In memory of abbot Odo Haas 오도 하스 아빠스를 기리며

                                                               

Abbot Odo Haas (O Do-whan in Korean) passed away at the age of 88 on Feb. 17.

Until recently, he did not miss community prayers and liturgies at all, but a month ago because of his old age, he had to be hospitalized at Daegu Fatima Hospital.

He was born in 1931 in Karlstadt in the Diocese of Wurzburg, Germany. He entered the Abbey of Munsterschwarzach, made the perpetual profession in 1957 and was ordained a priest on July 6, 1958. He was sent as a missionary to Korea in 1960 and served as an assistant parish priest at Sangju parish.

He became the first abbot in Korea at the Waegwan Abbey of St. Benedict in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province, at the early age of 33 in 1964 but willingly resigned this position as abbot in 1971, thinking that Koreans should run the Korean abbey. 

During his terms as abbot, he placed the foundation to reconnect the Benedictine Abbey of Deogwon in North Korea and Yeongil Abbey in China. He also helped many civilians who were devoted for the democratic movement in Korea. Then, he lived in Japan from 1972 to 1982, and in the Philippines from 1982 to 2004. 

In 2002, he applied to go to India and China, but he had to come back to Korea in 2004 and then went to Rome to serve as a confessional priest for three years at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls where the tomb of St. Paul is placed. He gave confessions in German, English, Korean, Japanese and Cebuano. 

After receiving knee joint surgery in Germany, he went to Taiwan in 2008, the Golden Jubilee year of his priestly call and service, and came back to Korea again in August in 2009. He helped Filipino migrant workers in Gumi Catholic Workers’ Cultural Center, and later visited India and Taiwan. 

Thus, resembling the missionary itinerary of St. Paul the apostle for gentiles, Fr. Odo always had a clear and innocent smile. He dedicated himself to live as a missionary who helped the mission place to grow and then left the place for another mission place. 

When Waegwan Abbey celebrated the 100th anniversary of its foundation in Korea in 2009, he came back to Waegwan. He used to pray the rosary for an hour-and-a-half every day. He offered each mystery of the rosaries for his country Germany, the Pope, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. He also never forgot about North Korea.

His whole life was truly a mission. When he read missionary magazines during his youth, he felt the calling to live for many people on a mission. Accordingly, he always replied to that calling and was eager to be sent to other places.

As a German proverb says “A drop of honey catches more flies,” he always wished the religious community to be such a honey. Regarding the community as a living building where faith is alive, breathing in and out, he emphasized that “what we need is not the building but the community.” 

In the heavens above, he will still pray that all the religious communities live lives that have the taste of the sweet honey of faith and witness such lovely taste through the living community. Here and now, I can feel that he sincerely hopes each of us will live and experience the Good News not with the head but with the body.

 http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/02/162_264011.html

The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ Feb. 19 (online)/ Feb. 20, 2019 (offline)

Spread your wings over us! 당신 날개 펼치소서!

                                                         

Even though we live in an individualized society, what we long for sincerely is the community. Even Kakao talks and Facebook build the community in various ways. In the face of individualism and materialism, what is revealed is, in fact, communion, community and solidarity.

One of the characteristics of the Catholic Church in the world is a universal sense of community, communion and solidarity. We have various charism to live and mission to realize, but each of us belong to one spiritual community based on integrity, communion and collaboration. 

In a broad sense, this community can be called “the kingdom of God” filled with spiritual fruits like love, peace, joy, mercy, forgiveness or compassion.

The sense of community in solidarity lets us be rich and abundant through sharing and collaboration in communion. It also lets us have co-responsibility and work for the common good.

For this purpose in pursuit of the common good, the most fundamental mission for each of us would be to get out of the selfish ego in order to have an open-minded personality who is willing to give the self out unconditionally and share with others wholeheartedly.

Last year in September, “Pauline” in Korea released the third album of CD music series on prayer, entitled “Spread Your Wings”. Seven Pauline Sisters sang 12 songs in the tunes of piano, violin, flute, viola, cello, clarinet, guitar, etc. The title song is taken from the well-known Swedish hymn, “Spread Your Wings over Me”.

This album includes 12 living hymns, including some adapted foreign songs and several pieces of music that Pauline Sisters composed. Kwon Oh-jun produced and directed the arrangement of the songs, and Jeong Soo-gyoung directed the vocals.

In the hope of bringing peace and consolation to the world under the wings of the Lord, the choir performed last year in various venues such as Pauline books and media center in Seoul, Peace Radio Broadcasting in Busan, Book Cafe Leven, run by the Society of St. Paul in Nonhyeon-dong, and so on.

As St. Augustine said, those who sing with joy and gratitude surely pray twice, or even more. Singing is one of the touching ways to proclaim and witness the joy of the Gospels.

