Fr Joseph Si Tuan Vuong, assistant parish priest of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City, celebrated Mass in honour of St Josemaría Escrivá on the 6th of July, Monday.

The usual crowd of forty or fifty churchgoers swelled to 200 as faithful from as far as 40 kilometers away took to their motorbikes to attend the Mass that began at 5:00 in the afternoon.

In the homily, Fr Joseph made mention of St Josemaría's teaching about the priesthood, it being the Year for Priests. He also recalled St Josemaría's insistence that lay people too have a priestly soul, since they share in the common priesthood of Christ.

St Josemaría, he said, invited all the faithful to make an offering of their lives, echoing words of St Peter: "be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 2:5) , and those of St Paul: "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (Rom 12:1)