[Gong Ji-young's Monastery Journey 1]

Introducing the revised and expanded edition
Introduction

My soul wanted to go somewhere
To a place I've never been before
On the way to Argentan
Cloistered Convent of Notre Dame
Communion after 18 years

There is harmony at the extreme of contradiction.
Abbey of Saint-Pierre-de-Soleme
This fly

You who stand here, please be reconciled.
Lyon
Thesis: A community built on a single dream

Meet people and meet me
Our Lady's House of Retreat on the Road
Fribourg
Megroju Convent and Hautreve Monastery

Vivaldi's City
Venice

Greater freedom, greater truth
Munich, Two White Roses
Frauenchiemsee Convent

Anyone who has lost the meaning of life
Hamburg
Scholastica Convent

Love comes to you on its own
Strange name day
Marienheide Abbey
Marienborn Convent

Reviews

Publication of the revised and expanded edition of "Gong Ji-young's Monastery Journey 1"

『Gong Ji-young's Monastery Journey』, which has been consistently loved by readers since its first publication in 2001, has been republished by Bundo Publishing.
The text has been re-edited with a focus on monasteries, with the names of each monastery accurately corrected and the original language included.
Catholic terminology has also been corrected to conform to Catholic usage.


Author Gong Ji-young's intimate self-confession! ?

My soul wanted to go somewhere.

This journey brings me chaos and emptiness
And to me, who was wrapped in a sense of futility about life and people,
Could this be a new beginning?

In November 2000, Gong Ji-young, a writer in her late thirties, was offered a trip to European monasteries.
It was around the time when I returned to church, faith, and God after 18 years, and more than anything, I was growing weary of life as a mother with young children.
The next day, after I complained to a friend, “I wish I could go to a monastery in Europe and just rest for a month,” I got a call from a stranger.
So, with just a few addresses and phone numbers, they set off on a month-long journey.
This journey was a time to look back on myself after 18 years of wandering and face God.
Set against the beautiful landscapes of monasteries in France, Switzerland, and Germany, he expresses his reflections on himself, humanity, and God in a calm yet meticulous manner.

The author, who had been diligently developing his faith by going to church on his own during middle school, left the church during his college years due to a sense of despair that religion and God were turning a blind eye to the harsh reality.
One day, salvation comes to her.
It had been 18 years since I left the church.
Salvation came with suffering.
“Salvation came only after I was driven to the brink… like a robber, like a kidnapper, like a torturer.” The voice of God heard from the depths of her suffering changed her life forever.
I met God again and, as if by chance or fate, my journey to the monastery began.
On this journey, the author realizes that the faith he had previously neglected and his childhood experiences in the church had a great influence on his life.
In the quiet and peaceful scenery of the monastery, through the people I met on my travels, the meaning of life, the meaning of pain and waiting that I had been asking myself over and over again, burst out.
This journey became a journey of finding meaning.


Meet people and meet me

The people the author met on his travels were those who had locked themselves in prison, those who lived in monastic conditions in a foreign country where they knew no one, those who showed kindness to strangers without any conditions, those who had known each other for a long time but who approached him in a new way during his travels, those who had suddenly lost loved ones, and those who were struggling with the weight of life and the darkness of reality.
And maybe their appearance is our own.


At the Cloistered Convent of Notre Dame in Argentan, France, the first destination of the monastery tour, we meet nuns who lock themselves in iron cages and look 'delighted'.
At the Solemn Monastery, I listen to beautiful Gregorian chants and contemplate the loneliness of the monks who cruelly confine themselves to iron cages in order to meet God.
After seven years, he reunites with Sister Lee Hye-jeong, who had been trying to turn him back into a cold-hearted believer in Lyon.
We will visit the Lyon Cathedral, the Carmelite Convent, and the Mâcon Convent with the nuns, and spend a night at the Community of Théâtre, an interdenominational community encompassing both Protestant and Catholic faiths.
In a beautiful cathedral decorated with draperies and thousands of candles, we meet young people praying freely in their own way.

At the 'Retreat House of Our Lady on the Road' in Fribourg, Switzerland, you can meet kind-hearted people and have a wonderful time.
At the Cistercian Monastery of Megroges, which I visited through the introduction of Mrs. Ali, whom I met in Fribourg, I saw a statue of Jesus laughing and was reminded of the simple and humble faith.
The Otribe Monastery, which I visited expecting to find a poor monastery, was disappointing.

Following in the footsteps of the Scholl siblings who staged anti-Nazi demonstrations, he stops by the University of Munich in Germany and reminisces about his college days.
He visits the Frauenchiemsee Abbey on the beautiful island of Lake Chimsee with Madame Zuber and engages in a heated debate with his brother.
We travel to Hamburg, northern Germany, and celebrate mass in the unique Hammer Cathedral, which is being rented by the Korean community.
We visit the unique Dinklage Scholastica Convent, where nuns who fled communism to West Germany converted the stables of a nobleman's villa into a cathedral.
Finally, we visit the Marienheide Monastery of the Missionaries of Mary and the Marienborn Monastery of the Paloti Sisters, where the Korean Sister Vianney lives.


People who seek the meaning of life

This book, which contains a month-long journey through European monasteries, is not just about beautiful scenery or stories of people practicing asceticism in solitude, cut off from the world.
“It was the hope that the world might be a place worth living in, with various forms of life existing and each doing its best to orbit its own path.” In the mysterious and tranquil space of the monastery, the author meets people seeking various aspects of life and meaning.
The author concludes the book with this wish:
“People who are tired, people who are lost in their search for meaning in life, people who need warmth and comfort.
“I hope that my own story, which once hated life, can provide some comfort to those who do.”