On November 8 (Saturday) we plan to organize a field trip to the Our Lady of Joy Abbey*, Lantau Island to do some voluntary maintenance works. Thus I led the reconnoitering trip to the abbey on September 27 with four committee members of the “Brotherhood of the Holy Cross”. We took the ferry (Pier 3) to Discovery Bay and hiked about 45 minutes to the abbey. Along the way, the beach and trails still littered with flotsam, rubbish and broken tree branches, damages left behind by the last Typhoon Hagupit. We were met by Fr Chuang and took (by ourselves) a tour of the former dairy production facilities (Trappist milk), the prayer room, chapel (joined in the angelus too @ noon), canteen and the trails in the neighborhood. Tentatively we’d try to replace (with artificial pieces) the rotten bamboos (shown in Photo # 17). SS our vice president will obtain some quotes and options.

I took all photos with the Nikon D3 + AFS 28-70/f2.8 lens.

* The monastery, called Our Lady of Joy Abbey, belongs to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The name Cistercian is taken from a French town, Citeaux, where Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) founded the Order in 1098 following the spirit of St. Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480 - ca. 547) who founded the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy. First established in the 19th century and now called Our Lady of Joy Abbey, the monastery used to be famed for having produced Trappist milk (known as “priest milk” in Cantonese slang). However, the factory has since been moved to Castle Peak in Yuen Long, and the cows have been relocated to mainland China. And here’s a weblink about the late Cistercian monk, Father Nicholas Kao Se-tean possibly the oldest Catholic priest in the world. http://archives.catholic.org.hk/memory/N-Kao.htm