St. Rose Philippine Duchesne: Religious, Educator, Pioneer, Saint

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has named St. Rose Philippine Duchesne as the Year of Faith Saint for February.  To celebrate, members of the Sacred Heart family are sharing reflections, homilies, poems and prayers - something different each day of the month.  The Society of the Sacred Heart invite you to join them by visiting their site each day.  Click here to learn more.

To read the series of reflections, homilies, poems and prayers already posted - click here.

The Society of the Sacred Heart Announces the Successful Conclusion of the "In Mission for Life" Campaign

I received the following update from the US Society of the Sacred Heart  today and am happy to share with you!

In Paris in the early years of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Father Joseph Varin, a spiritual guide for the young Society, gathered with Madeleine Sophie Barat and her first companions each morning after Mass to discern and pray together about the spirit and charism of the Society of the Sacred Heart.  Father Varin posed the question, “What shall be its spirit?”  With one voice, they all said, “Generosity!”

It is with deep gratitude that the U.S. Province of the Society of the Sacred Heart announces the successful conclusion of the national five year $40,000,000 In Mission for Life campaign.  With God’s grace, daily prayer and the personal generosity of 5,600 benefactors and volunteers, the Society’s mission of discovering and making known the love of the Heart of Christ in our world will continue far into the future, and our elderly sisters will continue to receive the care they deserve.

At the close of the campaign, commitments totaled $38,400,000.  A very generous friend of the Society pledged her $8,000,000 estate to the future of the Society and its mission.  She was honored to be a part of helping us not only reach the goal but exceed it by $6,400,000.

We humbly and gratefully thank God, St. Madeleine Sophie, St. Philippine Duchesne and you for the amazing graces of our national campaign:
·        The relationships rekindled and deepened;
·        The Society’s spiritual and educational mission strengthened;
·        Our elderly sisters cared for in a manner which acknowledges their lives given in love.

Along with the Church’s Year of Faith celebrating St. Philippine Duchesne in the month of February, the Society is announcing a Year of Thanksgiving with moments of thanksgiving and celebration interspersed throughout the year.  We pray daily in gratitude for all supporters, living and deceased, who contributed in any way to this historic campaign.  Please watch www.rscj.org for further details.

We began in faith; we end in hope.  With one voice, the Religious of the Sacred Heart thank you for your great generosity.

With gratitude, love and prayer,

   Barbara Dawson RSCJ                                                               Shirley Miller RSCJ

Sister Barbara Dawson                                                                   Sister Shirley Miller
U.S. Provincial                                                                               Director of Mission Advancement

A letter from the US Provincial ... Janet Stuart: Why We Celebrate Her Memory

Please note the information on Janet Erskine Stuart below that follows Barbara Dawson's letter was written by Sue Acheson, RSCJ (1954-2015)

November 11, 2012

Dear Friends:

This week we celebrate the birthday of Janet Erskine Stuart RSCJ, a world-renowned educator who led the Society of the Sacred Heart into the 20th century. We are happy to launch a new ministry of the Society of the Sacred Heart in the United States appropriately named The Stuart Center for Mission, Educational Leadership and Technology. The Stuart Center is a place dedicated to the Mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart and it is located in Washington DC, at the former CEDC building at 821 Varnum Street NE., a short distance from Catholic University of America.

The MISSION of the Stuart Center is to support and further the educational mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart by working with Religious of the Sacred Heart, collaborators and social justice groups to strategically respond to the educational and justice needs of our country and the world, to support the development of new projects and initiatives, to strengthen technology at the service of mission, to focus on youth and leadership and to provide conference space for religious and social justice groups aligned with our mission.

The VISION of the Stuart Center is to be at the forefront to foster a more just society through educational initiatives, technology and leadership development in collaboration with groups whose mission is aligned with that of the Society of the Sacred Heart and to support RSCJs to live mission to the fullest.

The Stuart Center is comprised of five offices, under the leadership of Sister Vicky Rajca RSCJ:

The Office of Educational Initiatives and Leadership, Director, Imma DeStefanis RSCJ

The Office of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, Coordinator, Diane Roche RSCJ

The Center for Education, Design and Communication (CEDC), Director, Laryn Kragt Bakker

The Office of Ministry, Director, Fran de La Chapelle RSCJ

The Conference Center, Director,Vicky Rajca RSCJ

It is through collaboration with a wide variety of organizations that the educational mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart realizes its fullest impact. Together we will respond more effectively to the needs of our community and our world. We ask Janet Stuart’s blessing on this 21st century educational venture.

We invite you to visit our website, stuartcenter.org, which will be launched on December 15th. Please feel free contact the staff to become better acquainted with the vast range of projects and services that will be available or stop by and visit!

With great hope,

Barbara Dawson RSCJ
Provincial
Society of the Sacred Heart, US Province 

Janet Stuart: Why we celebrate her Memory

written by Sue Acheson, RSCJ 

Why is the centenary of her death worth celebrating?Why is she someone whom we want to remember in the 21^st century?

