News from the Monastery
GOD IS WITH US
The Benedictine Monastery of Thien Tam wishes you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas, peace, filled with grace and blessing of the Holy Child Jesus! The Almighty God grants salvation to all, through his Son, who was incarnate by the Holy Spirit!
We also wish you and your loved ones a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2023!
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Dear Friends,
The monastic community cordially greets you and your loved ones in Christ!
For almost two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a detriment to social and religious aspects of our daily life. Perhaps, everyone also experienced a stressful and challenging situation, even to the point of some families have had to say farewell to their departed loved ones.
Our monastery unites with everyone by simply keeping our faith and hope firm in God. More than ever before, as Catholics, our life of faith must be deeply rooted in prayer with hope! Prayer is a necessary spiritual remedy for our life of faith. Prayer is entreating God’s grace to descend upon us. Therefore, we should never forget to pray!
Through God’s providence, our monastic community steadily carries on our activities. Our schedule and daily works have been completed as usual.
Cultivating the orchard and small vegetable garden, and rearing livestock are the works associated with monastic life. In addition, there are works relating to maintaining certain areas, mowing the field, and planting flowers. We are also trying to plant some small pecan trees to provide shades in the future.
Our monastery is also grateful to all volunteers who help with all sort of work on the weekends. Especially, in recent weeks the volunteers put in the time and labor to help build a carport for community vehicles and a large auto shed for machinery maintenance.
Regarding this past year, our community has had a few events to recount.
- On October 22, 2022, our Br. Paul Buong Pham, OSB, passed away peacefully. He was 94 years old.
- BLESSED SACRAMENT DAY XIII this year was taken place from June 16-19. We got an opportunity to welcome all those who came for this celebration. Our monastery sincerely wishes to express our gratitude to the BSD Committee, volunteers, and all participants.
- This year, for the Feast of Our Holy Father St. Benedict, we held it on July 16. On this feast, we also expressed our appreciation to all benefactors, friends, and all members of the ‘Thien Tam Family,’ both living and deceased.
- Also this year we were able to receive different groups, who camped at our Campgrounds.
For all the activities of this year 2022, our community offers God our heartfelt and thankful gratitude. We knowingly place our hope in God’s boundless mercy each day.
Sincerely,
Fr. Dominic Hanh Nguyen, OSB