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Name: Huong Van Le
Date of birth: June 8, 1985
Hobbies and interest: reading spiritual books, watching spiritual movies, playing soccer, drawing, psychology, theology
Favorite saints: St. John Vianney and St. Anthony of Padua
What is the vocation of priesthood? This question never bothered me before until the summer of 2005 when the first thoughts of becoming a priest echoed in my head. Like most students after high school graduation, I wanted to study at the university in order to get a good job and live a comfortable life. But those dreams of the future were slowly turned upside down.
One day in the hot summer of 2005, I received an unexpected invitation from my pastor for dinner. At the end of that dinner, the pastor mentioned that he and some others had voted for me to be a leader of over 300 children as a catechist. What a surprise! I did not expect this challenge at all. I doubted and worried very much about the request, so I don’t know why I later accepted it. I guess it could be understood as a young man’s enthusiasm. I started teaching right after that while joining a special catechism class for catechists. At first I just played games with children, and then I taught a little bit about the faith from what I learned in my catechism class. Interestingly enough the act of teaching kids day after day brought me a lot of fun but challenges as well. The more I got involved in teaching, the more I cared for the children. Moreover, I realized that my faith in God was growing just like a small tree growing under the tenderness of the skillful hands of a good gardener. Teaching catechism bit by bit had drawn me out of the small coffee shop business which I was running with some of my friends, and the pressure of school. I went to church as often as I could since I understood the importance of the Mass to Christian life and to myself. There I found peace and rest. The expression “priest of Christ” grabbed my whole attention for the first time. It echoed inside of me in a way I don’t know how to explain, but I was also confused. I was confused because in me there were two voices: the first voice told me that I should continue pursuing my future dreams of a job, a family, and a comfortable life; the second voice asked me to give up those dreams and to choose a priestly life as a pre-seminarian in the local parish. Which voice should I follow? There was no certain answer at the time. It haunted me for at least six months.
However, that confusion finally ended. After many days of praying for holy guidance from God, I read this passage in the Bible, "whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28). This prompted me to decide that I would follow the voice that I believe was the call of God even though the decision made my father unhappy. It even caused many of my friends to humorously call me “a fool.” Now, that “fool” is a seminarian of the Diocese of Oakland, studying at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon and happy with the life he has chosen to live, that is to serve and to love.