The following comes from the Dallas Morning News site:
Here in cow country about 70 miles southeast of Dallas, amid scattered pecan trees and sloping fields of milkweed, six monks have come to live and pray.
They came from a monastery in New Mexico and, before that, from Vietnam.
"It's Buddhist, isn't it?" said 65-year-old Charlie Jock, who lives several miles away, making him one of the new monastery's closest neighbors. He'd heard of it, but hadn't gone by to check it out.
"I didn't figure it was gonna be any of my business to be nosy, so I just steered clear," he said.
Actually, these are Benedictine monks – that is, Catholic, not Buddhist. During their opening ceremony Saturday morning, they even received a goodwill letter from officials in Rome.
"On the happy inaugural occasion of the new monastic presence ... in the noble land of Texas," the letter began.
The monks will live a life inspired by the rule of St. Benedict, a sixth-century text that provides directives for daily living, such as communal prayer, meditative reading and manual labor. They'll wake before sunrise each morning for the first of six or seven prayer sessions each day, totaling four hours.
"Some may ask, 'What's the spirituality of the sixth century got to do with today's modern world?' " said Bishop Kevin Farrell of the Diocese of Dallas, speaking to several hundred Catholics gathered under a big white tent – most of them Vietnamese-Americans from the Dallas area.
He told them the monks' long days of praying and honoring God help those who do not have as much time. And the monks, with their sparing lifestyle, can serve as role models, he said.
"The rule of St. Benedict is also often spoken of as the virtue of moderation in our world, a world that enjoys excesses in every shape and form," the bishop said.
The new monastery is called Thien Tam, which is Vietnamese for "heavenly heart." It's an offshoot of a monastery in New Mexico called Christ in the Desert, which is funding the endeavor.
The monks have moved into a home on 300 acres, which they bought for $1 million and used to house an ostrich ranch.
Their goal is to grow – maybe 20 to 40 monks eventually – and become self-sufficient. They'll start by creating a retreat, which area Catholics could pay to attend.
In New Mexico, the monks have found other ways of making money, such as a gift shop and even brewing their own label of beer: Monks' Ale.
"Right now, we do manual labor, mostly cleaning, and we are preparing a place on which to go garden," said one of the monks, the Rev. Dominic Hanh, 40. He was a monk when he emigrated from Vietnam to New Mexico with his parents in 1991.
The monks wear digital watches, carry cellphones and read newspapers. But they generally stay away from television.
"It's good," Hanh said of monastic life. "Dedicate myself to God for life."
Their new neighbor, who was born and raised in the area, said having a monastery nearby is fine with him.
"More power to 'em," said Jock, who keeps a sun-bleached cow's skull on his front porch. "The good Lord never overlooks anything."
Also, check out this community of Vietnamese Cistercians in California!
A hat tip to Deacon Greg on this one!
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