The Carmel of St. Teresa of Jesus Monastery in Little Rock has a new prioress. And while Sister Cecilia Chun, OCD, has served as prioress before, she’s interested in setting an example at the monastery for women’s vocations in a culture with more distractions than she’s ever seen before.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, as the second oldest of five girls, Sister Cecilia moved to the United States with her family when she was 13, settling for a few years in Atlanta.
“At first, I thought, maybe I’m not really adjusting in this world, in a very free country,” she said, recalling how she had to learn English and skip the eighth grade and start high school to make the daily commute easier on her parents.
“But when I was 15 or 16, I was pretty sure that I wanted to be a Carmelite,” she said. “When my parents heard it, they were against it because I was going to graduate at 17 and was going to enter right after. My dad said there was no way — he wasn’t against me being a religious, it’s just that I was too young. My mother said to my dad, ‘This is all your fault — you pray all the time every day and you have five daughters; this was going to happen sooner or later,’” Sister Cecilia said with a laugh.
She stayed at the Carmelite Monastery in Little Rock to complete her three-month aspirancy period, living, working and praying among the sisters before going home and waiting until she could join.
“I think the sisters here thought, ‘Oh, she will not enter with us; she will just get married.’ Meanwhile, I was just waiting and counting the days,” she said.
She spent five years helping with her parents’ business, caring for her younger sisters and researching and visiting religious orders to make sure the Carmelite Monastery was right for her.
After eight years of discerning, Sister Cecilia entered the Little Rock Carmel in 1983 at 23 years old.
“Even though it was a difficult journey, I don’t think I would trade it for anything because I needed all of that time,” Sister Cecilia said. “… I feel really blessed because I got to know our sisters, who were in the first generation because they were here since our foundation in 1950. There are only two or three sisters left since my entrance.”
This is the fourth time that Sister Cecilia has served as prioress at the Carmelite Monastery. The last time was from 2009 to 2015. She has also served as novice mistress, treasurer and council sister.
“It was frightening when it was my first time, but I’ve been here decades,” Sister Cecilia said. “We have a really wonderful community.”
The Discalced Carmelite nuns come from as far away as Panama and India and have established their presence in Little Rock for the past 74 years.
But this time, as prioress, Sister Cecilia has a new concern she wants to navigate as prioress — women’s religious vocations in a tumultuous secular culture.
“We are not getting vocations like we used to back in the 1950s and 1960s especially, but we are still so blessed,” Sister Cecilia said. “Arkansas is not a Catholic state, but still, we were able to maintain 12, 13, 14 sisters. It’s a small miracle, a great blessing and we really appreciate our bishop’s support.”
One of the big challenges facing vocations is all of the distractions of modern life.
“I like to quote Psalm 46: ‘Be still and know that I am God,’” Sister Cecilia said. “I think people who have all of these modern ways of living — they cannot be still, and therefore they do not know themselves. There are so many distractions. The opportunities are there, women can do so much. They have to know why they’re getting into something, what are they going to do in the future, and what are they expecting. They can become confused by these distractions.”
Sister Cecilia said some of these distractions have led young women to seek them out.
“Young people who come to us, that’s part of the calling — they want something very substantial, something real.”
Sister Cecilia compared discerning vocational life to pouring a soft drink.
“It’s like when you pour a Coke, and you’ve got all of the foam and fizz at the top,” she said. “The real drink is on the bottom. Some people spend their whole lives sitting in the foam, and they never reach the real drink. I’m afraid that will go on. The world has its own attractions, and it’s not always real — it’s very confusing and temporary, and some people never find true happiness because of that.”
While the number of women’s religious vocations has fallen across the country in recent decades, Sister Cecilia still finds hope in the allure of the simplistic Carmel life.
“Our order has been around since the 12th century,” she said. “… It’s going to be here forever. What makes us so special is that the lifestyle our forefathers lived is continuing on, and it’s very simple. You give your whole heart to Jesus Christ and practice God’s commandments, love God and love your neighbor in a small community setting. …
“God has to attract and send the young woman here. We cannot do that. We don’t even do any advertisements, but we do help the poor — I would rather spend and show ourselves like that.”
