Seminarians of Paris Get to Know Immemorial Mass of All Ages

Seminarians of the seminary of Paris decided in their vast majority to want to know the Immemorial Mass of All Ages

(Paris) 80 seminarians of the Archdiocese of Paris have recently attended Holy Mass in the traditional form of the Roman Rite on February 2nd, at the Feast of Candlemass.
 
At the feast of Jesus in Templo and Purificatio Mariae, an unprecedented event took place in Paris. The Archdiocesan Seminary of Paris is the largest diocesan seminary in France. On 1 February, the seminarians attended an educational day at which they were introduced to the traditional [real] form of the Roman Rite in the Parisian church of Saint Eugène-Sainte Cecile by the priests working there, the canon lawyers Abbé Marc Guelfucci and Abbé Éric Iborra. Saint Eugène-Sainte Cecile is a parish of the Archdiocese of Paris. Both priests teach at the same time as professors at the archdiocesan seminary.

Holy Mass at the Feast of Candlemass  

The Abbot of the old ritual Benedictine monastery of Le Barroux, Dom Louis-Marie de Geyer d'Orth, then celebrated with the seminarians in the church of Saint-Louis-en-l'Île, dedicated to the French King Louis the Saint, at Holy Mass in the so-called extraordinary form, as Pope Benedict XVI. explained it in the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum .
 
After decades of harsh rejection and exclusion of the traditional rite, especially in France, where the intra-Church conflict was particularly marked by a strong traditionalist movement, there are signs of rapprochement. This is also evident from the fact that it was the seminarians who, in their absolute majority in the academic year 2017/2018, wanted to study the traditional form of the Roman Rite and the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, although, according to Corrispondenza Romana, it was not due to attempts by the diocesan authorities who had failed in the formation of priests to dissuade them.

"The reality is different, and tells of a renewal of the Church, in France and elsewhere, thanks to the traditional orders and communities that attract vocations and now also attract the attention of the future diocesan clergy."

The Benedictine abbey Le Barroux, from which the celebrant was called, goes back to a foundation of Dom Gerard Calvet (1927-2008). The Benedictine rejected the liturgical reform of 1969/1970 as a serious break with tradition and returned as a hermit in the French Alps. After companions joined him, he began in 1978 in Le Barroux with the construction of the monastery.
 
He maintained close relations with the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Marcel, but this did not follow in 1988 on the path of episcopal ordinations not permitted by Rome. He broke the link with the Society of Pius and accepted the offer of the Holy See for reconciliation. His old rite community was canonically recognized by Rome, followed in 1989 by Calvet's deference. Dom Louis-Marie de Geyer d'Orth has been the second abbot of Le Barroux since 2003.

Although the seminary of the Archdiocese of Paris is the largest diocesan seminary in France, the largest seminary in the country, with more than 100 seminarians, is that of the Saint Martin Community, where, in contrast to the diocesan seminaries, the seminarians as in the seminaries of tradition, wear the cassock (vestis talaris).
 
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Riposte Catholique / Corrispondenza Romana
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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Blessing and Resettlement of a New Benedictine Cloister Reichenstein

The Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Reichenstein: Saturday will see the re-settlement of a former cloister by a Society of Tradition

On the following Saturday, October 14, the consecration and settlement of the monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will take place in Reichenstein. While monasteries are being closed elsewhere because of the lack of vocations, a new monastery is being moved into Monschau by traditional Benedictine monks.

Monschau is located in the Eifel south of Aachen and borders directly on the territory of the German-speaking community in Belgium (Eupen).

In 2007, the German District Superior of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, Father Franz Schmidberger, announced the intention to found a traditional Benedictine monastery on German soil in which the sacred liturgy will be celebrated in the Immemorial Mass of All Ages. In 2008, after the purchase of the historical monastery by the St. Benedict Society, the key handover of Reichenstein to the Benedictine monks took place.

