PAPA has been asked to pray that God grace and grant complete healing of Chiara Le through the intercession of Venerable Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan to advance his beatification.

Cardinal Francis Thuan was imprisoned by the Vietnamese government for thirteen years. He died in 2002.

Attached is a beautiful writing from the Cardinal.

A Prayer after the Heart of John the Baptist

Jesus,

yesterday afternoon,

on the Feast of Mary's Assumption,

I was arrested.

Taken during the night from Saigon to Nha Trang,

450 kilometers away,

Sitting in a car between two policemen,

I began the experience of a prisoner's life.

There are so many confused feelings in my head:

sadness, fear, tension,

my heart is torn to pieces for having been taken away from my people....

But in this sea of extreme bitterness

I feel freer than ever before.

I have nothing with me,

not even a penny,

nothing but my rosary and the companionship of Jesus and Mary.

Along the road of captivity I prayed:

"You are my God and my all."......

In the darkness of this night,

in the midst of this ocean of anxiety, of nightmares,

I slowly wake up again:

"I must confront reality:

I am in prison.

If I wait for an opportune moment

to do something truly great,

how many times will such occasions actually

present themselves?

No, I will seize the occasions that present themselves

every day.

I must accomplish ordinary actions, in an

extraordinary way."

Jesus, I will not wait,

I will live the present moment,

filling it to the brim with love.

A straight line is made of millions of tiny points

one united to another.

My life, too, is made of millions of seconds

united to each other.

If I arrange every single point perfectly

the line will be straight.

If I live every minute perfecty

my life will be holy.

The road of hope is paved with small steps of hope.

The life of hope is made of brief moments of hope.

As you, Jesus, always did what pleased your Father,

every minute I want to say:

Jesus, I love you,

and my life is always "a new and eternal covenant"

with you.

Every minute I want to sing with your Church:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit.

Venerable Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan