This summer, Sisters from our Vocations team and congregation attended various religious conferences to connect with discerners. We enjoyed meeting so many women at these conferences, including the National Eucharist Congress in Indiana, Our Lady of Lavang Festival in California, and Marian Days which has taken place in Carthage, Missouri, every year since 1978.

I want to share with you about Marian Days which holds special significance for me.  Marian Days is a big Vietnamese-American festival that honors our Blessed Mother. The festival is held the first weekend of August each year, starting on Thursday and ending on Sunday morning.  Each year, around 60,000 to 120,000 people come to honor our Blessed Mother, to pray for her intercession to become closer to God, and with Mary, they pray and give thanks to God.

This four-day festival also helps the pilgrims remember their ancestors in faith, connect with friends, build relationships, and refresh their faith in Vietnamese culture through workshops, talks, reconciliation, adoration, solemn Mass, and nightly entertainment. Click here to see a tour video of the campus where the event is held.

Every other year, a group from the Dominican Sisters of Peace participates in this spirited festival in Carthage, Missouri. This festival allows them to experience Vietnamese culture and share faith with this cultural group while promoting peace and sharing information about a religious vocation.

At our vocation booth, we interacted with thousands of people, listened to their sharing, and received their prayer intentions for our Sisters and Associates to hold in prayer One of the prized giveaway items that pilgrims always appreciate and need is fans because of the blistering, hot August weather conditions.  We also offer peace-promoting materials to encourage people to join us in our mission to “be peace, build peace, and preach peace.”  This year, we also had a second booth dedicated to making “Peace” rosary bracelets, which created a space for joyful and intimate conversations on how to live in peace daily.

I have been attending Marian Days for years. It is a special place for me because it is here where my vocational call came alive again. In August 1999, I attended Marian Days and wandered around the vocation booths, moving from one to another booth until some Dominican Sisters saw me and invited me to their booth. I hesitated to do so because, at that time, I did not want to pursue my vocation in religious life anymore. But their gentle, insistent invitation won me over, and I stopped to talk briefly with them. These sisters encouraged me to discern my call with their Dominican congregation and handed me some vocation materials.

Afterward, as I reflected on my conversation with them and read the vocation materials they shared, I decided to give my vocation call another chance before closing the door to religious life.  I contacted the vocation sister of this congregation to tell her I was ready to discern whether I had a call to religious life as a sister. Several years later, after wandering to this booth, I became a vowed member of the Dominican Sisters of Peace. Now, my life has flourished, and I find religious life very fulfilling.

I deeply appreciate the American Dominican Sisters, who have embraced me and my Vietnamese culture over the years. Also, having Sisters from my Dominican community participate in this Vietnamese-American festival in Carthage, Missouri, which was the birth of my religious vocation, is such a witness to the openness, inclusivity, and diverse community that we are. Every time I return to this place, I always want to encourage and invite younger generations of women to consider whether God may be calling them to become religious sisters.  

Is there a special place where you have heard God calling you to consider a call to religious life?
This call may come from a still, small voice inside you, or someone may be encouraging you to explore this possibility. Why not act now and explore what adventure awaits you by joining us at our free Come and See Discernment Retreat in Kentucky, September 13-15, 2024?  Click here for more information and to register. 

Or, contact us, and we will be happy to assist you in discerning your vocation call.