October 12-25, 2010
Bangkok & Thabom, Thailand
After three years in the drawing board, the continental gathering of sisters “0-10” years after final vows took place in Thailand on October 12-25, 2010. There were 19 participants in all: 6 Indians, 9 Filipinas, 3 Vietnamese, and 1 Mexican, who is a missionary in the Philippines. The team of formators who accompanied the group was composed of Sr. Mary Ann Azanza (US Province), Sr. Maria Christina Nakayama (Japan), Sr. Celine Mathew (India) and Sr. Marie Emmanuel Melocoton (General Councilor). The team who labored over the formulation and execution of the module was composed of Sr. Maria Rosa Medina and Sr. Deanna Maria Combong (both assigned in Thailand and served as hosts) with Sr. Mary Cecilia Claparols, Provincial Councilor, Philippine-Thailand Province, who was a missionary in Thailand for 18 years.
The Bangkok Community arranged and facilitated every detail of the program while in the city. The participants were all housed in three adjacent classrooms at the Pre-School Department with 7 sisters in each of the air-conditioned rooms complete with toilet and bath, using mats for beds, tatami style. The occupants were of mixed groups to facilitate better interaction between and among the different nationalities. The formators were lodged in the convent and in the St. John’s ‘Mansion’. Fr. Mario Tejada, msp, Filipino missionary to Thailand, came daily to celebrate Mass with us.
Sr. Maria Josefina Matias, Provincial Superior of the Philippine-Thailand Province, came to open formally the session in the afternoon of October 12, 2010 at St. John’s University, which served as our host institution. To begin to know and welcome each other, we shared in triads some aspects of the “packing for the journey” exercise. Sr. Mary Cecilia then oriented us to the formation program and the LENS or the posture of heart with which we are invited to enter into the process of the next 15 days. “God is here, God has been here before our arrival” and pervades all reality! The Earth is a place of God’s Glory. Sr. Deanna Maria gave an overview on the Thai Culture and other useful information to help the participants appreciate the uniqueness of Thailand. This was followed by Ajahn Chainarong’s (Vice-Chancellor of St. John’s University) powerpoint presentation on the history of the Catholic Church in Thailand. A video on the situation of the Thai Religious prepared for the AMOR XV meeting was presented by Sr. Maria Rosa. The day ended with a party at the Mansion to welcome the participants as well as to celebrate the birthday of Sr. Mary Ann.
Exposure to the cultural and historical riches of Thailand followed the next day, October 13. We got our packs ready for the cultural tours. Srs. Mercedes and Catalina prepared packed lunch and snacks for everybody. The participants were divided into three different groups: Bangkok City, Samphran and Ayutthaya. Three first-class tourist vans were hired to take us around. The first two destinations were for those who had come to Bangkok for the first time. Sr. Rosa took care of the Bangkok group while Sr. Myrna accompanied the group to Samphran. The Ayutthaya tour was reserved for those who had been to Thailand but had no chance to visit this old capital of the country. Ayutthaya is also the place where Christianity had its beginnings in Thailand. A tour guide was with us to describe better the different areas which contributed significantly to the growth of Catholicism in the country. The day ended with the amazing “Siam Niramit” show – a most fitting way to celebrate Sr. Mary Cecilia’s 5 cycles of life - her 60th birthday – with a bang!
A double-decker tourist bus was hired to bring the group to Thabom on October 14. The group left Bangkok at 9:30am and arrived in Thabom at around 7pm. It was a long journey (with all the necessary stops) on a well-paved highway. Thabom quietly awaited the arrival of the Sisters with the surroundings dimmed by the night sky. Only the excited voices of the teachers and students who eagerly stood around the flagpole of St. John’s School-Thabom stirred the evening hiatus. They welcomed the group with a streamer and the traditional Thai greeting with garlands at the hall. After the formal introductions, bags were taken to the third floor and to the Sisters’ house. In no time everyone was ready for a long night in bed after a long journey on the road.
The entire third floor of the school building was used as function rooms. Three classrooms were converted into dormitories, the adjacent room into a prayer room and the next two into a workshop area as well as a recreation room complete with a refrigerator and snack tables. The big Activity Room of the school was designated for our Session Room. The Thabom Community had the windows and doors of the dormitories screened to prevent the insects from entering the rooms. All other provisions for laundry and washing were provided for. The participants stayed in the third floor, with 4 Sisters of the Community and 2 AMA Volunteers lodged on the second floor to be available for the participants’ needs especially during the night. The formators were lodged at the Sisters’ convent.
The session on “Living Transitions” began formally on October 15 with an input by Sr. Mary Cecilia on the Vedic Framework on the Inner Journey and the “Dependent Co-Origination,” a Buddhist schema on how we develop attachments. She proceeded by giving an orientation on the different phases of transitions and the dynamics that come with it. From this perspective, the participants were asked to share their own stories of transition. The participants were divided into three groups which served as the “base communities” for the entire duration of their stay in Thabom. The evening was spent in silence to “hold” and sense the impact of looking into our transitions and discovering therein the presence of God. This session continued till the next day.