After 200 years of revival of an old monastery

Church with new monastery buildings and cloister

In the 11th century, the counts of Limburg had erected Richwinstein Castle on a hill on the upper Rur. Having ascended to dukes, they donated the castle in 1131 to the Premonstratensian Order, which had just been founded by St. Norbert of Xanten. The castle was converted into a double monastery, as was customary in the early days of the Order. When this practice was abandoned, the Premonstratensians, Choir Nuns, remained in Reichenstein. Since 1487 it was then a principal choir house. The buildings, including the monastery church, originated in their present form in the late 17th century.

When in 1794, the French revolutionaries occupied Germany on the left bank of the Rhine, the conquest of the Premonstratensian monastery also began its decline. In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte, in the course of secularization, abolished the monastery together with many other monasteries.

After several changes of ownership, the lawyer Ernst Wilhelm Handschumacher, the Grand Officer of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, bought the former monastery together with his wife Helma in 1973 and renovated the complex in the 1970s. It was the couple's endeavor that the buildings be returned to their original purpose.

The twelve monks who will settle the monastery next Saturday, come from the Benedictine monastery of Notre-Dame de Bellaigue, built in 2001, connected to the Society of St. Pius X. The monks speak of the "reawakening of the monastery". In 2009, Dom Matthäus Haynos, the priest of the convent in Bellaigue, was given the name of the monastery church and celebrated the first Holy Mass by a new priest of the monastery. To this end, it had been re-established with a neo-Gothic high-altar with a statue of the Immaculate.

Bellaigue is a subsidiary of the Benedictine monastery Santa Cruz in Brazil. The first four monks came to France in 1999. After ten years, 25 monks were already living in the Auvergne, so a daughter-foundation could be established. For several years, a Benedictine convent has been built, a few kilometers from Bellaigue.

For years there have been urgently needed renovations in Reichenstein, as well as modifications and new buildings. The monks will supply their own heating with 36 hectares of forest belonging to them. The construction of the new cloister was started in 2015. 2017 saw establishment of a provisional central chapel. It will serve the monastic community in the coming four years for the liturgy "in order to be able to reconstruct the monastery church into the central, worthy and sacred space of the entire monastery."

This coming Saturday, Reichenstein will be officially established as a subsidiary of the monastery of Bellaique and be populated by a monastic community.

The program

At 9.45 o'clock Terce and then consecration of the monastery.

At 10:30 am Solemn High Mass in honor of the patroness of the monastery, the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

At 12.30 pm, Sext with welcome and luncheon for the faithful gathering to celebrate this memorable day with the Benedictines.

At 2.30 pm None and then coffee and cake.

At 4 pm Vespers and Sacraments.

At 5 pm, is the establishment of the cloister with the main gate closed.

The Society of St. Benedict, which is legally responsible for the repair of the buildings, regularly informs about the developments and the progress of the construction work with the "Monastery News." They will be occupied with the young monastic community for several years, as the actual monastery with cloister must be rebuilt (see plan).

"We want to build a school for the Lord's ministry. Everything without exception is to be done in this monastery for the glory of God, so that in all God God may be glorified."

This is how Br. Bernhard OSB writes in the latest edition of the "Klosternnachrichten."

Since 1 October 2017 Holy Mass in Reichenstein has been celebrated every day on workdays, Feast Days, Saturdays and Sundays at 7:20 am and 11:15 am in the Immemorial Roman Rite.

All of the faithful are invited to blessing and settlement of the monastery on 14 October.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi 
Image: kloster-reichenstein.de (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches....
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A Completely Different Order of Tradition --- The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb

(Paris) In France a very special female, traditional religious order exists. It provides women with Down Syndrome a safe haven and allows them to live a religious vocation.

The Little Sisters are "not self-evidently in a hypocritical world," said Veronque Labrion. A world which, although working on behalf of  people living with Down syndrome, but at same time attempt with  increasingly perfected meticulousness to detect their existence through prenatal and pre-implantation diagnosis and kill them before birth.

