“To understand what contemplatives do and how their lives benefit us, you must recall what everyone knows about trees. Yes, trees. … Forests are essential for our physical survival because they perform such important functions as drawing water from the clouds and ‘breathing’ for the entire population of human beings and animals — trading their oxygen for our carbon dioxide. … Similarly, contemplatives are men and women, who in an especially intensive way, maintain vital prayer-contact with God on behalf of all of us, speaking to him for us and drawing his blessings upon all.” (Sister Jeanne Anne Collis, CSJ, “History, Charism and Ministry of Religious and Diocesan Clergy in Hawaii, 1993”)
The Hong Kong Carmelites with Bishop John J. Scanlan shortly after their arrival in Hawaii in 1973. From left, Sister Agnella Iu, Sister Caroline Chow, Mother Mary Agnes Tse, Sister Agnes Marie Wong, Sister Teresita Tam, Sister Mary Angel Wong, and Sister Marie Tang. (Hawaii Catholic Herald file photo)
Nestled mid-range against the Kailua slope of the Koolau mountains is a little verdant refuge where daily the Word becomes flesh, adding more life-giving oxygen to a world that sometimes is, in the words of poet William Wordsworth, “too much with us, late and soon.”
On Oct. 25, the Carmelite Sisters of Carmel of the Holy Trinity Monastery mark 40 years of ministry in Hawaii. Their presence, from seed to seedling, sapling to tree, to life-giving forest spreading the blessings of God, has been a gift to the people of Hawaii.
Seed: Spain, Belgium, Hong Kong
Hawaii’s Carmelites can trace their origins to Spain in the 16th century, a golden age bustling with colonial expansion, great wealth, culture and art. It was also a period overshadowed by deep fears, struggle and the Inquisition. It was during this time that St. Teresa of Avila responded to God’s call to reform a Carmelite order grown lax in its monastic observances. Her toil led to the planting of new seeds of fervor that became the Discalced (barefoot or sandal-wearing) Order of Carmelites.
The Carmelite Monastery convent today. (Photo by Bernadette Ranney)
Instructing her sisters in a renewed life of prayer and contemplation, St. Teresa said: “May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.”
New foundations sprung up across Spain and Europe and in continents beyond. Fast forward to the 20th century. On May 10, 1931, seeds of Carmel from Belgium were transplanted to China. There in Canton, Belgian Carmelite Sister Marie Livine Delameilleure and three companions started a temporary Carmel in a small house at No. 75 Robinson Road.
One of the first local vocations to be received by Sister Marie Livine was Mary Agnes Tse, a well-educated young woman who knew how to speak French, felt easily at home with the spirit of Carmel and was ready to embrace it. As a novice she was asked to help others in formation, training those who would eventually become her companions in Hawaii.
With the political situation in China growing dangerous under the emerging shadow of the Communist Party, the sisters were forced to move to Hong Kong, then a British territory. In 1933, with the support of Bishop Henry Valtorta, the first vicar apostolic of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, the sisters bought property at No. 68 Stanley Village Road on Stanley Bay to establish a Carmelite monastery there. In 1936, a modernist, Franco-Belgian, U-shaped monastery was completed with red brickwork walls, iron fences and white concrete canopies over the windowsills.
Seedling: “Please come”
A porcelain plate painted by Sister Agnella Iu sits on the Carmelites’ art studio table. (Photo by Bernadette Ranney)
The Carmel in Hong Kong flourished and in 1972, Mother Mary Agnes Tse and Sister Agnes Marie Wong flew across the Pacific to explore the possibility of establishing a new Carmelite foundation on Vancouver Island, Victoria, Canada. While in Hawaii on their way back to Hong Kong, they met Honolulu Bishop John J. Scanlan in the downtown parking lot of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.
Taking full advantage of the chance encounter, the bishop expressed his strong desire to have a Carmel in Hawaii. In the years following World War II, he had sent requests to other foundations but they had been rejected because the numbers of nuns were depleted. He later wrote three times to Carmel in Hong Kong saying, “Please come to Hawaii.”
Later, while Sister Mary Agnes was walking in her monastery garden in Hong Kong, she reflected on the directive given her by the former Carmelite general superior Father Marie-Eugene during a chapter (congregational meeting) assembly: “Go and make a new foundation.” Hong Kong’s monastery was bursting at the seams; there was a long waiting period for new members. Mother Mary Agnes did not want to go, but finally she said “Yes.”
On Oct. 25, 1973, the seven founding members of what is now the Monastery of the Holy Trinity arrived in Hawaii: Mother Mary Agnes Tse, Sister Agnella Iu, Sister Marie Tang, Sister Mary Angel Wong, Sister Caroline Chow, Sister Teresita Tam and Sister Agnes Marie Wong.
They moved into the convent vacated by the Marist Sisters who had withdrawn from service at St. Stephen Seminary after its high school closed in 1970. Over time, the sprout of Carmel in Hawaii became a strong sapling. The convent became a cloister and the overgrown and untended area surrounding the convent became an oasis of both contemplative prayer and sustainable living.