In the afternoon of October 16, after the group sharing, the participants gathered again for the orientation on the village life in Thabom. Sr. Deanna prepared the participants for the ocular visit that would follow. Some student leaders were asked to accompany the three groups who went to three different zones of the village.
The next morning, the participants shared on the transitions experienced by their respective communities. In the afternoon, Sr. Deanna shared on the journey of the Assumption mission in Thailand. It was a beautiful synthesis of the history of the Assumption in Thailand giving us all a better understanding and appreciation of the RA mission in this country.
On Sunday, October 17, the participants joined the celebration of the Eucharist in the parish church. The mass was presided over by Fr. Maitri, a Thai priest from the provincial capital of Loei. Then the participants were ushered back to the school for the encounter with the village people. There were three groups: the elders, the young professionals and the student leaders with Srs. Deanna, Mary Cecilia, and Rosa acting as interpreters respectively. The participants and formators were free to choose which group to join. Each of these groups was able to name and articulate the changes brought about by globalization to their village and how they were coping with it. The effect of this transition was summed up in a sentence by one of the elders when he said that, “Development happens so fast that the heart cannot follow.”
Before noon, the village people brought us to a house in the neighborhood to participate in a house blessing. Fr. Maitri waited for almost an hour for us to finish the activity in school. At the blessing, the Sisters were asked to sit on the floor near the ceremonial bai sri su khwan. Pieces of home-spun thread were tied around this vase to be used for the ceremonial blessing. The ceremony proceeded according to the rite of blessing in the Catholic way after which, the elders in the village took the home-spun thread and started tying the wrists of each of the members of the family, blessing the family with joy, peace and prosperity. The sisters were included in the blessing as a gesture of welcome by the village.
The following day, October 18, Sr. Rekha Chennattu gave a lecture on the biblical foundation of the vows and the meaning of religious life as “contrast community.” This knowledge put in perspective what each one hoped for as they continue to live the many transitions that religious life offers. From there, Srs. Mary Sheryl and Lerma Victoria presented their own reading of the transition the Congregation went through as the charism was handed over from one Superior General to another since the death of M. Marie Eugenie. This information was a wake up call for the participants. They realized that the responsibility to carry on the charism was now on their shoulders and it was up to them how to hand it over to the next generation. They are now the keepers and bearers of this tradition.
The afternoon smoothly moved into the input of Sr. Marie Emmanuel. She presented the major challenges that confronted the congregation and how “re-structuration” as an appropriate response came to be in all its varied expressions. This time the term “re-structuration” made more sense and became better understood by the participants. Having had all the inputs, the participants were asked to go back to their base community to reflect on the possible articulation of the mission statement that would embody what this group hoped to live as the Asian contribution to the development of the expression of the RA charism as well as the RA contribution to Asia. The night was spent in silence to prepare for the two-day retreat that would follow.
The two-day retreat (prepared and guided by Sr. Rosa) on October 20-21 was a new prayer experience for everybody. In every prayer moment, the participants were asked to sit together quietly in the prayer room for 50 minutes before reading the scripture texts for 10 minutes. This was done twice in the morning and again twice in the afternoon. In the evening there was a walking meditation, ending with a sitting meditation in silence. The second day began with a walking meditation at 5am, followed by a guided meditation after breakfast and supposedly a time for gardening as part of the meditation on creation for the first half of the morning. Unfortunately the rains came and so the schedule was modified and the participants went back to sitting meditation.
During these two days, the participants were given the chance to choose the formator with whom they could read their God-experiences. Half an hour per dialogue per day was allotted for each one. This was a good moment to gather the graces of the session and make a synthesis of the whole experience. The sacrament of confession was also made available through Fr. Luis Miguel (Spanish missionary in Thailand) who stayed in Thabom the whole week for our daily celebration of the Eucharist. The parish priest, who is a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), was out for their annual eight day retreat.
At the end of the second day of the retreat, the participants were made to observe silence in the evening to give time for them to journal their experiences since the session begun and express these in creative ways. The following day, they gathered as base communities and shared their experiences with each other. At the end of this encounter, each group was expected to put together the images that were drawn up and present it to the assembly. Group presentations were as varied as they were creative.
On the last day in Thabom, October 22, the school community prepared a cultural presentation using the indigenous musical instruments especially the “ponglang” and the participants were treated to five tribal dances peculiar to the North East of Thailand. It was a delight for the Sisters to learn a few dance steps from the dancers. The climax of the celebration was the bai sri su khwan, a ritual typical of the north and northeast of Thailand. This was like a send-off ritual led by the village elders who gave a blessing as they tied the home-spun thread around each of the Sisters’ wrists. The gesture binds the Sisters to the village community, making them part of their lives. The Sisters blessed them and thanked them in return for all the gestures of welcome they gave.