Personally, I also wanted to sing together, but I had no time to practice. Furthermore, nobody recommended me to be involved. I could not join in that initiative, but I feel I already participated in it thanks to the universal sense of community in solidarity. 

This sense of solidarity brings such a marvelous and mysterious co-involvement that goes beyond all the boundaries of time and place and capability. The sense of community in solidarity is also led to the principle of subsidiarity or auxiliaries and complement that realize justice in the society.

St. Theresa of Lisieux did not go abroad as a missionary at all, but she is the patron saint of missionaries. It is possible through prayers and solidarity. How marvelous to see and experience the communion of saints in our lives! Beyond time and place, we support and complement one another. 

The solidarity lived in the community is something like the constant prayers of parents who always wish their children to be successful and happier even though they are apart from each other. The unseen chain of prayers lived through sacrifices and endurance create the true community in communion.

 http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/03/162_264552.html

The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ March 3 online/ March 4 offline, 2019

‘Kngl’ and ‘little wave library’

                          

It is always a joy to meet a person with goodwill. Whenever I go to see my mother at a senior care house for the elderly run by a religious congregation, I drop by the public library nearby. 

One day, I noticed so many books in large fonts are displayed in the reading room. Some of them were either “not for sale” or a “special edition,” probably for publicity. Appreciating the covers and copyright notices, I found out those books had been published by the social enterprise called “Kngl” which means large fonts.

In consideration of people who have poor vision, the elderly, those suffering from presbyopia, and those who are visually handicapped, the Kngl publisher created the patent fonts to improve readability for the public. Han Jeong-sik, the representative of the publishing house, began this work in 2009 with the dream of getting everybody to read more easily and efficiently.

Undergoing endless trials and errors up to 2015 as he developed large fonts, he even slept and ate in his car, traveling around the country to distribute the large font books to public libraries. He created three kinds of large font and published 30 titles a year in the beginning. 

For this initiative, he consulted and collaborated with 120 elderly-related groups and 117 low vision-related groups. At present, he is publishing about 100 titles a year, and about 300 public libraries are purchasing his books.

Believing that the secret to the elderly living actively and positively after retirement is “reading,” he has dedicated all his energy and time as well as capital to develop the Kngl publishing business. Besides publishing large font books, he also shares his goodwill through literacy education, a reading therapy program, writing a biography, the formation of a nanny with stories, the large font village school, and so on. 

As we know, there is not much profit in publishing, but his other dream is to publish some translations from the Vietnamese language for multi-cultural families in Korea. What a social and multi-cultural adventure this is!

Another surprise is to see the 48th “little wave library” run by LG SERVEONE in the migrant workers center in the Uijeongbu diocese when I recently went for the mission at Paju Exodus migrant group. 

All around the wall on the second floor of the multi-purpose hall in the migrant center called “The Lighthouse of Asia” were shelves filled with various books both in English and Korean. I was so glad to see this library, for this initiative truly proves that inner power comes from continuous reading. 

The first floor with the ceiling opened to the second floor is used for the celebration of Mass, various gatherings, and a cafe. From the railing on the second floor, we can see the whole grand hall. 

I was so touched to see that Paju Exodus migrant group was founded in 2006 in the Uijeongbu diocese, and the former priest worked hard to build the migrant center from 2014 to 2017 with the help of 149 parishes and organizations as well as 6,244 sponsors. After moving into the new center a month ago, he was transferred to another post and another priest was assigned to begin the migrant pastoral service. 

Truly, “Blessed are the peacemakers!”(Mt. 5:9)

 http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/04/162_266189.html

                                           The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ April 1, 2019

Power of fibrous roots 덩이뿌리의 힘

In gardens or on the streets, everywhere is filled with pinky-white or yellow blossoms in spring. Looking around the new sprouts and buds coming up little by little is always awesome and marvelous. Quince, cherry, plum, apricot and peach blossoms are surrounded with fresh and spontaneous vitality. In early spring this year, our communities decided to arrange the yards in the congregation; so as a part of resolutions during the Lenten season, we cleared up dried leaves and broken branches that had fallen here and there.

Considering the scattered gardens, each of seven communities (joy, faith, love, meekness, grace, peace, and hope) was assigned to take care of some part of the gardens. So making use of our spare time, we are transplanting and arranging the plants as well as sowing seeds such as rose moss, garden balsam, rose mallow, and so on.

To transplant some lilyturfs that have grown in the front garden under the pine trees to the backyard surrounded with a little hill, I dug out the earth with a hoe and noticed a root mass like numerous threaded veins. Especially at the end of the fibrous roots, terminal tubers like peanuts were dangling. 

It was quite interesting to see those tubers dangling from the fibrous roots. What a mystery for lilyturfs to survive all year long depending on fibrous roots! Those tubers or lumps might contain the watery sap to sustain the plants as an evergreen perennial and to preserve its vitality even in the midst of the barren soil or shady forests. 

