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DAEGU PRIORY NEWSLETTER
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DPN 363 Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, Daegu Priory,
KOREA June 2013
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Growing & Harvesting Chamomile!! June is the time for
harvesting chamomile. So the whole community gathered in the
chamomile field after Vespers when the hot sun is gone for the
harvest. It makes all happy to work in the field with nature. We
stick to the hand approach of the flower removing the bright gold
centre and the white petals. In a couple of days, we find again
more flowers ready to harvest. Under the cloudless sky, we work
with great joy for we know that the chamomile will be used as a
medicinal herb to heal the sick.
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Sisters in Harmony
Monday, June 3:
The whole community of Daegu Priory House assembled at the
Chapel for an hour, in unity with
Pope Francis in Eucharist adoration at 12:00 a.m., Monday, June
3 (that is, Rome time Sunday 5
p.m.). It was the first time in history of the Church that the
whole People of God, which is the
laypeople, the clergy and consecrated people around the world
gathered with one mind and heart in
prayers for the intentions of the Pope. The intentions were
posted on the board one week ahead in
preparation for this historical event.
June 7 – July 8:
Fifteen Sisters attended a 30-Day Bible Reading Retreat from
June 7 to July 8 facilitated by Sr.
Isaac Bae at the Benedict Spirituality Center in Sasudong,
Daegu. This is part of the renewal
ongoing formation program for the Sisters of Daegu Priory, but
also opened to laypeople and other
religious. It started from the first Book of the Old Testament,
Genesis going throughout
Maccabees Book II in three weeks. On June 29, another group of
sixteen participants consisting of
religious, priests and laypeople joined the program for the
books of the New Testament.
Thursday, June 13:
Fr. Augustine Lee presided over his first Holy Mass at the
Chapel of Daegu Priory House on Thursday evening, June 13.
He belongs to Daegu Archdiocese, but was transferred to the
Cleveland seminary, USA during his formation. He was newly
ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Lennon on May 18 at the
Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Cleveland. His first
Holy
Mass was celebrated the next day, May 19 at the Korean St.
Daegun Andreas Parish in Cleveland. Back in Korea, he
celebrated his first Mass at his home Parish, Hyeonggok-dong,
Gummi City on June 5. Many of our
Sisters who worked at that parish remembered him as a little
Altar server. His favorite Bible verse
was “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”
(Leviticus 19, 2)
June 17 – July 20:
Sr. Pauline Park, Sr. Haesegong Kim, Sr. Berna Hwang, Sr.
Josephina Jeon,
Sr. Fransoa Lee and Sr. Stephanie Park started the 30-Day
Spiritual Exercises
of St. Ignatius under the direction of Sr. M. Johann Heo, Sr.
Luna Park and Sr.
Imi-Theresa Cheong at the Benedict Spirituality Center on June
17. Last
experiences have shown that this retreat is one of the most
powerful retreats
in which one is led to a new understanding of oneself, in
relationship with
God and others. Many prayers are requested for the Sisters on
this spiritual journey.
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Monday, June 17:
On the afternoon of June 17, before the summer monsoon season,
the
Sisters of Daegu Priory House gathered in the potato field to
harvest the
full crop of potatoes. Three hours of work were enough to
harvest all
large and small potatoes. All were stored for summer and
fall.
Wednesday, June 19:
On June 19, Sr. Lioba Lee was installed as superior of Jaundae
community by Prioress Sr. Lumen
Choi after her service at San Degun Andreas Korean Parish in Sao
Paulo, Brazil. Jaundae is a
Military Ordinariate Ministry and she will assist the armed
forces with pastoral care with three more
Sisters for the next four years.
June 24 – July 7:
All eight Postulants with their directress Sr.
Catherine Hyun, Sr. Ecclesia Park and Sr.
Anima Kim set off to Changwon Fatima
Hospital vacation House in PuGok on
Wednesday, June 24. They returned to the
convent on July 7 with new strength. Even
Postulants Agnes An and Julia Lee under
apostolic activities formation joined the
common vacation on June 25. On the same
day, Postulant Theresa Cho was sent to home
vacation for 12 days and returned on July 7.
She is expected to be admitted to the
Novitiate on August 14.
Echo of the 25th
Daegu Priory Chapter was held during the month of June in 4
different locations.
