VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
Interviewed by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Hawaii Catholic Herald
It has been my lifelong dream to be a missionary with the hope to go to China to find my roots and to bring the Gospel to my village. However, the closest I ever got to China was as a tourist. The Holy Spirit has since led me down paths unexplored, and places never dreamt of in my ministry beyond borders.
I was born into a Buddhist family in Canton, China. However, my parents raised me in Hong Kong. My first experience with Christianity was when they sent me to a Protestant grade school. For high school, I went to Sacred Heart Canossian School run by the Italian Canossian Sisters of Charity. The school is well known for its excellence in academia. It is there that I first learned about Catholicism. And, it is was in my church history course while learning about the Reformation, that I wanted to become a Catholic.
My parents were very good and open about faith. They told me, “We think you can get baptized when you are older, when you know what you are doing.” In 1959, I did get baptized at St. Margaret Church in Happy Valley, embarking me on my Spirit-led journey.
After teaching for a few years at Rosaryhill School with the Dominican Fathers, I told them I wanted to be a missionary. But, the Dominicans said that there were no Dominican Sisters who were missionaries in Hong Kong. However, they knew that down the road was a group of Maryknoll Sisters who were missionaries from America. They were the third community of Catholic religious women from overseas to establish a mission in Hong Kong. So I went down and asked to join them.
However, Maryknoll denied my request. They said that I was too new in the faith. If after a few years I was still interested, I could then re-apply. Maybe that was good in a way. I entered Maryknoll in 1963 and was sent to Quezon City in the Philippines where Maryknoll had a house of formation.
After my first profession of vows, I was asked what degree I wanted to pursue. I replied, “Just send me to a teacher training college.” Leadership said, “You need a degree.” I furthered, “I want to be a missionary.” They said, “No degree, no assignment.”
My degree in education was the first obtained, with others to follow. From the Philippines, I returned to Hong Kong to teach. Then, I was asked to go to the motherhouse in Maryknoll, New York.
Culture shock. That was my first adventure to the United States. However, working in the Maryknoll Mission Institute with sisters returning from the missions was good. I was able to get to know other missionaries from over 20 other countries served. Maryknoll is like this. We start a project. We learn to work with the local leaders. When a leader is trained, we pull out and move on to another project.
What keeps us going is prayer and our relationship with God. That is why every day, I spend most of my time in the morning in prayer using Centering Prayer and spiritual reading.
Sister Paulette Yeung is a Maryknoll Sister. She was professed in 1966. She has been engaged in teaching, social services, acculturation programs, individual and family counseling, starting shelters for abused women of domestic violence, and more in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, Korea, San Francisco and in Hawaii. She presently serves as a spiritual director and resides at Maryknoll Covent in Honolulu.
