We attended 8:00 Mass at the Holy Trinity Church in front of our hotel.
Before dismissal, names of parishioners who were born in November were called out, birthday cards were presented by the Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Dennis Yang, and then lined up for his blessing ... all in 25 of them, young and old, and took about 20 minutes!
It was first time for me to see such a wonderful event. And to my opinion, it was made possible:
1. Not so big a parish community,
2. Patience and cooperation of parishioners,
3. Dynamic priest.
we were also being welcomed by the parish priest as a first timer to the church. A microphone was giving for us to introduce ourselves. Later, we were invited to the birthday reception held immediately after Mass.
After breakfast, we left for the Carmelite Monastery in Shenkeng to visit Sr. Marie Yong, the main purpose of this Taipei trip.
After almost 10 years, my wife met with Sr. Marie for the first time ! No dramatic emotion, no tearing but just holding of hands and greeting from Sr. Marie: " mommy! "
As for Blaise, our third traveling companion, it was also the first time after almost 8 years ... She sent Sr. Marie off to Taipei at the airport in 2004!
We spent almost 3 hours for catching ups... and left after lunch prepared by the Carmelite sisters.
It was hot in the afternoon and we decided to go to Taipei Zoo to see the Panda. The gift from Mainland China were sleeping coosyly in the air-conditioned enclosure specially built for them.
We have the rare occasion to see a Red Crowned Crane brought in from Japan.
今天我们在酒店前的圣三堂，参加了早上八时的弥撒，由本堂主任杨神父主持。
在弥撒结束前，在十一月出生的教友的名字，不管老少，都被一一念了出来，从神父手中，接过生日贺卡，然后排列在祭台前，领受神父的特别祝福 。。。。总共25人，花了大约二十分钟。
这是我 第一次见到这么奇妙的事！以我所见，该堂区可以这样做，其因有：
1. 堂区团体不是很大，
2. 教友的耐心及合作精神，
3. 有活力的神父。
因为我们是第一次到访，也受到他们的欢迎，并透过麦克风，简单的作个自我介绍。过后，我们也受邀参加弥撒过后的生日庆祝会。
过后，我们就到深坑加尔默罗隐修院，去拜访玛利亚杨金燕修女，这也是我们此行的主要目的。
太太经过十年后，第一次的与杨修女见面。。。没有激动的情绪，没有流泪，只是四手紧握，和来自修女的一声：“妈咪。。”！
同行的李金梅(Blaise)，也是差不多七年后，与修女再次见面。在2004年，机场送别修女到台北的那一次，是最後一次见面了。
我们畅谈了将近三个小时，在用了有隐修院修女准备的午餐后，就离开了。
下午的天气法非常的热，我们决定到台北动物园观赏猫熊（熊猫）。这对有中国大陆赠送的大家伙，在特别为他们而造的围笼里，呼呼大睡，没有见到他们活泼挑剔的一面。
我们也特地到步行来回二公里的路程，去观看由日本运来的丹顶鹤，一种稀有的动物。
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