Nun Conversion

Crossing over in life from one profession to another can be a daunting challenge. Often it could be mere necessity as when people lose their jobs or are thrown out of their countries. They then have no choice but to try and survive. In other situations people keep to their traditions as when a whole family settle into a way of life like farming. The younger ones occasionally have no choice but to take on the family set-ups or perhaps learn new trades because their fathers, grandfathers or elders began a way of life. Sometimes marriage decides the fortunes of a family. Love often plays a subtle role in helping couples decide what they want from life. Yet sometimes there are influences that leave impressions on young minds which could mature with age.

Sometimes the human mind throws surprises and sows a seed that could take time to grow. We know of Mother Theresa who left her native Albania on a mission to help disadvantaged young people. Hers was a winding way that sometimes turned toilsome. She had to process herself first by becoming a Loreto Nun before branching off, much later, to found her own Order, the Missionaries of Charity. The sight of the poor and the abandoned on the streets of Kolkata transformed her perceptions. Her change came late in life but her work helped transform the world to become a better place. Somewhere along the way there was a Power urging her on towards her goal.

Radha probably didn’t really realize where her inspiration came from, and knew even less about how her life would be totally transformed. In spite of the restrictions of her being female in a male-dominated society and in spite of the limitations her religion could have placed on her she was able to sail on in this large boat of the world she lived in, sustained by a belief and a hope.  Radha was Hindu by religion but became a teacher in a Catholic school in Mumbai. She belonged to the Brahmin caste, one of the most conservative in Hinduism, the Ivengar group. To move on anywhere independently in life she would have had to break several bonds, more perhaps than even modern women in today’s world would have had to face to live in the free society of today.

Yet that is what Radha precisely did. She left the religion she was born into, left her conservative family, converted to a totally different religion –Catholicism, joined one of the most closed Orders in this religion and against all the odds decided to lead a life of prayer and contemplation, most women of her age would not even have dreamt of.  She chose a way of life completely different even from that which most ‘active’ Orders of today (teachers or nurses) who work for people. Why did she do that? In all probability Radha herself would not be able to explain what exactly happened during that complicated yet inspired time in her life.  Today there are several groups of individuals, usually people leading high-profile lives who suddenly decide they want to do something different in life. Some of them choose to go on walking pilgrimages to famous places. Yet at the end of it many of them do not always seem to achieve their goals. This was not the case with Radha. Though she apparently didn’t know what was drawing her forward she seemed to sense there was a force driving her on which made her feel she knew what she was doing, and definitely Who it was that was urging her on even though externally she may have looked confused and aimless.

Radha young and attractive as she was didn’t let her beautiful black hair or her friendliness take her away from her dedication to work or her deep sense of kindness. At 24 after she had done her qualifications she got employed as an English and Social Studies teacher in the Canossa convent school in Mahim [Mumbai] in 1971-72 in Andheri East. This brought her into closer contact with the Canossa nuns. It is here that a new realization began to dawn on her, a revolution perhaps. She was at the age when young women look for love and companionship. They easily get obsessed with perfumes, hair styles and trinkets. Employment gives them better opportunities and they generally see a dazzling world opening up in front of them. If they have good looks then there is no end of young men on their trail. Parties and get-togethers add to the opening up of this blossoming flower and if the stars are right a prince charming could come along and become the fortunate partner to a wonderful relationship.

Unlike most women her age our heroine says she felt an urgent and pressing call to meet Jesus the person. She says her love for Jesus began growing and she wanted to know more about him, with a burning desire to love and serve him. Particularly during this period of infatuation with Jesus she began to enjoy her dedication to the girls she was teaching all the more. She however began to feel this call to know Jesus deepening. She was restless even though busy with work and she felt she had to do something about it. So, after much thought and not very much planning and little guidance and security she took the ultimate step. She ran away from home. She found no other way. Changing religion was one of her biggest hurdles. She could not contemplate learning to live as a Christian in a Hindu home with her brother and sister, who were Hindu, and her parents and relatives all Hindu. It was more than what her imagination could fathom.