In Thabom, the group had at least 3 evenings for recreation. One such evening recreation was prepared by the Sisters from India. It was fun! They cracked jokes, introduced a tribal dance and prepared parlor games. Everybody received a prize. For once the voices of the cicadas were eclipsed by the shrieks of delight and peals of laughters of the Sisters that night. The second evening recreation was animated by the Sisters from Vietnam, including Nha Trang from the US. They bought balloons for the parlor games and some Sisters had to help blow the balloons for there was no air pump available. The games turned out hilarious with participants missing instructions and executing the games in their own way. Everybody had fun that evening. The Filipina Sisters took charge of the third and last evening recreation. Games followed one after another with ready prizes for winners. All the remaining balloons from the previous recreation were utilized and made to burst under pressure. That evening our transition sessions in Thabom came to a close with the exchange of gifts and souvenirs to keep each other close to each one’s hearts.
The next day, October 23, the group left Thabom. Everybody trooped to the bus complete with packed lunch and snacks for the journey back to Bangkok. The night before the Sisters got news that due to a recent typhoon, 17 towns were under water. The trip could take more time than usual and we might be taking another route. However, the sun was up that day and the roads were dry. The bus took the usual route and reached Bangkok before 6pm.
Sunday, October 24, was a special day for all. After joining the parish of St. John for the Sunday mass, the group traveled towards the south to visit Venerable Dhamananda (ordained female monk) at Nakhon Pathom. Fortunately for the group, all things just fell in place and the Sisters were able to have an audience with her, joined them in their Buddhist service at the temple and went to see the blue healing Buddha. It was a faith-defining encounter with Buddhism as lived from the female perspective. The Venerable also shared her own experience of transition, the renunciation she made at the peak of her career and the choice to commit to live as an ordained Buddhist. In her effort to bring back the tradition of women ordination in Theravada Buddhism in Thailand, she was met with criticism and rejection. But she was determined in her pursuit. In her own words, she compared herself to a “crack in the wall.” The wall refers to the existing patriarchal structure of Buddhism. She is not fighting the men. Instead, through her radical witness as a Bhikkhuni, a decisive action she took in her life, she carries a conviction that, “when more cracks are made, the wall will one day crumble.”
For lunch the whole group went to the river bank and had lunch on a floating restaurant. It was a good moment to be with families having lunch out with their kids. The afternoon offered two possibilities: those who were not able to visit the wax museum during the tour of Bangkok went directly to the venue and the others who had been there proceeded straight to Chatuchak for shopping. Everybody came home with bags of goodies as gifts for Sisters and friends.
The last day, October 25, was special. Venerable Phaisal Visalo, a Buddhist monk, abbot of wat Pa Sukato (a forest monastery, NE of Thailand) known for his involvements in Trainings for Non-Violence, the Coordinating Group of Religion for Society, work to protect the environment and at present, a member of the National Committee for Reform came to St. John’s earlier than expected. He shared with us his own reflections on the present crisis gripping Thailand and the state of democracy in the country. He was concerned that the development in Thailand might not be sustained for long for it is fast losing its own soul. For him, “when greed and injustice rule as the effect of globalization, the first casualty of violence is truth.” Thailand is undergoing a very crucial transition at this time of her history and no one knows exactly where this will lead. However, he believes that religion, the ordained have resources that can contribute in this time of transition to help each one see goodness and to restore the humanity of each person instead of living in fear and hatred. We are all friends in suffering and therefore we must always see the humanity of each other. Together we can contribute to bring about changes in the structure.
When Venerable Phaisal left, the participants were given time to convene to finalize the mission statement that was first introduced in Thabom. A committee was tasked to put together the suggested elements already identified. When the draft was finished, the body was asked to comment and come to an agreement. The statement was presented to the formators and insightful comments were raised. After a long discussion, the participants decided to keep the statement “as is” and after a year, be responsible in refining it and hopefully express it in their respective languages. It was suggested that the others, who belong to this age bracket but were not here, would be included in the task. Thus, the mission statement would be a work in progress, another phase in the transition process.
In the afternoon, the group gathered at the convent chapel for an hour of adoration. This was followed by the final sharing on ‘what we are grateful for and what we would like to take home with us’. Sr. Marie Emmanuel gave the final word to close the “0-10” Asian Formation session. Out of the chapel, we were greeted by the Friends of the Assumption who had come to be with us for the Eucharistic celebration that evening and to share a meal to conclude our historic, intense, unique Asian experience of Living Transitions in Thailand.
Prepared by:
Sr. Mary Cecilia Claparols, RA
Sr. Deanna Maria Combong, RA
Sr. Maria Rosa Medina, RA
Sr. Elnora Marie Perez, RA
