Day 8, Tuesday May 17, 2016
Emma Tse


Overview

• Laudate Si
• Organic Crop Farm
• Averbode Abbey

Today in Belgium we had our last breakfast in the Merelbeke Hostel, bread and cheese again! Then we drove to the parish Laudate Si, where we toured their church and grounds. This parish, as well as many other European countries, stresses sustainability. This church is a cycling church, in that it encourages its parishioners to cycle to church because there are too many cars in the city. Also, they are an open, eco, and fair trade church. Built in 1970, it is a very modern church, with a very open and sober design, unlike many of the other Catholic churches we have toured on our trip. If one didn't know it was a Catholic church, then they we would believe it was a Protestant one because of the lack of ornate decorations and display of religious figures. The Priest talked about how the Second Vatican Council changed the way the alter was positioned to look out to the people, so the people would pray and sing together as a community. The space was built to be multifunctional, to allow for whatever use the community would need it be. Whether it be a spiritual, modern, or classical concert, art exhibitions, religious or not. The church really encouraged open minds and accepting different opinions. It is a resilient church because it can adapt to the community's needs. 

Next on our journey through the country side of Belgium, we toured an unusual organic crop farm. In that, the man running the place had very interesting beliefs and views about how a farm should be and how to create balanced soil. His way of being an organic crop farmer was much more spiritually based the our American organic farms. He said that manure from a cow that hadn't been polled was better because it was in its natural unaltered state.  Basically, because the cow still had its horns, its manure would have better bacteria for the crop to flourish in.  He called the manure "sweet manure". Some of us in the group questioned the science behind this, but it was interesting to see a different method of farming nonetheless. He discussed hybrid (forced) vs open (natural) pollenating. He spoke on how maybe it wasn't ethical to force a plant to inbreed with itself with hybrid pollination. His farm was roughly 5 hectares with over 60 different types of crops including: rubber, red & white potatoes, green & white asparagus, leeks, and 15 different types of tomatoes just to name a few. 

Before we went to the Averbode Abbey, we ate some ice cream cones just outside of it. They we very delicious. Our guide, Father Vincent, showed us around the Abbey.  Founded in 1134, the phrase "Ecee Agnus Dei", meaning "Behold the Lamb of God", is the message of the Abbey. This means that it's not about the priests, it's about Jesus; that they are only the road signs to Jesus/ God. He told us what the role of Augustine was, that it is the unity of heart, the unity of souls, on our way to God. We toured the Refter, where the priests eat together as a family. They sit at different tables for each meal, and lunch is eaten in silence and typically a book is read aloud to everyone. For the silent meals to ask someone to pass food to them, they communicated using their own form of sign language. In the past, the Abbey would get an income from farming.  Nowadays it is from making beer, bread, cheeses, "breakfast cakes" and other foods. They often study other religions to find the parallelisms and differences that these religions have with Catholicism.  He said the book they we reading during their silent meals was about Islam, so that they could better understand the religion. After the tour of the Abbey we all attended a pray service. It was very interesting, but difficult to understand because it was all in latin and dutch.  However, we could appreciate it for its beauty and found something in being a part of their community even if only for a short time. 

Finally, after a two hour drive we made it back to the StayOK Hostel in Maasricht, Netherlands, where we all successfully hunted for a place to eat ate such a late hour. Tune in tomorrow, to hear about our escapades in a german brewery.