Most of the group went into a tea shop for a glass of tea while waiting, but three of us--the president of our deaf group, a visitor from Singapore, and I--went exploring. People do not often go to Peng Chau, the smallest of the main inhabited islands, so it was a good time to look around. Hendri, from Singapore, works in the Canossa School for the Deaf there, and is in HK for one month for training in audiometrics.
Once we arrived at the Trappist pier, we immediately started up the steep hill to the monastery because the mass was scheduled to start in just twenty minutes. The monks had sent a van and driver down to the pier to meet the ferry, and the older members of the group and the younger children were able to ride to the top. The monks have placed the 14 Stations of the Cross on the trees beside the steep road, maybe to remind the out-of-breath and complaining walkers of Jesus' sacrifice and the need to relate our sufferings to his!
The monks' service began with lauds, or morning prayer, which was said in Latin. Our sign language interpreters couldn't do much with that so I just explained what was happening and pointed out the way the monks prayed the psalms, alternating back and forth from one side to the other.
When mass began, all the monks moved up to the sanctuary and we and some other visitors then took their places in the choir stalls that face each other along the main body of the church. The mass itself was a mixture of Cantonese and Mandarin because the older Trappist priests and brothers (Mandarin speakers) fled from their original foundation in China when the Communists took over, but have now been joined by local, Cantonese-speaking members.
After mass the group had a chance to meet several of the monks, including Brother Theophane who had invited us to come and Fr. Nicolaus, a very spry and very energetic 102-year old! He was amazing! I would have guessed his age to be at least 30 years younger than what he professed. He passed out, in English and Chinese, a mimeographed paper with his "Secrets of Long Life."
The group then started hiking to Discover Bay where we would catch another ferry back to HK. When I first started hiking on Lantau, that stretch of trail was all dirt and a bit rugged. Now it has been concreted and rerouted so the walk is actually quite easy and takes less than an hour. Even our older people were able to manage it. One young couple had brought their two-year old daughter along, but when she fell asleep I helped carry her, not getting too far from her parents so that she wouldn't be frightened when she woke up on someone else's shoulder!
In Discovery Bay, a well-to-do, largely expatriate bedroom community, we ate at a Chinese fast-food place and then took one last group photo before the 25-minute ferry ride back to the big city.