166 Sisters attended the first session held in the basement hall
at Daegu Priory House on Monday,
June 10 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:20 p.m. On the following Saturday,
June 15, a second Echo Chapter
was delivered to the Sisters of Daegu Fatima Hospital. In
attendance were 82 Sisters. On June 16, at
Changwon Fatima Hospital with 41 Sisters and on June 17, with 16
Sisters at Hanggangjin local
house, Seoul.
Following the prayer example of Pope Francis, the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of Korea have
issued a joint statement calling for special prayers during the
months of June, July and August for
the reconciliation and unity of the Korean people. The 60th
anniversary of the conclusion of the
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armistice agreement on July 27, 1953 turned out to be a good
occasion for this appeal. The chain of
prayer began in Seoul on June 1 passing through Daegu from June
21-22 and ended in Wonju on
June 30. As part of the prayer chain, Prioress Sr. Lumen Choi
along with Sisters and formandees
attended the Holy Mass held at the Marian Shrine in downtown
Daegu on June 21.
Tuesday, June 25:
In commemoration of the
construction of the new
Cathedral dedicated to Korean
unification in a South Korean
border Paju city, a Holy Mass
celebrated, presided over by
Seoul Archdiocese Cardinal
Nicholas Cheong Jin-Suk, in
hope that many people would
come and pray for peace on
the Korean Peninsula. The
importance of this church is
that fact it was initiated by a group of North Korean Catholic
defectors who purchased a plot of land
in Paju for the church in 1997 and donated it to Seoul
Archdiocese in 2006. Since then South
Korean architects and North Korean artists worked on the
architectural project of this church. The
exterior was taken from Junsadong Cathedral in Sinuiju, North
Pyeongan Province and the interior
from St. Benedict Monastery in South Hamgyeong Province. North
Korean artists mostly worked
on the interior mosaics.
In attendance to this ceremony were Gyeonggi
Governor Kim Moon-soo and Paju Mayor Lee In-jae
along with religious, clergy and lay people. On behalf
of our congregation Subprioress Sr.Christina Moon and
twelve more Sisters attended.
Comings & Goings Tuesday, June 4: Arrival of Sr. Pacchomia
Kim from Los Angeles for 30 – day Bible reading retreat
and vacation.
Tuesday, June 25: Departure of Sr. Gaudia Park to Norfolk
Priory, USA for a year of English
improvement.
Wednesday, June 26: Departure of Sr. Fidelis Kim for mission in
Sri Lanka.
Thursday, June 27: Arrival of Sr. Daniela Kim from Rome for
vacation.
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Two lectures were delivered during the month of June. On June 3,
Prof. Lee Gyeong-su delivered a
lecture on “Do we need virtue in this century?” based on the
Encyclical documents of former Pope
Benedict XVI. On June 17, Sr. Hannah Park delivered a lecture on
our latest apostolic ministry of
raising North Korean defectors children at Fatima Apartment.
April – May - June:
After the construction permission obtained from Daegu
City Authority, Gongpyeong-dong Local House was
submitted to underground cultural property
investigation process by Samhan Institute of Cultural
Properties during the month of April and May. During
the excavation, it came as a surprise for most of us the
fact that around 100 cultural artifacts were discovered
underneath the 375 ㎡ property area 1 . They were
accurately examined and were classified in 8 different
levels of Bronze Age and Joseon Period (1392 – 1897).
There were vestiges of tiles and walls, white porcelain,
memorial stones, arrowheads and much more, which are
important properties to understand the lifestyle of the
ancient people. It was amazing to see the number of
artifacts discovered beneath this small area. We
acknowledge that the pieces are regarded as particularly
valuable because of their adjacent location and a series
of linked prehistoric and historic sites from diverse
periods located near the Geumho River. They will be
preserved as cultural heritage for future studies, said
Mr. JiWon Gang, responsible for the investigation by
Samhan Institute.
▲Location of Gongpyeong-dong house & Property area
▲Some pictures of discovered cultural artifacts
1 In fact, the Missionary Benedictine Sisters received part of
the Diocese residential property donated by Bishop
DeokHong Choi in 1951 when surviving circumstances were hard for
our Sisters after being refugees in Pusan.
Monday’s Evening Lectures
Apostolate news
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June:
Changwon Hospital launched a campaign to reduce energy in
response to the global
energy crisis during the month of June. The campaign was
supported by Sisters,
doctors, nurses, employees and patients of the Hospital. All
were encouraged to use
PC sleep mode in their offices avoiding using unnecessary
electrical appliances,
turning off unnecessary lighting during day time, reducing the
air conditioning time
and turning off electricity during lunchtime from 12:50 p.m. to
1:20 p.m. on
Wednesdays. This brought new awareness to all participants.
