Before his earthly departure, Jesus in his farewell discourse to his disciples (Jn 14) assured them that not only would he not leave them orphans, but he also introduces them into his spiritual family, a spiritual family that has many rooms able to accommodate all, and is life giving.

Maybe once in a while we have met some people who seemed to have everything in life; a good house, a flash car, a high-paying job, manage to travel around the world at a moment’s notice but somehow there’s something that is missing.

New research by SVD missionary Fr Michael Nguyen explores the question of how Vietnamese people might read and understand the famous account in John’s Gospel of Jesus multiplying the loaves in their own cultural context.

Fr Michael, who was born and raised in Vietnam and is a member of the SVD AUS Province, says his study was an attempt at doing mission in dialogue with culture.

We have been reading from the Gospel of John for the past few weeks and the theme, ‘Jesus is the Bread of Life,’ is constantly recurring in these readings.