Founded in 1985, canonically erected in 1990

Les Petites Soeurs de l'Agneau Disciples (Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb) are a small community of Consecrated Life, which was founded in 1985 in Buxueil in France. In 1990 it was canonically erected by the Archbishop of Tours. Since 1995, the monastery is located in Le Blanc. In 1999 it was recognized by the Archbishop of Bourges  as an order of contemplative life.

The spiritual care of the woman of the Order is the responsibility of  the abbot and the traditional monks of the Abbey of Fontgombault, near which the monastery is located.

The emergence and formation of the young community was accompanied in its first steps by the famous French geneticist and servant of God, Jerome Lejeune (1926-1994)    whose beatification process was completed in 2012 at the diocesan level.

Contemplative Order of Sisters with Down syndrome

Little Sisters of the Lamb disciples

The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb  are the first contemplative orders, the women with Down syndrome has the opportunity to realize their religious vocation. The sisters with trisomy 21 form pursuant to statutes, the majority, they are supported by a minority of nurses without Down syndrome.

The nuns make, depending on inclination and aptitude, within the meaning of the Benedictine Ora et labora,  make fabrics, tapestries, wood sculptures and other tems to  secure a livelihood by selling them.

The Congregation wants "to allow those   who in the world are in last place,  to take the leading role as a bride of Christ in the Church, and through their God ordained witness of the Gospel of Life for those whose existence is so despised that their lives are threatened by the culture of death," said mother Line, the prioress of the community.

The "Little Way" of St. Therese of Lisieux and the Benedictine Charism of Ora et Labora

The Little Sisters follow the "Little Way" of St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), who was raised in 1997 by Pope John Paul II. to a Doctor of the Church. Significantly also, there is the influence of the Rule of Benedict and the Benedictine charism.

The nuns lead a modest life of prayer, work and sacrifice. They do gardening and handwork, Eucharistic adoration, maintain the Divine Office and the rosary, we live  the Holy Mass every day, live in silence and prayer, and look at the Scriptures, each according to their possibilities and abilities, which is why the daily rhythm is something distinct from that of other contemplative religious, a basic rhythm, however, it offers  all the sisters  an important basis, says Mother Line.

The  Order came about by  the encounter between two young women in the 1980s, of Line and Veronica. Line is now the prioress of the convent, Sister Veronica has Down Syndrome.

Silent inconspicuous life in the service of Christ

The sacred liturgy in the traditional form of the Roman Rite

The Little Sister Disciples of the Lamb take young women on who feel touched by the spirit of poverty and dedication and are willing to put their lives along with their sisters with trisomy 21 at the service of Christ.

Such a young woman was Sr. Rose Claire Lyon (1986-2013), who because of her cheerful and cordial nature was called "Sourire de Jesus"  (the smile of Jesus). She was born in 1986 in the Alsace-Lorraine town of Laxou and came from a family with many children. At the age of 19 she entered the convent of the Little Sisters in Le Blanc.  Sr. Rose Claire saw her role model in the "Little Therese", whom she referred to as "my big sister."

"Her longing for heaven was so great that she left the world as she  wished, quietly and tranquilly at the young age of only 26 on May 4, 2013,"  said mother Line. Dom Jean Peteau OSB, Abbot of Fontgombault, who celebrated the funeral Mass, said in his homily: "The message of Sister Rose Claire is contained in one word and that message is: Jesus".

Marc Jeanson made a documentary about the young congregation.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Romualdica

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

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The Baroque Pictorial World of Ottobeuren Abbey

The Upper Swabian Benedictine abbey Ottobeuren is celebrating its 1,250th anniversary this year. On this occasion the monks, with at personal expense, and generous financial support from outside, have produced a two-volume book project entitled "Otto Beuren. Baroque Imagery of the Monastery in Painting and Sculpture ," published  by the EOS-Verlag. In hundreds of pictures - which are a bit too small, unfortunately, in some rare cases - the Publisher presents paintings, statues, stucco and other artistic features, which have given the Abbey  worldwide fame.  Almost everyone should know the problem of looking at a painting and recognizing its beauty, but what is represented is not really being  deciphered. The two illustrated books provide expert comments and explanations, which often open up new dimensions for the reader.

