colors we can use, but I felt like this made more sense.

Back Design

I looked back at the previous VDH T-shirt design and realized that there was a front and a back. I decided that my design would be the back and I quickly made a simple front design:

Front Design

In the end, I think I like the final T-shirt design. It was simple. And to be honest, I cannot remember why exactly I chose the T-shirt to be gray. Probably because I was not “feeling” any specific color so I just picked gray because it felt right at the moment I designed the T-shirt.

Final T-shirt Design

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My TNTT Story

This was a project I started back in 2016, but I stopped working on it because I got super busy with school and my internship/job.

This video did not completely turned out the way I wanted it to be, but “Done is better than Perfect” because “Perfect” does not exist.

I hope this video inspires you in some way.

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See you in the Eucharist

This past Sunday, 5/17/2020, Liên Đoàn Thánh Gia hosted the VEYM online Mass. During his homily, Fr. Hai Ho, OFM Cap. reminded us all that we are all connected through an invisible string from our hearts to the Eucharist. I was reminded of another Huynh Trưởng’s story I heard years ago about how she was no longer going to be able to see her friend again, but that friend said, “I will see you in the Eucharist.”

Later that day, I tuned into Đoàn Tôma Thiện‘s Eucharistic Adoration online. As I looked at the monstrance, I remembered the statement, “I will see you in the Eucharist.” At that moment, I realized this is the reason why I still feel connected to you and that you do love me.

Because despite the distance that separates us and time we have not spoken to each other, I see you in the Eucharist.

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I see you in my dreams

The night before, I must have been thinking about you more than usual because I had a dream about you that night.

In the dream, your flawed self and weakness was revealed as you stood, hurt, in your office as someone yelled at you and stormed out. I peeked in and asked if you were alright. Knowing that I wanted to talk to you, you told me to have a seat and began to clean up the table. As you tried to put things away, I saw a tear roll down your cheek and you quickly wiped it away.

My heart ached to embrace you. To hold your pain in my heart. To let you know that you were not alone.

To love you as how you have loved me.

Flawed. Imperfect. Broken.