Hopefully, they will
do the same at their homes.
Friday - Saturday, June 21 - 22:
More than 200 participants attended the International
Hernia Conference hosted by Daegu Fatima Hospital and
Hernia Institute from June 21 – 22 at Daegu Fatima
Hospital and EXCO conference hall. Live surgery for
hernia treatment, conferences and academic information
exchange were delivered by foreign professors from Japan,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia.
(continued from DPN 362)
In September 1947, Sr. Magdalena organized things to open the
Tanabe Kindergarten in Osaka.
Several MBS Sisters joined her there. Sr. Dorothy came from the
USA. Sr. Viventia went there
from Germany. Two Korean Sisters, Sr. Juliana (Humilitas at that
time) and Sr. Bonifatia, joined
them also around November 1950. On April 1, 1955 they officially
opened and managed well the
kindergarten with the two Korean Sisters who could speak
Japanese fluently.
Tanabe Kindergarten, Osaka (1954)
Hasimoto Kindergarten with Sr. immaculata Martel
Later on, Sr. Immaculata Martel joined them as their superior,
who was repatriated through
Germany on January 24, 1954 from the Oksaduk hard labor camps.
But suddenly in July 1961 they
were ordered to retreat from the actual mission field in Japan.
Sr. Magdalena didn’t understand such
A little bit of knowledge from one of our pioneers…
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a sudden order from the Generalate. She got hurt deeply and she
wanted to hold on to the mission
but in the end she obeyed meekly.
Into the hands of the Osaka diocese, without any condition
attached, they gave the two
kindergartens of Tanabe and Hasimoto. Having hurt deeply in
heart she nevertheless said goodbye
to her beloved Japan and came to Daegu Priory House in Korea in
1961. Sr. Xavera couldn’t handle
the situation so well and so she left the MBS congregation and
stayed in Japan. Sr. Magdalena was
deeply religious and followed the right path no matter what. We
all praised her courage to come
back to Korea but she trusted in the Lord’s loving
providence.
In Korea, she was appointed to be in charge of the vestment
embroidering and sewing section. She
created new modes of creative vestments. At that time she was
known to be the best vestments
maker. Even now the newly ordained priests want her kinds of
vestments. Almost 20 years she
embroidered, sewed and created new ways to express her
religiosity on the vestments. Then after
coming back from her home leave in 1980 she retired from the
vestments making. She served as a
porter at the convent gate during the forenoon till 1994. She
kept this job very faithfully. She did
whatever ordered very faithfully and diligently.
Korea was under the Japanese rule for 36 years and endured all
kinds of injustices and
maltreatments. Thus, she knew our people’s deep-seated anger and
feeling of enmity. Nobody
expressed these feelings in front of her but she knew that she
couldn’t be one with Koreans as hard
as both sides could try. At times she expressed her feelings
about this to one or other Korean Sisters.
Individually she was friendly with every Sister.
Before her death she said that her 16th
ancestor was Korean. She kept her dignity of being Japanese
till the end. From 1995 her spine gave her trouble. Walking was
a hard job for her. Even then, for
seven years she kept her own room but around 2000 she moved to
the Infirmary. On July 10, 2002,
in the eve of her beloved St. Benedict’s feast, she finally
greeted her Lord of Heaven. At the end of
her life, she showed some sign of dementia but she never lost
her high dignity of character. Till the
end she kept her good behavior and well groomed mannerism. She
went to God showing a beautiful
and clean state of mind and heart. At her death, there were
still three living siblings and some
nephews/nieces but they didn’t come for her funeral.
She was the only Japanese Sister in our Priory or Congregation
and we will remember her as a very
dignified and good person and a true daughter of St. Benedict
and the Church.
◀Silver Jubille of Sr. Madgalena
(Sinam-dong, 1964)
Sr. Madgalena (2nd from left) making
traditional Korean food soengpyeon
in 1970 ▶
-Sr. Veronica Lee-
Responsible for the Chronicles of Daegu Priory
(Translated by Sr. Maria Paul Sung)
“…that in all things God may be glorified” (Pt 4,11)
Newsletter: [email protected]
Homepage: www.benedictine.or.kr
mailto:[email protected]://www.benedictine.or.kr/