Founded in 764 it is the story of the Abbey, which was dedicated to St. Alexander and Theodore, closely connected with the history of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which existed in about the same period. The founders of the monastery were the Alemannic noble couple Sylach and Ermiswinth whose son Toto a little later, was the first abbot of Ottobeuren. Already in the tenth century the Imperial City was obtained by Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg, but the advocacies were only removed in 1710 from Abbot Rupert Ness by the Bishop of Augsburg.

The baroque monastery of the 18th century, as we still know it today, has the enormous size of 480 by 430 meters and this is due to the initiative of the aforementioned Abbot Rupert Ness. The full imperial immediacy (Reichsunmittelbarkeit) meant that Abbot Rupert was full state and court master of an area of ​​around 265 square kilometers and about 10,000 residents. The rich immediate status of Ottobeuren explains the magnificent interior of the building, which of course not only had to serve for monastic life, but also the administration of the territory of the abbey.

Nevertheless,  the secular did not push the spiritual  into the shadows: "Only apparently did  the secular manorial features outshine the monastic elements of the Ottobeurer monastery structure, because the cloistered areas for are inaccessible to laymen; they belong 'to the monks.' That it was the kingdom of prelates and feudal lord, Abbot Rupert Ness, was above all in the beginning much less the representative of the Imperial Abbey and more about the Benedictine community, as the genesis of the new building began in 1711; in the care of his confreres Abbot Rupert first built functional cells refectory and kitchen build and equiped the south east quadrangle.  "In addition, the financial balance sheet  was not burdened by excessive pomp by the monks, as it was elsewhere often the case." Despite immense expenditures for construction and equipping of the monastery, they were able to accumulate no debt."

Text: Benedict M. Buerger
image: publisher

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

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Brussels Casts Covetous Eyes on Famous Abbey of Monte Cassino?

Famous Abbey of Monte Cassino Belongs to the
State of Italy. Does the EU Cast Covetous Eyes on
Her?

(Rome), the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino amazingly does not belong to the  UNESCO World Heritage sites, while it is like no other place for its spiritual and cultural heritage of the West and of the Latin monasticism.  When it was fought over during  the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944 and destroyed by Allied air raids, the abbey is also inextricably linked with the horrors of the Second World War. Currently, there are some dark clouds over the ancient abbey which have to do with its juridical and administrative future, because what only few people know:  that the Abbey belongs to the Italian Republic and in the EU there seem to be secular mentalities who have thrown their eyes on iconic monastery.

1500 Year Old Abbey was Destroyed Three Times and Suspended Twice

In 529 the Abbey of the Holy Father monk Benedict of Nursia (480-547) was founded, which was named after him with the Benedictine Order as the cradle of Latin monasticism. Monte Cassino has since been regarded as the "mother of all abbeys." In her what will soon by her  1500 year long  history, the abbey was destroyed three times by human hands. The first time in 577 by the then Arian Lombards, then 883 by the Muslim Saracens and 1944 by American bombers. For a long time it was claimed after the war, German troops were entrenched in the monastery. Indeed, such did not consider  to spare the abbey from fighting. A strategic consideration, which the Vatican and this also the allies were informed. The recent historical research assumes that the Allies had rear view of the monastery was just annoying, which is why the British commander of the Allied forces in Italy, Sir Harold Alexander (1891-1969) gave the order to carpet bomb in February, which transformed the monastery in a rubble. Only the crypt with the grave of the holy founder was spared. He was reportedly standing in 547 and died during prayer at the altar as angels became visible taking his soul aloft into the sky before the eyes of his confreres.

