With a heart full of gratitude to God, and because I have been deeply amazed by the works He has accomplished, I humbly share a few stories from my small Orthodox community in Vietnam.
To most Vietnamese people, Orthodoxy remains a distant and unfamiliar faith — a religion that seems to have no presence in this country. Indeed, in this S-shaped land, there appears to be little public knowledge about Orthodoxy in Vietnam. Only those who know our small community of Vietnamese believers are aware of specific details. I count myself fortunate to have discovered the presence of the Orthodox Church in Vietnam when I, together with my friend Theodora, decided to learn about Orthodoxy.
Perhaps the first story I should tell is my own.
I was born and raised in the Roman Catholic faith, brought up in a family with a long-standing Catholic tradition. (I even believe my ancestors may have been among the martyrs during the feudal era when Catholicism was first introduced here.) My grandmother and my father taught me to pray and to participate in church and chapel liturgies. More than anyone else, my grandmother would often say she loved me deeply because I was the only grandchild who diligently went to church!
I lived that way for about 17 years — actively involved in parish service and catechism classes. I often visited Catholic bookstores to buy and read books. I learned much from the Roman Church, and even in my own household, whenever someone had a question about faith, they would usually ask me.
Living in such an environment, I gradually idealized the teachings I had learned and considered them absolute truth. I would become easily irritated if a priest celebrated Mass carelessly. I witnessed liturgies being altered and distorted, and it deeply upset me. I could say everything began to fall apart for me when I saw how far reality diverged from the ideals I had been taught. The Church taught obedience, but I saw disobedient priests; the Church taught love, but I heard priests speaking harshly to the faithful — even in their homilies. All in all, I found everything increasingly unacceptable.
At that point, I began to abandon my Roman Catholic faith and converted to Lutheranism. But when I realized that Protestantism, too, had many problems, I started exploring Orthodoxy together with my friend Theodora.
Theodora found Savva through an Orthodox group on Facebook — he had just been baptized a month earlier. She reached out to him, and from there, we came to know one another.
When I began studying the basic teachings of Orthodoxy, I was completely astonished and overwhelmed. The entire Western theological framework I had built was shattered in an instant. I must admit that I had never encountered anything like it before. At the time, I didn’t yet understand all of the teachings, and I struggled to accept certain things — but little by little, through learning from the ыaints and through experience, I came to embrace them. It was then that I could begin to say: Lord, yes, I surrender to You — I am defeated by Your ineffable love.
The reason I say this is because, before I was illuminated by the light of Orthodoxy, I had fallen into a terrible path of sin. I had, even willfully, committed sins I used to detest. I became jealous, bitter, and hateful toward my family. I even lost control of my actions and came close to attempting suicide multiple times. Truly, I can say that during that time of crisis, everything — both within me and around me — was hell itself.
When I heard Orthodox teachings about heaven and hell after death, I was stunned — overwhelmed. These teachings revealed an image of God full of love and simultaneously demolished the old theology I had known. From that very moment, I had my first glimpse into the Orthodox way of life: always remembering that God is full of mercy — and that He loves in ways that fill us with awe.
I remember clearly: during the time I first encountered Orthodoxy, my heart — writhing and in pain — was being healed. I would often listen to The Beatitudes. I listened to that one hymn on repeat for a long time because its melody soothed my soul. I can say that, at that time, I had never felt such peace. I could even sense a freshness and abundance of life in the space around me.
I studied the catechism for a few months — a relatively short time — since I only needed to focus on the differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, and to deepen my understanding of distinct Orthodox teachings. Then, according to the will of God, after many more months of waiting and continuing to live in hope, I received baptism on January 6, 2024, in the evening just before the Nativity of Christ.
God delivered me from such terrible burdens and torments. I do not know why He chose me; I only know this: He has loved me completely. He had mercy on me and gave me new birth in the very place where I could have perished. If God had not saved me, I likely would have plunged myself into darkness during one of those crazed moments of hatred and rage when I lost all self-control.
