MIL OSI Translation. Region: Italy –
Source: The Holy See in Italian
The “Pink Nuns” in Adoration in Ruteng Monastery
Ruteng (Agenzia Fides) – At the monastery of the Adoration of the Most Holy Trinity, on the hilly area of Kuwu, just outside the city of Ruteng, on the Indonesian island of Flores, Eucharistic Adoration is permanent and prayer is incessant, day and night. Prayer rises to the Most High for the journey of Pope Francis. This is the charism of the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration, an international “contemplative-missionary” congregation – as the “Sisters Adorers of the Holy Spirit” like to call themselves. They are commonly called “the pink nuns”, due to the pink color of their consecrated habit. That dress was chosen by the founder Saint Arnold Janssen (1837 – 1909), a German priest and missionary, already founder of the Society of the Divine Word (the Verbite missionaries), who started the female institute with Mother Maria Michael (1862 – 1934). The pink color symbolizes “the love and joy of the Holy Spirit” and today the nuns are present in Europe, Amica, Asia and Africa. They came to Indonesia from the Philippines and the Ruteng monastery celebrated its 25th anniversary of foundation in 2024, as Agenzia Fides reports Sister Mary Bernardi, an 81-year-old Filipino nun who remembers the origins: in 1997 the local Bishop invited the pink nuns to Ruteng “to support the missionary action of the local church”. “Today – she reports – we are here, 3 Filipino nuns and 21 Indonesians. We have been blessed with the gift of vocations to monastic life”, she notes. The nuns responded to the appeal of the Indonesian Bishops to accompany the visit of Pope Francis to the country (2-6 September), the first stop on his apostolic journey to Asia and Oceania, with continuous prayer and perpetual Adoration. Sister Mary quotes the words of Arnold Janssen, when he said that “in Adoration we enter into the intimate relationship Father-Son-Holy Spirit, a true relationship of love that is our vocation and mission. In this communion of love we place Pope Francis and his mission”, she explains, illustrating the day of prayer that begins at 4.45 in the morning and ends with Compline at 19.30, while the consecrated women take turns in Adoration, kneeling in the monastery church, where there is perpetual exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. The Pope and his intentions, she continues, are entrusted to the loving hands of “Mary, true disciple of Christ who in our congregation we venerate with the title of Immaculate Bride of the Holy Spirit”. The consecrated live “a happy life”, immersed in prayer and work, emphasizing that “the world is in our hearts: in prayer and through prayer we are missionaries in the world”. In many other monasteries too, the religious dedicate themselves to incessant prayer: at Lembah Karmel, the Carmelite Prayer Center that stands on the hill of Cikanyere, in the regency of Cianjur (West Java) there is a community of Carmelite friars and a community of Carmelite nuns who, like all the other cloistered nuns, will not be able to meet the Pope personally. So they pause in contemplation, certain of “meeting the Pope and being close to him in spiritual communion, praising God for his presence as an apostle of the Gospel on Indonesian soil and supporting his mission with prayer on this journey to the East”. The nuns of the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in the western part of the island of Timor, territory of the diocese of Kupang, also responded with fervor. The monastery, an oasis of spirituality, offers the faithful an extraordinary experience of intense prayer and spiritual retreat. The consecrated women and the faithful gather these days to pray for the success of the Pope’s visit, “so that the evangelical message and the gift of brotherhood that he brings may flourish and bear fruit in Indonesia” (PA) (Agenzia Fides 2/9/2024)
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.