It was quite a shattering experience for her but she remained focused. She was determined to meet this Jesus who had overwhelmed her thoughts, shaken her beliefs, created new longings and built up her desires. The Canossa nuns took her and her desires on board and helped to work out a path for her. It was confusing yet challenging times for her but she stayed resolute in the belief that the Jesus she wanted so much would come to her rescue. He did. Everything fell into place. The Canossa Order sorted it all out for her. They used all the expertise of the Seniors in the Order and their different institutions in the country to get Radha to straighten out a way for her, just the way John the Baptist told the people to prepare the way to receive Jesus, the true Redeemer in her life.

But joining the Order was perhaps only the beginning of this Way of the Cross that had only begun for Radha. Her family was completely shattered. She had brought shame and embarrassment on the family who had to suffer humiliation from their friends and relatives. Since she was from a very traditional and high caste Brahmin Iyengar family converting to Christianity was a very big blow to their family pride. Her parents suffered unimaginable pain, and her elder sister who was married had to bear the taunts and torments of their well-meaning relatives. Her mother, a very religious person, who spent her days performing religious rituals and reading sacred Hindu Scriptures was just too distraught to even continue thinking straight.

After joining the Canossa convent, as Sister Mary Joseph, she was sent for further studies. However, academic studies left her with very little time for prayer which still left her unfulfilled. She felt restless because she had a deep desire to devote her day and night to being with Jesus, praying, meditating, sharing, doing everything, even living for Jesus.  All this left a yearning within her which made her direction-less in a way. Then finally at this point there was a break-through. Her calling to the cloistered life was discerned. The Jesus she craved for brought peace to her soul. She was allowed to join the cloistered branch of the Order, the Discalced Carmelite Order, in May 1977. In her sixties now that brought the peace to her soul that she craved. The next 30+ years that followed became the happiest and most joyful years of her life.

But Jesus never failed his beloved. Over the years her parents, especially her mother, were completely at peace with her vocation as a Christian and as a Carmelite nun. Both her parents have died but were completely at peace with her and her Christian vocation. Her brothers and sister too, and their children are very happy and reconciled to her Christian vocation. Now they too are at peace. Also her relatives are now reconciled to her being a Catholic nun. The entire family is now united in reconciliation. Occasionally they come to the monastery with their own children – this is a matter of immense joy for her. Her Spouse (Jesus) takes care also of her affectivity. All of them are still Hindu.

The Carmelite way of life began in Palestine in the 12th Century on Mount Carmel. The Carmelite Order began with a group of hermits who wished to lead a life like that of Elijah, the solitary one and the prototype of all hermits called to live a life of prayer. Early on these hermits asked St. Albert of Jerusalem to give them a simple formula of life which became known as the Rule of St. Albert. Carmelites throughout the world still retain and live this rule. These first Carmelites however were forced from Mount Carmel by the advancing Saracens. Their departure then meant that it became a spiritual challenge which forced the friars to ask, “How can one remain a Carmelite apart from Mount Carmel?” Every monastery, then, became a holy place, where everyone consecrated themselves to a fervent desire for God and for holiness.

Today in the 21st century the Discalced (not wearing shoes) Carmelite men (friars) and women (nuns) continue to live this way of life begun on Mount Carmel and reformed by Saint Teresa of Ávila in the 16th century. Called to be contemplatives, absorbed in God alone, Carmelites are also called to be at the service of the Church and of all people. The ascent of Mount Carmel is a call to face the challenge of prophecy and contemplation. Drinking from the spring of Elijah means following Christ. It demands keeping one’s feet on the ground while reaching for the heights of the mountain often hidden from view.

So how does Radha live her life? Her hours of prayer are spent praying for the current events and trends of modern society. She enters deeply into the suffering of people with her prayer for the persecuted Church, for the moral and ethical issues in the world, for those suffering in the attacks against life, for the youth of today, so that they can face the snares of temptations like drugs, pornography, and for people facing the break-up of families and of problems of marriage. She has these requests always in her constant prayers.

–T.D’Souza                     [with info from CMPaul & Asia News] April 2021