Thai Carmelites, “hidden nuns” who welcome everyone’s needs

For many people the nuns at Chanthaburi convent can appear as reclusive, cut off from the world. But for Catholics, and not only them, they are someone to turn to for help and prayers.

“There are people who ask me how I can live this way’ she said. “They see it as something special. My answer is that I don’t see it as anything to be proud of. I deserve no honour for I have not done anything to deserve God’s providential care. He provides us with all of our basic needs.” For her vocation “is a token of God’s precious grace by which he chooses each one of us. Our task is to put trust in God’s mercy, pray for our salvation and the well-being of others.”

Caring for her sisters undergoing medical care or in need of a visit is one of her tasks. One day, she said, she was approached by the wife of the owner of the clinic where she and her fellow nuns go. “She told me: ‘I have been married for many years with my husband and we have had no children. A Catholic patient told me: “If you want a child, talk to the ‘nun in the brown robe.’ That woman asked me to pray for her and some time later she got pregnant. Although she never had to pay a doctor, she asked me ‘to accept something as a token of her gratitude.’ I told her instead that “what happened to her was not due to the holiness of the sisters of the convent, but was the work of God’s mercy which you trusted believing that you could get what you wanted by asking us to pray for you.”

Sister Bernardine owes her vocation to her family. “My father was a military man from Indochina and converted after marrying my mother. At home we prayed together every evening. For me faith is like a bird flying in a storm, flapping its wings in order to keep its faith strong to make it through the difficulties of everyday life.”

During her many years in the convent many people requested her to pray for them, ordinary folks as well as her sisters in faith.

“Once, a fellow nun asked for my advice about her vocation. I told her to ‘follow her heart’s desire and ask herself what she really wanted. Vocation I told her is “between you and God”, no one else.’ That sister who stayed at home during her probation period took her vows the following year.”

In Thailand there are many contemplative nuns like Sister Bernardine, leading a convent life. They are very quite and numerous in a country, the land of the Free (which is the meaning of the word Thai), that has 13 convents.

The first convent to open in Thailand was that of Bangkok 83 years ago. Bishop René Perros of the Missions étrangères de Paris (MEP) called on Ann of Maria de Jesus, O.C.D., to set up the order in the country.

British-born nun and from a zealous Protestant family, she arrived in Thailand accompanied by 12 Carmelite sisters. The Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel Convent opened on 30 September 1925 in the heart of Bangkok.

During the inauguration ceremony Monsignor Perros said: “I ask you to pray for the conversion of non Catholics and for the holiness of Catholics, especially missionary priests, because holiness is the purpose of their life. The path to holiness is to serve wholeheartedly God and be generous to Him.”

Eventually people came to call the place “the convent of the hidden sisters,” not understanding that this place of “serenity and solitude” would serve as a shelter for everyone in the country, whatever their walk of life or social condition.

Today the nuns tell of people asking for prayers to help them cope in their everyday problems, seeking healing if they are sick, a job if they don’t have one, good marks if they have an exam to pass; some have even come seeking exemption from the draft.

“The congregation’s spirit and mission is to follow Christ who is joined with his Father,” they say. Praying in union with God, in a community of silence and solitude, withdrawn from the world as they faithfully practice the Gospel’s precepts, is the congregation’s charism.”

As part of the same mission the Bangkok convent gave birth to three foundations over the years, in the provinces of Chanthaburi (1952), Nakhon Pathom (1988) and Nakhon Sawan (2000). Each convent is home to no more than 21 nuns.

“Faith, hope and charity are the three virtues the sisters are called to live by,” Mother Carmela of the Child Jesus, the superior of the Chanthaburi convent, told AsiaNews. “In living the faith we find satisfaction in the simplicity of everyday things. Through prayer we are responsible for society and the world. Even though we live apart from the world, we open our hearts to those who suffer. Being away from the material world does not mean forgetting our brothers and sisters, for in addition to praying for the Pope, the universal Church and the Church of Thailand we never forget to pray for the poor, the forgotten and the abandoned.”

“Some convents support themselves by baking hosts, making priestly vestments, painting, and gardening. In Chanthaburi we survive thanks to the offerings made by those who want prayers on special occasions. People also donate food for our daily needs. When food is scare our daily meals consist of vegetable soup with rice.” It is their way of participating in the material life of the outside world, in the daily existence of those who live in the city and call on them for prayers.

In addition to convents founded by Carmelite nuns, Thailand is home to convents established by the Clarisse order. Since 1936 Capuchin contemplative sisters have been present at Ban Pong with their charism dedicated to a life of humility, poverty, communion and the simple mission of praying the Divine Office.

Over the past 30 years six more convents were established in a number of provinces, in Prachub Kirikhan (1972), Udon Thani (1979), Nakhan Pathom (1984), Tharae (1986), Surat Thani (1988) and Pon Sung, Udon Thani; in the last one, contemplative nuns began their mission in 1990.