In The Land Of Monks
By Fr. Benny Enano cm
Fr. Benny Enano, a Vincentian missionary, is from Igbaras, Iloilo. He is the youngest of five children. After his ordination in June 29, 1991 he was assigned as parish priest to Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Parish, Molo. Then a few years later he was sent to Thailand for mission.
I was sent here in Thailand 5 years ago to join our two missionary priests in their mission work. Thailand is a Buddhist country where monks play a very important role in the spiritual life of the people. I studied the Thai language three hours a week in Khon Khaen University under an individual instruction for six months. But after a year I just found myself being assigned as a parish priest of Holy Saints Parish. I wasn’t prepared for the job yet. My learning of Thai was still inadequate. Thai language is very difficult. It has its own script, it is made up of many characters and one word means many things – according to the sound or tone. But then I was forced to study hard all by myself when I had to start saying the Mass in Thai. For a start, I asked one of our scholars to read the readings for the Mass in Thai while I wrote it in phonetics. This allowed me to read Thai words. Eventually I moved on to reading scriptures in Thai and at the same time learning how to write the homily in Thai. With the help of the students in the community, I was able to improve and even did the homily without anymore reading it.