Once every eight years Loreto Sisters gather in their province or region and discern where and how the Spirit might be urging them into new ways of being and doing. The time span is determined by the pattern of election of the Institute leadership team which resides in Rome. And so it was that our Province of Australia and South East Asia (consisting of member/s in New York, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, Timor-Leste and all around Australia) gathered online in March for discussion, discernment and decision.
Particular to this meeting was a communal discernment to obtain an indication of how members are sensing the future merger with the Mary Ward Sisters of the Congregation of Jesus (CJ). Our response was almost 100% in favour and so we anticipate this will lead to some action later in the year in Manresa Spain when the CJs will invite us to be one with them. Mother Gonzaga Barry was instrumental in trying for the same union in 1900 in Europe but political interference stopped the plan!
We were encouraged by a recorded conversation between Bishop Vincent Long from Parramatta and Ms Marina Ugonotti, Principal of Loreto Normanhurst where Bishop Long said:
We follow the script of Jesus, the script of the God who flips the notion that the world belongs to the strongest and fittest because the God of vulnerability invites us to model another way of living and relating. Mary Ward is a pioneer of that way, she embodied and lived radically that notion of God who transcends borders, boundaries, the God who broke through all the barriers of gender, race, social class etc.
Our younger women contributed to several aspects of the program with challenging insights and possibilities. They were heard on a panel on what it means to be Mary Women at the heart of the Church, a conversation on Where does the energy of the future lie? and throughout conversation circles over the six days.
Central to much of the discussion was the desire to widen the tent of the Mary Ward family, to expand the Mary Ward spaces and in embodying hospitality and openness, to find God in the everyday encounters with all people of good will.
Religious life is in transition and exploring God’s mission as encounter is an exciting way to answer a call to live life to the full.
Author: Sr Sandra Perrett ibvm