Later I learned that the big blue lilyturf (Liriope platyphylla) is a low growing, turfed, grass-like perennial understory plant that grows 30-50cm tall with evergreen foliage, lilac-purple flowers with single-seeded berries on a spike in the fall. 

The lilyturfs can endure heat, humidity or drought, but they prefer moist and fertile soils with a partial shade. It is also known that those terminal tubers can be used as an effective medicine to prevent coughs and phlegm, as it improves the lungs and stimulates vitality. The lilyturfs easily reproduced by dividing the root mass can also clean the air.

In general, the roots are hidden underground, but evidently, all the plant's vitality comes from them. Especially the roots are so fibrous, tiny and fragile but they extend deep into the hardened earth like a sharp knife. 

Furthermore, they create the tubers to store the enduring vitality. There lies the healing power of life. Whether the roots are big or small, thick or thin, they penetrate deeply into the ground. Their constant efforts to enter into life accumulate an inner healing power and give a persevering endurance to every plant.

I really appreciate the behind story of the hidden roots. Jesus dying on the cross is like the hidden root. Though giving everything out, he is not seen like the hidden roots, but he is alive always to vitalize and sustain the weak, the humble, the poor, the alienated and the unknown.

"Living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body's growth and builds itself up in love." (Eph 4:15-16)

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/04/162_266922.html

  The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ April 13-14, 2019

At Taepung Observatory 태풍 전망대에서

Taking care of some parts of our gardens every day, I clearly observe and experience the mysterious vitality of the life of various flowers and trees these days. So mysterious and marvelous that I can't but believe the joyful proclamation of the rebirth of Jesus. Through the nature, I firmly believe that Jesus has risen! Jesus is always alive in nature and among us.

Up until February, there was no sign of life at all on the ground, but the tender buds and delicate sprouts began to come up little by little from March. 

The creative and dynamic power to come up from the underground is so energetic and enormous that the colorful spring spontaneously reveals the creative and vivid beauty of life. The process of sprouting and shooting up in the nature itself tells the mystery of resurrection. 

After celebrating Easter Sunday, our communities went for an Easter picnic on Monday. About 250 members of the Pauline Family in Korea took a pilgrim to Taepung Observatory in Yeoncheon near the North. It was the second community picnic that the Pauline Family organized together since 2014. 

Especially with a sincere and urgent wish for a peaceful reunification in the same spirit of peace movement across the country, we paid this pilgrimage together.

In Taepung Observatory, I could see the well-known distances of 2km from each country. Along the Imjin River, the 7th largest river flowing from North to South, we walked the 11th track of peace on the mountain for about two hours while praying the rosary. 

The Imjin River and the surrounding fields looked so peaceful and silent around the Demilitarized Zone. There were no speaker sounds any more in the air coming from the North. 

The sky was lofty as high as our dreams for the reunification. Azalea, forsythia, cherry blossom, bridal wreath, and magnolia in full bloom seem to wait for peaceful reconciliation and harmony as well.

After painful suffering from Japanese colonization from 1910 to 1945, we finally became independent on Aug. 15, 1945. But the most miserable Korean War occurred on June 25, 1950 due to North Korea with the support from Russia. 

The Korean War lasted for three years, and the Armistice agreement created the Demilitarized Zone called the 38th parallel line on July 27, 1953. This boundary between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North) and the Republic of Korea (South) was established between the Soviet Union and the United States. 

The armed military defense is prohibited in the Demilitarized Zone 2km each in the South and North. The length of the DMZ is about 248km (155 miles). 

Due to the ceasefire, several sorrowful lines across our beautiful mountains came into being like the military demarcation line, Southern limit line, Northern limit line, and civilian control line as well as terms such as Joint security area, Joint utilization zone or peace working agreement.

How long have we had hope for the reunification to be fulfilled! "Our hope is the reunification. Even in our dreams we wish for reunification. 

A reunification carried out with all my heart and soul. Let's achieve the reunification. The reunification will revive our people. The reunification will revive our nation. The reunification, come quickly! The reunification, come!"

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/04/162_267665.html

The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ April 27-28, 2019

Peace and healing book concert 평화와 치유 북콘서트

As the times change, the means of sharing the Good News are also developing. Nowadays, interactive convergence forms of talk show, book concert, happy reading therapy, laughing therapy or musical performance are more appealing and touching. 

With the goal of giving the glory to God and peace to people, the Pauline publicity marketing team planned various book concerts this year. The "Peace and healing book concert with Pauline" project was awarded at the 2019 contest of religious group support projects sponsored by Seoul City in consideration of the culture and art business that contributed to promote the 100th anniversary of the March 1 Movement. 

