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The community is composed of three monks in solemn vows and three in Temporary vows. There is also one postulant, José Luis Sanchez, who seems to have been made for the monastic life. And there are two aspirants who have health problems.
We have had a number of visits. Fr Francis Mc Kenna left us in February after three months. We were sad to see him depart and even more sad when we heard of his death. Fr Leo came for a couple of weeks. We always enjoy visits from monks of Belmont, specially from the one who built the monastery.
We were given a very good retreat by Abbot Oscar Rivera of Puerto Rico. In this we were accompanied by Fr Abbot. This was his second visit this year. The first in March was very short. In the third visit he also spent some days with Fr Joseph in Cruceta.
Fr Joseph spends much energy in the parish of Cruceta. We were pleased to welcome him when he came to Lima to have a hernia operation in the Clinica Tezza.
Abbot Richard Yeo, Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation, visited us in October and shared our life. We hope that he enjoyed his stay as much as we did.
Fr Luis spends much of his time looking after his mother whose health is failing. Many people come to the monastery to go to confession to him and to seek advice.
Dom Mario is immersed in paper work relating to our buying the land and in our legal war with Porras who invaded our land and claims, with false papers, to own part of it..
Dom Alex has had a very full year balancing his work as bursar and his last academic year in the Faculty.
DD. Percy and Wilmer have finished their second year of “Theology at the distance” with good marks. Wilmer is a very good guest master – our chief “ingreso”. Percy is sacristan (just like Illtud in character– says Richard Yeo with a laugh. - .
D Juan Edgar returned from Belmont, after taking his vows, and is now replacing Alex as bursar. He will begin Philosophy soon. He is a good, responsible member of the community.
What has happened about Porras is extremely complicated. Land trafficers take full advantage of the inefficiency of the very slow process of Peruvian Law. There have been three different government agencies in charge of our land, each taking over from the last and having to learn anew all about it, and four radical changes in the Law covering our case. There is an now a new investigation by a very capable policeman of the dispute between Porras and us. It seems to be going our way. An indication of this is that our lawyer is making moves to have Porras and his daughter in prison
We have had to hire another lawyer who is expert on land to manage the purchase of the eight and a half hectars.
SEDAPAL has re-constructed the canal that passes through our land. It is a mixt blessing because it has made it easy for people on foot or by bicycle to come too close to the monastery: hence, the necessity to have defences.
All three lawyers have said it is important to build on the land we claim very quickly. Defore we are building a cross of Saint Benedict twelve metres high with a road and a place to say mass. The road will have a Via Crucis. A family wishes to remain anonymous, is paying for everything. The lawyers are in full agreement. In constructing this cross we are also forming friendships with people who, we hope, will help us in the future. We have already received a gold chalice and paten.
As superior of the house, I feel greatly privileged to be member of a community as fervent and as motivated as this one.
It´s ability to work together was shown in the two “Ferias Monásticas”. They are earning a wide reputation for giving a good time and for the quality of the food.
We are friendly with the community of the Cenacle which has a home for abandoned children in Pachacamac. Cenacle is a community of ex-drug addicts and others who have made a mess of their lives, and whose path of recupeartion is the teaching of Our Lady of Mejugorje. Their answer to substance abuse is a life of prayer, penance and fasting. One was a street child in Mexico City from the age os six to sixteen. He took cocacine, pasta basica, heroine , crack etc; and he was persuaded to enter the Cenacle ("just for a few days") by other teenagers; and there he found what he had never experienced in his life - love. Eleven years later he is helping street children like him to recuperate. From this movement have come religious sisters and priests. One sister I know has tatoos on her arm because she had a "past".. I have never known a happier community of people, religious and lay people, men and women from different countries. They look after abandoned children. I shall soon write a post about them in my blog. I celebrate Mass for them on Sundays. Here is a photo of some of the cildren they care for, on a visit to our monastery.
