Holy journey Holy Journey
Part 1 Calling
Part 2 God's House (Home)
Part 2 God's House (Home)
Part 1'Calling' (Calling)
Part 2'Home' (God's House)
“It's in the rules. I don't want this place to be any strict training space. I want to be a school of love. School to learn love.”
“If we are happy, we can really pray, and if we are praying, we can be really happy.”
“How can we die and live in heaven if we do not enjoy the joy of heaven when we are alive.”
On Arirang TV's <Documentary A>, the documentary of St. Benedic of Olivetano also produced and broadcasted as a two-part documentary.
Benedicdo Abbey in Olivetano Castle in Goseong, Gyeongsangnam-do, is where James Papas Yoo Deok-hyun and 15 religious people live as a religious service. Founded in Italy in the 14th century by Saint Bernardo Tolomei, the Benedicdo Order of St. Olivetano first entered Korea in 1988 and built a monastery in Goseong.
Farming in the mountains, this monastery hasn't used any pesticides for decades. Therefore, you can meet creatures living only in clean areas such as fireflies. Religious people aim for a loving settlement community that welcomes guests and praises God, working according to monk traditions in a wide ecological environment that is good for walking and meditating.
The Benedicdo Abbey of St. Olivetano is also the only two abbeys in Korea, along with the Waegwan Benedicdo Monastery.
Papas is the Korean word for abbot, originating from the religious in Eastern monasteries calling their leaders “abba,” meaning father, as spiritual mentors. Papas is the elected bishop's high-ranking clergyman, serving as a spiritual father and elder who leads the capital community.
In the first part,'Calling', a daily life centered on prayer and labor, which religious people from different backgrounds call'Opus Dei', vividly unfolds.
Pray and work.
The motto of the Order is'Pray and work.' The day is filled with eight prayers, masses, and heavy labor from beginning with early morning prayer until the end of the prayer. In addition, according to the tradition of the Order, it is handed down the Gregorian chant that has been handed down for over 1500 years. Even during his busy day, he practiced in his spare time and preserves the beauty of the Gregorian chant.
All kinds of colors. 15 religious people gathered through various lives!
In the Monastery of St. Benedictine of Olivettano, the backgrounds of 15 criminals, including James Papas, Deok-Hyun Yoo, are diverse. Promising officers, theater actors, seafarers, national Taekwondo players, musicians who even lectured at university, etc.
They said they didn't even dream of becoming a rhetoric, and they confess that they were called and came to the monastery.
What was their calling? What do you think about the life they choose now? From the petitioner who has been in the monastery for six months to Papas, who has been in the monastery for more than 30 years, each one contains the sincere answers.
Part 2'Home' is the story of God's house where people gathered under'Calling'. It is curious, but the general public shows the daily lives of the religious people in the unknown blockade.
Secret containment area. The lives of religious people living in it!
The Abbey of St. Benedicdo of Olivetano has made a step toward reaching the public by creating the first Catholic ``monastery stay'' program in accordance with the tradition of the Order to welcome guests.
The monastery is divided into an area open to the general public and a containment area that only religious people can enter. In the second part Home, a containment area, which is a space for religious people to stay, and a room, which is a private space, are also open. For a monk, a room is a space to communicate with God, and even the same monks cannot go in and out of the room.
Regarding their curiosity about the containment area, the monks say they are ordinary people and have nothing to hide. And it shows all of the daily life without hiding it.
A monastery is a place to learn love, and what will their day to day look like as they say they live in a school of love?
People who live ahead of heaven
Field farming, orchards, raising native bees, and so on, are common lives that everyone has never done before coming to the monastery. However, the monks are happy despite the eight masses and prayers every day, and the labor that continues between them. I am so happy that I confess that I am sorry to my family and friends that I left outside.
The daily life of the Abbey of St. Benedicdo of Olivetano, which breaks the concept that a monastery is a place of solemn, hard, and ascetic.
In'Holy Journey', the lives of the monks who love more and that love overflow and flow into the world are the purpose of religious life.