International women of the Heart

Fifteen years ago I celebrated International Women's Day as part of an incredibly international community of RSCJ. There were twelve of us together in Rome, preparing for our perpetual vows: add the formation team and translator and we were fifteen in all, from fourteen different countries and every continent. Between us we had grown up speaking at least eight first languages and as many if not more second and third ones, and brought with us a diversity of cultures and mentalities, of spiritualities and national identities.

We were amazingly diverse, but also as one. United in our common vocation and sisterhood, and our deepening love for one another, we overcame differences and difficulties in communication, to live our Society's motto of Cor Unum et Anima Una in Corde Jesu - One heart and one mind in the Heart of Jesus.

This has not been my only experience of living in international community, but it has certainly been my strongest and most diverse. In the Society of the Sacred Heart, every day is a day filled with international women: with their strength and vulnerability, their courage and resilience, their tenderness and tears, their passion and energy for mission, and for making our world a more just and loving place.

So today is a good day for reminding myself of these words from a recent formation document - Life Unfolding: Offering the gift. 

At this crucial point of history, Jesus is still calling us to be “Women of the Heart”, giving us the possibility of listening once more to God’s dream for humanity, which moves us to make each action of our lives brim over with love. In community we wish to give each other mutual support in the certainty that the dream can be fulfilled.

May I - may we all, wherever in the world we may be - become more truly women of the Heart, brimming over with love, consciously playing our part in fulfilling God's dream for humanity...