Monte Cassino after the destruction

According to various types of reports, 250-430 were killed during an air raid 250-430, especially refugees, who hoped to find safe refuge in the monastery, but also several monks. The survivors, including the abbot, were taken by the German side to safety. Previously,  units of the 1st Hermann Goering Parachute Panzer Division brought, by the unauthorized initiative of Lieutenant Colonel Julius Schlegel the invaluable library and precious works of art to safety in the Vatican. Only then did German units barricade themselves in the ruins of the abbey and kept the Allied attacks at bay for still some months. In the battle of Monte Cassino  around 20,000 German and more than 50,000 Allied soldiers fell. Monte Cassino has since been regarded as a symbol of senseless destruction.

Pope Pius XII. called for the rebuilding of the monastery in 1947 with the encyclical Fulgens radiatur as a symbol of the reconstruction of the Christian West. The Pope named the Abbey as the "home of mercy", which has so far survived all the turmoil of many centuries, as the monks returned again and again to the mountain above Cassino. The largely faithful reconstruction after the Second World War, especially with German and American help, was a sign of reconciliation in the joint cooperation of the former enemies. The abbey church was rebuilt in 1964 and consecrated by Pope Paul VI.  The last year  Pope Benedict made him the Holy Patron of Europe.

Abbot as Diocesan Bishop, Territorial Abbey as a Separate Diocese

The monastery has in the Benedictine Order in 1504 the rank of an Abbey of Cassianese Congregation. In canon law, the abbot not only has the rank of an Archabbott, but also  a diocesan bishop. The abbey has the status of a territorial abbey. The territory belonging to the Abbey is almost 600 square kilometers with about 80,000 inhabitants in 53 parishes, forms a separate diocese whose bishop is the abbot of Monte Cassino.

The reason for this canonical norm was the Italian unification in the wake of the Risorgimento. Already in 1807 it was dissolved once under Napoleon, where it was also ordered by the new Italian state in 1866, the repeal of the abbey and the monastery told unceremoniously in an act of confiscation as a "National Monument". Since then, the monastery has been owned by the state. Only at the beginning of the 20th century was the Abbey be reestablished under the protection of the Lateran Pacts.

Concordat protects Abbey before the State

To protect the abbey and monastic community as much possible from nationalization, the abbot was elevated to the rank of bishop after the signing of the Lateran Pacts of Pope Pius XI.. The abbey church has since, the rank of a cathedral and the monks form the Chapter with the rank of canons. To mitigate the precarious tenure, the abbey has since been under the protection of the Convention signed in the Concordat between the Holy See and the State of Italy. 

In early July there were loud rumors, Pope Francis would dissolve the territorial abbey  in the course of a general reorganization of the Italian dioceses, and thus the diocese of Monte Cassino and annex it to the territory of the neighboring diocese Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo. It's an opportunity to nullify it provided by the current vacancy of Abbatial and Episcopal See. The official announcement of the resolution was expected on 19 July. At that time it was said that Pope Francis had already signed the corresponding decree. Already in 1986 it had come under the new Concordat for "merging" several dioceses, a term with the removal of some dioceses was accomplished. Decisions of bureaucrats who hardly took into account the historical connectedness of individual regions and the impact  on the spiritual life.

Plans to Abolish the Diocese

In addition to Monte Cassino in Italy there are more venerable abbeys, which were expropriated by the state and then brought from the Church to territorial abbeys, to protect the monastic communities and monasticism, which have an essential spiritual and cultural contribution to evangelization.

In the Vatican, the plans were initially shelved, after a "secular rumble" was heard from Brussels. A representative of the EU is to have apparently expressed the idea in a "joke" to convert the Abbey of Monte Cassino or any part thereof in a branch of the European Union for human rights, as soon as it could be removed by  Concordat from the status of a territorial abbey and thus of special protection. Since the Abbey is owned by the state, the Republic of Italy could make a unilateral reclassification.

