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Views from the Choir Loft

Trappist Monks in Hong Kong Chanting

Andrew Leung · January 17, 2019

HE TRAPPIST MONKS (Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance) have been in Hong Kong since 1950, they fled from the Communist China and built the current Our Lady of Joy Abbey on the distant Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Like the other monks, they lived a simple cloistered monastic life and they prayed the Divine Office seven times a day.


OWADAYS, there are 17 monks at the monastery and they mainly sing the Liturgy of the Hours to simple chant tones in Mandarin. Recently, I was invited to share about Gregorian chant with them, especially with the younger monks. They told me that they are very interested in rediscovering their heritage, and thus singing the more complex Gregorian chant. Here is what we have learned after the first few sessions.


N THE PAST, I have also helped the monks at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia, to start a schola formed by monks who are passionate in singing ancient chants. We had weekly rehearsals and individual singing lessons, and I would go to their Sunday Vespers and Benediction every week because the monastery is only 10-minutes-away from the parish I worked at. It was a very memorable experience and I am filled with joy as God leads me to another Trappist monastery, even though these monks really knows how to distant themselves from the outside world (I now have to travel 2 hours by train and ferry to get to this monastery).

CTL Trappist Monks in Hong Kong 6 CTL Trappist Monks in Hong Kong 2 CTL Trappist Monks in Hong Kong 3
Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Andrew Leung

About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski
2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“And thus, when we renounce for Thee | Its restless aims and fears, | The tender mem’ries of the past, | The hopes of coming years, | Poor is our sacrifice, whose eyes | Are lighted from above; | We offer what we cannot keep, | What we have ceased to love.”

— Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman

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