After her husband was executed, Bùi Thị Xuân and her daughter was sentenced to death by elephant trampling. Both she and her husband were skilled generals, faithful to the Tây Sơn dynasty, and the rebels waited for this moment to exact their revenge. Before the herd of elephants stampeded her only daughter's 16-year-old body, she turned and cried out to her mother. "I cannot help you in this moment. Die worthy of a general's daughter," Bùi Thị Xuân fearlessly counseled her daughter as she watched her daughter die before her eyes. After Bùi Thị Xuân suffered the same death, the soldiers fought among themselves to eat a piece of her liver. They believed she was "gan lì" which meant unwavering intrepidity and eating her liver, or "gan" would make them just as dauntless. Fr. Châu opened his homily for the Mass of the 117 Vietnamese Martyrs with this heroine story from our history books. He said anyone can die for a dream, an ideal, a vision. Yet,...
"Fr. Alex was here today," Sr. Jacinta Ngân said. "Oh? Is he back from his sabbatical already?" Sr. Terry Thủy asked. "Yes. He came with gifts, little Jerusalem crosses for each of us," Sr. Jacinta Ngân continued. Last year, Fr. Alex had come to say Mass twice for our convent because the priests nearby at St. Luke's was tied up with First Reconciliation for over 900 kids. He had wanted to come more often, yet we feared for his safety. He was over 80 years of age and his home was a good 20 minutes from our convent. "He asked me what was the name of the sister that worked at the hospital, the one he worked with," Sr. Jacinta Ngân elaborated with a twinkling smile. "I told him, Sr. Janine, Father, Sr. Janine." We giggled at Fr. Alex's lapse in memory. It was amazing that he served as a chaplain at Parkland Hospital to over 1000 Catholic patients and still remembered the location of our convent. "Oh yes, oh yes,...
"She had just lost her baby. It's been three hours. And she was still holding on to it." I looked at Carlos carefully. He was the head of the Women and Infants Department at the hospital, 15+ years a chaplain, and a nurse. "I told her it was time to let go. Time to let God take control. Time to take control of myself. Blah, blah, blah, you know what I mean," Carlos continued in a playful tone. A smile was beginning to break on his face. It was not usual for Carlos to view death as someone else's loss. He was a man of deep sensitivity. "She looked at me after I was yakking my mouth for almost 30 minutes... Then I smelled it... Gas!" He stopped as giggles began to engulf his sentences. "Then she looked at me and said, 'Some things you can't control!'" ps. Memories of my days as a chaplain at the hospital. Photo Credit: http://www.xda-developers.com/android/get-more-control-of-your-htc-sensation-with-t...
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