Brussels "Jokes"

The Brussels flights of fancy on the secularist side was taken seriously enough in the Church at the Vatican - so far successfully - to push for a postponement of a repeal of the diocese. In Rome it has forced the maintaining of the Concordat protected right, to protect the abbey, the abbot and the monks, but especially this icon and this lighthouse of Western Christianity and Christian culture against the appetite of some EU-secularists. It is feared that a "Human Rights Center" would, under the current EU, mean an ideological distortion of the human rights idea, with the risk to go to the expense of human dignity and thus to contradict the Christian principles. So the real risk is seen that a center of Christianity could be converted by the EU among others into a center of the new non-Christian gender ideology.

The Abbey of Monte Cassino is suffering from the same ailment as other religious communities in Europe. On 12 June 2013 Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of the then only  51 year old Arch-abbot Pietro Vittorelli. The Abbot, reigning since 2007,  had asked  for a resignation after a heart attack due to health reasons. Since then, the Abbeyhas been  waiting for the election of the 191st successor to Saint Benedict. "The Lord may at any time allow a fundamental renewal of the monastic community. But if the state has other purposes for the Monastery, it is lost to the church," says Messa in Latino .

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Messa in Latino / Nara

Cardinal Ouellet Celebrates the Immemorial Mass for the First Time -- 25 Years of the Abbey of Le Barroux

(Rome) The prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, on Friday, will celebrate a Pontifical High Mass on June 27 at the  Benedictine Abbey of Le Barroux in France in the traditional rite.

The occasion was to commemorate the reconciliation 25 years ago  of the Benedictine Monastery of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux with Rome. Since then  the Abbey  reports to   the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei . On June 27, the traditional Benedictine Abbey will celebrate this reconciliation, their elevation to the abbey, at which her late founder, Dom Gerard Calvet was raised to Abbot in 2008 and the consecration of the abbey church.

Abbot Gerard Calvet Could Not Accept Liturgical Reform

Born in 1927 Calvet entered   the Olivetans Order, a branch of the Benedictines, in 1950 and was ordained a priest in 1956. As a missionary, he worked for several years in Brazil. The monk saw a serious rupture in   the liturgical reform of 1965/1969, which he could not follow. He left with the permission of the abbot of his monastery Tournay and has lived since 1969 as a hermit in the Vaucluse department in the French Alps.

When young men joined him, who also wanted to live the traditional liturgy and Benedictine Spirituality, Calvet appealed in 1973 with his Convent to the Fraternity of St. Pius X. This led to a break with his Abbey and the Benedictine Congregation of Subiaco.  In 1978 Calvet began with the construction of his own monastery in Provence Le Barroux in the diocese of Avignon. In 1986, a subsidiary was founded in Brazil.

After a Few Fractures, Stability

Dom Calvet did not   follow Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988 on the path of illicit episcopal ordinations. He broke the connection with the SSPX and Rome accepted the offer of reconciliation. It was step that split the community of Le Barroux. A part of the Convention separated from Dom Calvet, including the Brazilian subsidiary that was founded.

Daughter Founding in Aquitaine

In 1989,  Cardinal Augustin Mayer gave the Calvets abbatial blessing and the same year also the consecration of the abbey church was by Cardinal Edouard Gagnon. In 1995 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger aleo visited the traditional Abbey. In 2002,  the Monastery of Sainte-Marie de la Garde in Aquitaine was founded as  a new subsidiary. Today's Priory will  be an independent abbey in the future. 

