Putri Karmel sister opens up about religious life

When was the last time you had fun?

There’s much fun in religious life. We have fun very often in our community recreation every week.  During the recent Christmas and New Year celebration. Besides camp fire, telematch and sports competition, we had Christmas Carol with full band in attendance (all by the sisters!), accompanied by tambourine dance.

Name an occasion when you felt God was far away.

I see each and every occasion, be it a success or failure,  as a blessing from the Loving God and an opportunity to do His Holy will. He never fails as He’s always faithful and thus I can trust His heart even in the darkest moment of my life.

What do you like best about being a Religious/consecrated person?

For me, intimacy with Jesus, my Beloved through prayer and contemplation in silence and solitude is the greatest blessing in my life of being a religious.

What are the usual distractions in your prayer?  What do you do about them?

Though knowing that prayer and contemplation should be the primacy in my life, unfinished tasks sometimes distract me in prayer. I normally surrender myself and all my thoughts and plans to Jesus knowing that He’s always there and He never fails to help me.

Pope Francis calls for a Church of the poor, for the poor.  How do you live that within your vocation?

I’m so much in line with Pope Francis who calls for a Church of the poor. There are still many people who are spiritually poor throughout the world and only the joy of Jesus can make them rich and heal the anguish of their souls. In response to Pope’s call, I would like to increase my outreach to the poor by going out to the world to evangelize and to share the ‘Joy of the Gospel’ (my most inspiring book at this moment).

Favourite book or author

But as a Carmelite, I like the autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux most, entitled “Story of a Soul”, a simple soul yet beautiful and inspiring.

Favourite food

My favourite food is the modified ‘clay pot chicken rice’ which becomes ‘rice cooker chicken rice’ as we don’t have big clay pot here for the whole community. It is a special cuisine which can be found in Carmel here only!

What do you like doing most when you are with your biological family?

When I’m with my biological family, I like to share my spiritual experience with them and to share meal with them too.

What do you normally do to relax?

I like to meditate on nature to relax myself.  For me it’s a spiritual relaxation enjoying and looking at God’s beautiful creation in our hermitage: the hills, trees, river, midst, white squirrel, black squirrel with red neck-tie and birds singing on the tree and many more unique creatures.