The Road of Hope. A Gospel from Prison

The Road of Hope. A Gospel from Prison

The Road of Hope. A Gospel from Prison (1975). Published in English, Pauline Books & Media, 2001.

This publication is a collection of 1001 brief thoughts, described by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray in the book’s presentation as “a thousand droplets of the Gospel”. The book contains a Preface and concludes with a poem written by Van Thuân entitled “You have a Homeland”.

“In the village of Cay Vong, where I was sent to house arrest under police surveillance, ‘confused’ among the people, day and night I felt obsessed with one thought: My people! My people whom I love so much! A flock without a shepherd! How can I communicate with my people at this moment in which they need their shepherd most? Catholic bookstores have been confiscated; schools closed; nuns, religious, teachers must go to work in the rice fields. This separation is a shock that destroys my heart”.
These 1001 thoughts were received clandestinely by various Vietnamese citizens in the West – people, who had been a part of the boat people. The thoughts were originally published in Vietnamese and translated into different languages, divided into 36 different themes as 36 stations of a long journey through the desert: from “Departure” to “Hope”.
The prisoner Van Thuân leaves us a clear and practical testimony of how to follow, day by day, in the footsteps of Jesus: in entrustment, in love and in hope “that does not disappoint”.
These 1001 thoughts, written at the begin of Van Thuân’s long imprisonment, undoubtedly form the foundation for his later works.