Vocation

The word immediately evokes reference to people who have chosen the consecrated life like priests, nuns and religious brothers which is right because the term means a conviction, an impulsion that one is called or summoned to the service of God but more than this is the belief that one has the obligation to follow or obey that calling. The old English spelling is vocaciuon.

I am reminded of this subject when the nuns of the St. Ezekiel Moreno Monastery in Tangub gave me their brochure inviting young women to a vocation in the contemplative life, a life devoted to prayer in   contrast to other women religious who serve in schools, hospitals, social action centers, orphanages, home for the aged and the sick and administrative offices – a vocation that is acted in the outside world but balancing this with a life of prayer in shorter periods.

On the other hand, the contemplative nuns as the Augustinian Recollect Contemplative Nuns of St. Ezekiel stay within the confines of the convent and spend most of their time in prayer not for themselves alone but for the Church, for individuals, and even the entire humanity. Their brochure describes their life as a “hidden life with Christ in God for the good of all.”

Indeed they are hidden only in the sense that they are secluded to best focus or to allow them undisturbed moments of prayer to which they devote most of their time. They are not segregated from humanity, though because they interact with people and are gracious hosts on occasions. They are not prisoners as some people think because they are “behind bars”; sometimes they also go out. The bars are not to imprison them but to establish a harmonious distance needed to keep their contemplative life interrupted unnecessarily.

When Bishop Casimiro Lladoc, the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Bacolod (1932) was laying the foundations of the diocese that at that time included the entire island of Negros and Siquijor, he said that he had already the Redemptorist Fathers who would undertake the missionary work but he needed a community that is devoted solely prayer. The Church needs these communities to “storm the heavens” for help.

He thus invited the Carmelite nuns and we have this monastery in Mandalangan that was established after the war. The bishop had invited them before the war broke out in 1941 but there were not enough nuns to come to Bacolod. He had to wait until 1948.

The Augustinian Recollect Contemplative Nuns said that their life is focused on “prayer, silence, (and) surrender to God” and that their vocations “brought by God” have prompted them to come to the monastery to “live in fraternal union, in an ambiance of silence and dedicated prayer.” They “aspire to live only for God, searching for Him without ceasing,” and thus they “desire to represent the whole humanity who is in need of God in our prayer.” These they said “is realized in the environment of prayer, silence, mortification, joy, peace and love.”

I have talked with them, seen them during the Mass and even met them when they serve the community or meet with church goers. I can sense the aura of their prayerful life, in the way they talk and smile and gesture. I have not seen so many women so happy and joyful, so fragile and yet so strong.

Sure there are other contemplative nuns like the Carmelites and in them one can sense and feel their aura as well. The contemplatives are different from the other women religious who work outside in an active ministry. I think it is this devotion to prayer that transforms people into an image that is holy and effusing and to some extent even contagious.

People are constantly searching for meaning and the Recollect Contemplatives remind us there is a world entirely different, mystifying even and yet within our midst where one can offer total surrender to God and devote most of waking hours to prayer that make them separate and yet a part of us.

If you think this is a pitch for the Recollect contemplatives and the Carmelites, it is. There is a wonderful world that awaits the women of our time to find God and finding Him to help us with their prayers. Bacolod Diocese is fortunate to have two praying communities.

Contemplatives have little means to advertise and yet more than all the careers and professions we read and see cannot provide the happy and joyous life that they have.

Catholics who have not been blessed by this calling have the obligation to help increase vocations to this kind of life. Priests can campaign in schools and parishes; the active nuns have their schools and freedom of movement but the contemplatives are limited by their way of life. You can reach them at 444-0959.*

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