Since 2003 monastery's fortunes have been passed to  Louis-Marie de Geyer d'Orth, the second abbot of Le Barroux. A few months after the death of old abbot Calvet Le Barroux was in the 2008 Benedictine Confederation added. The Abbey  now has 55 monks, while the Priory of Sainte-Marie de la Garde 13 monks.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Wikicommons

First Male Cloister in Thailand Established

Chiang Mai (AsiaNews) - At last, Thailand's Catholic Church opened the country's first Benedictine monastery. The inauguration ceremony was held in the presence of Mgr Francis Xavier Vira Arpondratana, bishop of Chiang Mai.
The event was an "historic" moment because the new structure is the first male monastery in the "Land of Smiles," already home to seven female monasteries (Carmelites and Poor Clares).
Held on 18 January, the ceremony saw the presence of Mgr Antonio Mattiazzo, archbishop of Padua, who had suggested and supported the project after receiving a positive response from Abbot Stéphane Huynh, head of the Benedictine Monastery in Thien An (Hue) in Vietnam.
Vietnam is already home to three Benedictine monasteries, which are literally "bursting" in terms of vocations. However, Vietnamese authorities do not seem very keen on authorising a fourth one. For this reason, setting up a new monastery in neighbouring Thailand seemed a good idea.
The new monastery is located just outside Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand. It has ten cells for monks, eight guestrooms and a chapel on the ground floor.
The five resident monks, all from Vietnam (including Abbot Stéphane who retired because of age and decided to come to live in the newly founded Thai structure), follow the old rule of Saint Benedict, alternating moments of prayer with work, growing maize, rice and fruit trees.
The importance of the Benedictine institution, which is a sign of the growth and vitality of the Vietnamese Church, is the first concrete step in the "new evangelisation," since its importance does not lie primarily in its educational or social role, as it does in its monastic and contemplative life, which are also the bases of Buddhism.
For Thais, a monk is in fact a "man of God", dedicated to prayers and meditation.

The necessity which drove the monks from Vietnam will lead to new evangelization in a Buddhist country.  Of the 70 million inhabitants of Thailand, there are only a half-million Christians, mainly Catholics. 93 Percent are Buddhists, 4.5 percent are Muslims.  It is not an academic or social apostolate which will be undertaken by the first male religious establishment in Thailand, but the monastic life of prayer.  A form which is very dear to Thailand’s Buddhists.

Text: Asianews/GiuseppeNardi

Photo: Asia News

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches…

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Basilica of Nursia: Winning Back the Presbyterium for the Old Rite

(Norcia) The photo gallery shows the gradual rebuilding of the chancel of the Basilica of Nursia, which has been supervised by the revived Benedictine Abbey since 2001. The American Benedictine Dom Cassiano Folsom, realized the re-establishment of a monastery twelve years before in the Abbey birthplace of monastic Father Benedict of Nursia and his sister, Saint Scholastica. The monastic life was strangled there in 1810 by Napoleonic legislation. In 2000 the Archbishop of Spoleto-Norcia offered an invitation to Cassiano cathedral, to resume the Benedictine tradition in the central Italian city.

The Benedictine convent is biritual. Internal monastery only maintains the traditional rite, while for the pastoral care the Novus Ordo is celebrated. The request of the abbey to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, to celebrate the Holy Mass in Utroque Usu was approved in 2009. The Benedictines of Norcia emphasize a liturgical apostolate in the Old Rite.

The Benedictines currently live in Nursia, where they are plagued by lack of space. Therefore, they work on gradual reconstruction of ancient monastery ruins outside of Nursia, which will house the abbey in future.

The Benedictines of Norcia have worthily transformed the presbytery, despite only modest resources that are available to them. The first picture shows the presbytery of the basilica after the liturgical reform. The second picture shows the first stage of the liturgical restoration at the solemn vows of a monk. The direction of celebration was changed to ad Deum. The third picture shows the second stage of the liturgical restoration of the the extension of the chancel and nave, with ceremonial vestments, showing the facing the apse, and altar in the direction of celebration ad Deum, apsewards towards the rear wall, which was also redesigned solemnly. The picture was taken at the solemn profession of two monks from the monastic community was celebrated this past 3rd of August.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Bild: Messa in Latino Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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Website of the Cloister.