With the help of the support project from Seoul City, four book concerts will be held in 2019. The first was presented on April 17 on the topic of "well-dying" with a book recently published by Pauline, entitled "Mom, it's alright. Don't feel sorry," a true story of preparing for separation between a dying mother at a hospice center and her daughter of eight years old. 

For this event, Yu Seong-i who wrote the above-mentioned book as a thanatologist and an expert in death education and Lim Jeong-jin who wrote "Happiness is not in the order of grades" gave mini-lectures and talks. At the same time, the solid ensemble of four musicians (violinists Byeon Ye-jin and Gyeong Ji-a, violist Hwang Kyu-yeon, cellist Byun Sae-bom) performed a chamber music concert as well. 

On June 20, the trend topic of happiness will be presented with a book titled, "Everywhere is filled with happiness," written by Prof. Lee Chung-moo at the Department of Digital Contents in Konyang University.

On Sept. 23, the topic of facing addiction will be presented by Fr. Hong Seong-min, an expert at the Addiction Association, and a situation drama will be performed by the Pauline sisters.

On Nov. 20, laughing therapy with Sr. Lee Mi-sook of the Congregation of Religious Missionaries of St. Dominic will invite people to live with smiles and hope. 

The first two will be held in the Alberione Center near our Congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul in Gangbuk-gu, and the second two in September and November will be held downtown to attract a much wider audience. 

Especially in solidarity with those who work for mental welfare, the topics will include the social issues of suicide, depression and addiction. Surprisingly, the suicide rate in our neighborhood of Gangbuk-gu is noted as being the highest for three years in a row in Seoul.

The Peace and healing book concert with Pauline is realized with four goals in mind: first, it spreads the culture of peace and goodness among citizens by sharing the Pauline content more broadly. Second, it improves the spiritual and mental health of citizens by providing cultural programs especially for those who are suffering from mental or psychological difficulties. Third, it shares cultural benefits with the alienated by inviting them and running a campaign to share books with the poor. There will be a book donation corner to send books to the hospice center, addiction recovery community, and a prison.

We expect to establish the culture of life and joy with the public, to improve the mental health of citizens, and to build a communion with local people around our Congregation by sharing Pauline content more widely.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/05/162_268098.html

The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ May 3, 2019

Being an umbrella 우산이 되어주기

                                         

BTS (Bangtan Boys or Bulletproof Boy Scouts) first began its formation in 2010 and released its first album "2 Cool 4 Skool" in 2013. In April 2019, BTS released its sixth mini-album, "Map of the Soul: Persona" to express their wholehearted gratitude for those who inspire and support their international singing performances. 

Truly, all the success and recognition are realized by the marvelous help and the hidden power of people around the world. The powerful and creative energy behind performances and appearances is like the dynamic and spontaneous sprouts of the roots deeply penetrated into the subsoil. 

Behind the gorgeous activity, there are always thousands of fans, supporters, collaborators, benefactors, and volunteers who are presenting generously like an umbrella under the rain and the hidden roots in the underground under the sun. Who would deny the necessary presence of hidden power bringing some fruitful results?

One day, I had a lunch appointment outside. I went out without an umbrella even though the sky looked gray. I didn't expect rain at all. As I got off the subway and came up the stairs, I noticed it had already started drizzling while I was in the subway. So I wore the hood on my jacket and walked on.

Walking on and on, I encountered a woman with a rosary in her hand. She greeted me so warm-heartedly that she handed her white plastic umbrella over to me, saying "Sister, please take it. I can't endure watching a Sister walking under the rain."

"It's okay, for the rain is not so heavy."

"Please take it. I can buy another one for myself. It's really my pleasure."

I tried not to accept her favor because it was just drizzling. However, in the end, I accepted her willing kindness.

What a compassionate heart she has! I asked her name because I wanted to remember her in my prayer, and she simply said "Agatha" and went away in the rain. 

Her goodwill reminded me of the willing support of Helena who passed away because of cancer several years ago. She was still quite young and tried hard to apply for alternative medicine, but she couldn't persevere the destructive power of infection on the other parts of her body.

While I stayed in Singapore, she regularly brought various fruits and some necessities, for herself and her husband Raymond, and decided to help others as much as they could. They thought providing something good to eat is one way of helping, for health is fundamental above anything else.

When I needed exercise, she even invited me to the badminton court. When I needed some diversion to relieve stress, she brought me to the park and helped me to keep emotionally balanced. 

When I needed the funds, she collected used goods donated by her acquaintances and sold them finally to accumulate some funds to support our community. She sincerely wanted to become a faithful friend to a missionary.

How can I forget so much spiritual consolation that I received from her presence! Not only helping me but also volunteering to give a hand to the cook at the nursing home run by the Congregation of the Missionary of Charity, she did her best as an umbrella to support and to do something good for others. In the heavens, she will still carry extra umbrellas to share with others.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/05/162_268343.html

The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ May 10, 2019