"My first mass will be said in honor of the Immaculate Heart"

My name is Pierre Nguyen and I have been a priest for almost 13 years, a member of the Emmanuel community ordained for the diocese of Bordeaux, France, and of course I am Vietnamese!

Marcel Van (1) was unknown to me until I arrived in France in 2002 to enroll in a School of Evangelization in Paray-le-Monial, the city of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I was very touched by Van’s witness of life and vocation, but also by his Vietnamese outlook which is so familiar to me!

I received the call to the priesthood quite early, at the age of five or six. I liked to "play" mass with my cousins, but at the age of 15 or 16, that call faded. Curiously however, at the same age, I often went to pray at the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at the Redemptorist convent in Saigon. I made this request to Our Lady of Lourdes: "If you protect my vocation, my first Mass will be said in honor of your Immaculate Heart."

And guess what: on June 28, 2010, I actually celebrated my first Mass in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the church of the Sacred Heart in Bordeaux where I had lived for 5 years as a seminarian!

I came to France because it has Paray-le-Monial, Lourdes and Lisieux, three roots of my priestly vocation. And reading Van made me realize that: "France is still the country I have and cherish most (...). From France my love will spread throughout the world. I will use her to extend the reign of my love everywhere" (Jesus to Van, col 75-76).

Fr. Pierre Nguyen

Bulletin des Amis de Van, n°84, April 2023

Marcel Van (1928-1959) was a Vietnamese Redemptorist religious. Wishing to become a priest, he attended a parish priest's school at a very early age where he suffered from hunger and abuse. At the age of 16, he finally entered the Redemptorists of Vietnam. He died in a forced labor camp in North Vietnam after the country's independence. During his life, he had conversations with St. Therese of Lisieux, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. His "colloquies" were published in the edition of his complete works. His cause of beatification, opened in 1997, is underway. Declared venerable, he was named "apostle of love", according to St. Therese of Lisieux’ "Little Way".