YOUNG GIRLS SHUN VOCATION INTO SISTERHOOD AS ONLY ONE GIRL, TAKES VOW AFTER A YEAR OF FORMATION IN ARUA DIOCESE

By Godwin Abedican

Arua
 
Novice, now Sister Mary Bakhita Kabugho Janet has taken her first or temporary vow to become a member of the Benedictine sisters of perpetual Adoration, a community of sisters at the Holy monastery in Ediofe Arua diocese.

Born in 1999, from Kasese diocese Kyalihumba parish, Sr. Mary Bakhita had challenges with her A ‘Level education which eventually forced her to drop out of school when she had passed from senior 5 to join senior six. She later shared with her cousin brother about her  feeling to join sisterhood, a call she says she had before but since she was told to join A’ Level, she could not follow at that time.

With the intervention of her cousin brother, he was able to take Mary Bhakita, to the monastery in Ediofe seeking her admission into the community. After having been admitted, she had to go through formation before taking her first vow on Tuesday 11th July 2023 at Ediofe holy monastery.

Speaking to her, she says, this level she has reached has been through prayers as she believes through God she can be able to go through to the next levels until her final vows. “Since senior three I was feeling that call within myself. But expressing it was not easy. After I left school, I had to wait for some time at home until I told my cousin brother about it, who eventually made me reach here,” she said. “I feel very happy. This call is not easy, it needs prayers, it needs sacrifice, it needs self-surrender and you have to let the will of God to be done in everything. I continued to lack many things and in such a situation you become like a beggar, you have to beg from somebody. Despite this, I came up to say these are material things, the challenge will end,” she added.

Sr. Mary Bakhita Kabugho,  advices the youth to always put God first in everything much as the world looks good saying most of the things in the world are so tempting that they can misled especially the youth.

 
Sr. Bhakita during an interview with Radio Pacis

Presiding over the mass for the celebration, Mgr. Kabeya Janvier the Episcopal Vicar of the religious in Arua Diocese, appeals to the religious to be free with the Christians to avoid some of the challenges that come with their calling to the vocations.

We as the religious are not supposed to live anyhow. We are supposed to specialize in loving. Loving people is our specialty, that’s why in many languages they call us the people of God. We the religious, the challenge to us is, are we really responding to that?” he questioned. “When  you go outside into the villages, you find that there are people more loving that we the religious, but when it comes to us the religious you find we have a lot of issues with privacy including barring people from entering our rooms, touching our properties and at the end of it all we become selfish.

He adds that, being religious in the call of the religious people is a challenge because one has to live a life that points towards God which will always be a contradiction to this world.

Sr. Mary Jacinta Okusaru, the Local Prioress at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, however notes that, there is a big challenge of young girls taking up the vocation of sisterhood since only very few choose to join given that the world has seen and continues to see a lot of changes in the levels of learning. “Those entering now, they have known a lot. There is no way that they are going to obey without understanding why they should obey and why they should do certain things the way they do. So you really have to take your time to explain things, though this does not affected their formation of those who join. The way life is lived here before and now, it has really changed. When I entered, life was colder, but now you see things area more livelily, you see life in people and it is very encouraging,” Okusaru explained.

About the frequency of young girls joining the vocation, Okusaru says, it’s very hard to predict since there are always fluctuations. “It really depends. There are some years we really have less vocations there are some years when we have people really coming. Like last year we had only one who reported and then this year we have at least 4, she said, something she attributes to the nature of their community where they mostly live indoors without being so much exposed like other communities of the sisters, making people not to know much about them and their community.

Bhakita singing a surrender song as she heads to take the vow

This vow will last for 3 years for her to establish for herself if she can continue in the vacation with an option of leaving after the three years before renewing twice after a year each  then taking her final vows. Previously, used to be that one takes vows for one year twice before taking the three years’ vow and then eventually the final vow taken for life but the church has since reversed the order .

Currently there are 35 members of the Benedictine sisters at the Holy Monastery.

COVER PHOTO: Sr. Bhakita’s parents hand her over to take her vows By Godwin Abedican