One reason is simply that she was a wonderful writer whose letters –especially those written during her extensive travels around the USA and Latin America between 1898-1901 – bring the environment she observed vibrantly alive. Devotees of blogs and of Twitter can admire her imaginative, concise, lively essays on various aspects of spiritual life or of community life – many of which still have something pertinent to say about relationships and the love of God.

Secondly, she was the first rscj at ‘senior management’ level in English speaking world to interpret the spirituality of the Society in a context we can recognize as ‘modern’.  She installed electricity and the telephone at Roehampton, travelled in trains and motor cars, had regular dealings with lawyers, house agents, and government inspectors.  She experienced the struggle to respond to pressures for changed whilst remaining faithful to the core values of the charisma she inherited. Today we might make different choices, and are not at all concerned, as she was, with safeguarding a monastic lifestyle.  However, our freedom to be open to different ways of living religious life only ‘works’ because we have learned the lessons she inherited from St. Madeleine Sophie Barat and passed on in her own early 20^th century idiom, of a person-centered spirituality that is rooted in the love of the heart of Jesus.

A third reason for remembering Janet Stuart is that she was the first Superior General to be able to exploit improved transport opportunities in order to respond to the challenge of establishing ‘Cor Unum’ in a global organization.  Where Sophie Barat had to wait months for letters to pass between France and America, and where Mabel Digby (Stuart’s predecessor) was inhibited by ill health and by a political instability in Europe that directly threatened the continued existence of religious orders in some parts of the continent, Stuart could take advantage of a window of relative calm between 1911-1914 to embark, literally, on a project to visit every community from Australia to America, from Chile to Japan.

The conferences she gave at each stop challenged religious to live up to high standards both in their religious life and in their professional lives as educators.  More importantly, the way she delivered them created a felt impact that meant the visit was cherished long afterwards – communities of sisters many of whom were ‘far from home’ felt recognized, valued, encouraged, part of the greater whole.  Although there was no attempt at acculturation, let alone enculturation, her round the world tour did evince a desire to listen and to know individuals in what was at the time a large and expanding organization.  She wrote that she had ‘great plans’ for the future, though they needed time to develop. She was tragically not given that time, but used the time she had in a way that perhaps laid solid spiritual foundations for the radical changes that were to take place after the Second World War.

The official photograph taken of Janet Stuart in 1911 when she was made Superior General rather overwhelms one with its ‘stuffiness’.  To a modern eye, the habit is stifling, and the curtained bookshelves in the background add to the impression of an outdated propriety and repression of individuality.  The individual seems absorbed into the organization, and into the values she must, as Superior General represent. However a closer look at the face within the wimple creates a more sympathetic effect.  It is an authoritative, open and intelligent gaze, with a hint of humor – at once reflective and engaged. In an essay written in 1904 Stuart wrote of how a personality can most fully reveal itself to an observer through a countenance that is ‘in repose’ and unconscious of itself’ whilst ‘fully turned to the observer … following its won thoughts’.  Intentionally or not this photograph seems to capture that idea.  It is a face that gazes out of a 19^th century religious culture into the 21^st century – a speaking expression, with which one could even now hold a constructive and meaningful conversation

The above was written by Sue Acheson, RSCJ and taken from the Society of the Sacred Heart England and Wales Providence website.  For further info on Janet Erskine Stuart, click here.

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For your reflection…

There is much talk about the future of religious life. The case of LCWR brought the internal discourse of many congregations into the public sector.  Janet Stuart straddled two worlds, crossed the 19^th and 20^th centuries.  It was a time when a rapidly changing world brought both possibilities and resistance; excitement and fear and a definite uncertainty about the future of religious life at that time.  Are we not now at a similar point?

How can we as Religious of the Sacred Heart in the Province of US and Canada, like our sister Janet…

• Make the environment, which we observe vibrantly alive?
• Interpret the spirituality of the Society in a context we today recognize as “modern”?
• Maximize the new technologies of an ever increasing globalized world to build our Cor Unum both here and internationally?
• Respond to the needs of the world with the authority born of a deep life of prayers, an open and intelligent gaze and a hint of humor?

As the Stuart Center begins this new journey we also offer the Prayer for the New Year written by Janet Stuart.

Heavenly Father, unseen Companion of our life, give us faith and eager expectancy as we begin this fresh stage of our journey.  Take from us all fear of the unknown and teach us to wrest treasures from the darkness.  As the days come and go, may we find that each of one is laden with happy opportunities and enriching experiences; and when this year is ended may our best hopes be more than ever fulfilled.

Editors Note:  With regard to the above reflection, I would ask: How can we as Alumnae and Alumni of the Sacred Heart, like our sister Janet ... 

• Make the environment, which we observe vibrantly alive?
• Interpret the spirituality of AASH in a context we today recognize as "modern"?
• Maximize the new technologies of an ever increasing globalized world to build our Cor Unum both here and internationally?
• Respond to the needs of the world with the authority born of a deep life of prayers, an open and intelligent gaze and a hint of humor?