Ramon (aka)Dominique Guillen:
CLASS OF 1963
Santiago High SchoolClass of 1963
Garden grove, CA
Ramon (aka)Dominique's Story
Life
Exposed for the first time to St. Andrew's Abbey at the age of 14 while attending a Father and Son Retreat in the spring of 1959. At which time no one ever knew that this would be life time walk in life.
Our founders, nine Benedictine Belgian Monks, were sent to China in 1929. Only to be expelled from China by the communist in 1949 and resettled in Valyermo,Ca. to re-establish monastic life at St. Andrew's Abbey in 1956.
In this high desert oasis of the Antelope Valley at 3,600 ft. above sea level, our founders together with their newly acquired American youth, live out a commitment to prayer, work, silent and communal life, seeking to see our Creator present in all things. From our home base at Valyermo we strive to reach out to all walks of life as missionaries and teachers.
As part od our presence we maintain a retreat/guest house complex together with a youth center facility on our 2,000 acre compound. We are able to continue to nurture and to give witness to our local community in "Receiving all guest like Christ", as prescribed by our Rule of St. Benedict.
I entered in 1963 just after graduating from Santiago High School and professed my monastic vows shortly thereafter. Over these past forty years plus I've held different appointments and have served my community through five leaderships at various levels of responsibility. From Kitchen Master to ceremic's pottery (wheel throwing) both production and glazing, to setting up the pictorial history of our community within the Archives system...Expand for more
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Cultural studies followed which began in Mexico and continued that experience throughout Europe's Benedictine Monasteries within our congregation and some outside of our congregation namely in England, France, Belguim, Luxembourg,Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy both North and South and on to Greece in search of the various multiculture expressions of living out our Benedictine ideals as monks. All funded by the Radiological Nuclear Medical Corp., Dr. J.W. Birsner, Sr. Foundation, Bakersfield, Ca.
With special interest in human diginity from the perspective of a Christian Humanist and a Roman Catholic Benedictine Monk I was invited to serve in the formation of an institutional review board for the Clinitherm Mark I Hypothermia Treatment Procedure.
Later I was appointed co-ordinator of special events: i.e. investure ceremonies, professions both silver and golden jubilees, funerals, and prime fund raising events so as to see over their practical aspects. I was also to set up a Director of Development Office at it's preliminary stages for the public image of our monastery.
I was later appointed corporate treasure of the institute for the next four years of my monastic life.
I remain on a life journey and I am diligently working into better understanding human relations, communication and the problems of everyday living within community life and the world of self knowledge in order to maximize the reality and potential for a fuller, happier and health filled monastic life in order to better serve others.
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