Reminiscing this month about those early days, Sister Agnes Marie said, “We felt very much at home right away. Hawaii looked familiar. It was quiet like Victoria Island. The climate was good, and the food was the same as in Hong Kong.”
Sapling: Papaya trees, honey bees
With the help of Msgr. Daniel Dever, the Catholic schools superintendent who lived at St. Stephen, plus seminarians, volunteers, benefactors and friends, the first fruit trees were planted — papaya. Over time, bananas, green onions and fish were cultivated for consumption. The sisters would also raise chickens, ducks and frogs.
Sister Mary Angel was a very skillful and resourceful nun. In the 1970s, to raise funds, she baked cookies. In the 1980s, she and Sister Teresita learned the art of beekeeping, starting with three hives and ending up with more than 10. Sister Mary Angel showed the community how to make honey candy for sale. Sister Agnes Marie excelled under her tutelage in the production of delicate peanut brittle, chocolate fudge and her favorite, almond nougat.
Not all work time was spent in the kitchen and garden. The nuns also made ceramics, crafted dry flower cards and painted floral designs on porcelain. Sister Agnes Marie, Sister Teresita and Sister Agnella especially enjoyed taking up the paintbrush for the few hours a week of this art-based contemplative practice in their studio, a former cottage-sized dog kennel left by earlier property owners.
Sister Agnes Marie recalled how the monastery’s two acres of brush-filled surroundings were transformed into a terraced water garden.
“One day, after a rainfall, I was outside looking at the garden. Father Dever came by and asked me what I was looking at,” Sister Agnes Marie said. “I told him that I was watching the water flowing from the mountain down through the garden. He then said, ‘It is better to have living water.’
“Father Dever knew of our love of water. Around Christmas time, he called us outside saying: ‘Sisters come outside, we (the seminarians and himself) have a surprise for you.’ They had found a water source from the mountain which they conducted to our property. He turned a valve and to our amazed delight, water flowed through our garden.
“Eventually they moved boulders on the property to construct seven ponds, one for each of us. Seven became eight, and now we have a total of 11 ponds.”
Tree: Old to the new
The 1980s and 90s were a time of settling in. In 1985, an anonymous donor paid for the construction of a new chapel that today can accommodate several dozen visitors for Mass. In the ponds, tilapia, carp and catfish were raised for food and for market, and also elodea, a popular water plant for home aquariums.
The nuns joined the Mary, Queen of Carmel Association in America expanding their connections with other Carmelites following the renewed 1991 Constitutions of the Order of Discalced Carmelite Nuns.
Each Carmelite foundation has its own goal and different ways of expression toward attaining that goal. Mother Mary Agnes had wanted Carmel in Hawaii to be like a family, as their foundress St. Teresa formed in her foundations. The name for the monastery, “Carmel of the Trinity,” was chosen so that all the nuns would be united as one.
The sisters keep in touch with their motherhouse in Hong Kong via letter, phone and sometimes the Internet. Some of the sisters have family in the United States and Canada and see family members on their occasional visits to the monastery. In Hawaii, a support group of friends and benefactors has grown to assist in their temporal needs. Their Island friends have even introduced them to cuisines beyond Chinese food.
The spirit of unity, harmony and ohana can be felt and seen in this Carmel. As Sister Agnella Iu said, “God put us in Hawaii. We share the same spirit of aloha.”
Forest: Charism, ministry, hope
The charism of the Carmelite nuns follows the example of St. Teresa of Avila in the balancing of a solitary and a communal life. One of the most venerated of the order, St. Therese of Lisieux, described her calling most simply: “My vocation is love.”
It is a love expressed most profoundly in the form of prayer.
“Prayer is important,” said Sister Agnes Marie, the present prioress. “We came here to pray for all people, especially for those in Hawaii. We also especially pray for priests. As we cannot work outside, we support everyone with our prayers. Our life of prayer and contemplation is our apostolate.”
The years have taken their toll on Hawaii’s Carmel. Mother Mary Agnes died in 1999 and Sister Mary Angel some years after that. Two others, Sister Teresita and Sister Marie, burdened with ill health, live in a care home in Kaneohe.
But the monastery has also gained a new member. In July, Oahu-born Sister Mary Elizabeth de Jesus made her first vows as a Carmelite after living with the sisters for three years. In her mid-50s, she is now the convent’s youngest. She will make her final vows three years from now.
“What is meant by growing older?” asked Sister Agnes Marie. “We are now four in the monastery. We have made adjustments to our schedule and do what we can. Everyone has their own duty. We help each other.”
“We also thank God that sometimes volunteers and friends assist us” in the care of the gardens and the cleaning of the house, she said.
Forty years ago, there was hope that local vocations, perhaps from Hawaii’s Chinese Catholic community, would sustain the monastery. With that not happening, Carmel in Hawaii’s future is unknown.
“Ten years from now,” Sister Agnes Marie said, “we can see the younger members carrying on with new ones coming in. Some people have a vocation, but don’t know that there is a Carmelite monastery here in Hawaii. We are full of hope that God will send vocations in his time to carry on our contemplative work of prayer.”
