Barishal, female vocations flourish among tribals
Three novices of the LHC Sisters professed their vows in St. Peter's Cathedral a few days ago. For the superior, the desire for consecrated life stems from daily relationships and detachment from the values of modernity and social networks. The return to the village of Sister Sumali Cecilia Tripura, welcomed with dances and flowers by the entire community.
Barishal (AsiaNews) - The Church in Bangladesh is growing, also in terms of vocations, drawing ever greater strength from the tribal populations where the thirst for faith and the discovery of an encounter with Christ is driving more and more people to the consecrated life, especially among women. On April 29, three novices, belonging to the congregation of the Little Handmaids of the Church (LHC Sisters) and coming from families of new converts, pronounced their vows in St. Peter's Cathedral in Barishal, in the south-central part of the country. They are: Sr. Sumali Cecilia Tripura, of the diocese of Chattogram, coming from the indigenous community of Tripura; Sr. Gouri Murmua and Sr. Shaphaly Lucy Hasda, both indigenous Santal coming from the diocese of Rajshahi.
Their superior Sister Mamata Palma says the vocation was born with the meeting and in the daily relationship that has developed over time, in visits to families and in the invitation to the girls to embrace the consecrated life. "At one time," she emphasizes to AsiaNews, "vocations came largely from Bengali families, now largely from tribal families. This year we have three new sisters and they all come from tribal families" many of whom have encountered the faith only in recent years, are newly converted, thanks to the work of evangelization promoted by local and foreign missionaries.
This vocational path does not stop, but continues with renewed vigor since today there are "eight aspiring nuns and a novice" who are preparing to enter "our congregation, and then become nuns," emphasizes the religious. In these times marked by a decline in vocations in many nations, adds Sister Mamata, this is a "surprising" fact.
She continues, the reason being "many of them, especially among the younger ones, want to return to the root [of faith and life] in these modern times characterized by social media. Some of them find peace in a simple life, tired of frequenting the web and social media themselves, of this modernity." We, explains the nun, enter "personally in contact with the young people, we present our experience and invite them to follow it. Many of them accept our proposal and enter the community, where "we sisters try to be an example.
The Lhc Sisters are a local religious community of nuns, founded in 1956 by a group belonging to the Sisters of the Holy Cross. To date there are 33 sisters part of the congregation. On May 3, Sr. Sumali Cecilia Tripura, one of the novices who took her vows and the fifth of eight children, visited her family in the village of Pishai Chandrapara, in the parish of Bolipara, Bandarban district, where she was welcomed with dances and wreaths by the entire community. A celebration for the first vocation born in the village where 18 Catholic families now live.
"My parents, who in the past worshipped thousands of deities," 23-year-old Sister Sumali tells AsiaNews, "were a source of inspiration in my choice to become a nun. It takes four hours to travel from the village to the parish of Bolipara. My mother's sister is also a nun. I have always loved the consecrated life." A woman religious, she continues, lead "a simple life and that's what I wanted for myself as well." A testimony that is worth a thousand words, an example that the youngest sister Anjoly Tripura also intends to follow, given that some time ago she entered as an aspiring novice among the Missionaries of Charity.
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