MASS OF CELEBRATION   1882-2007

9 MAY 2007

Welcome - Sr Anne McGrath

On behalf of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, I welcome you to this Eucharistic celebration, marking 125 years of the Society of the Sacred Heart in Australia.

Firstly, we acknowledge the traditional people of the land on which we are gathered, the land of the Gadigal clan of the Eora nation. We pay our respects to them and honour them for their care of this land.

The date for this celebration has been chosen as marking the actual day when the 5 RSCJ Foundresses sailed into Sydney Harbour, 9 May 1882.  This evening we remember them by name, in gratitude:

• Rose Dunne
• Mary Jackson
• Sarah Simpson
• Febronie Vercruysse
• Alice Woodward

Met by Mr and Mrs John Hughes, they were taken immediately to the Convent of the Good Samaritans Sisters in Pitt Street where they were welcomed and given hospitality for the next 6 weeks.  It is with joy that we welcome this evening Sister Patty Fawkner, a member of the present Leadership Team of the Good Samaritan Sisters and members of the congregation.  We treasure the bond that our communities share from our arrival in Australia.

We welcome and thank Monsignor Tony Doherty, Parish Priest of Rose Bay and friend of the Society, as our celebrant this evening. 

In 1882, the Society of the Sacred Heart in Australia would have been identified with those first five Religious.  Here we are gathered as representatives of the wider family of the Sacred Heart:

• Religious of the Sacred Heart
• Family and Friends of RSCJ
• Alumnae
• Our Associate Members
• Directors of  Sacred Heart Education Ministry Board, Kincoppal-Rose Bay School Board, Karlaminda Hostel Board, Kerever Park Spirituality Centre Board
• The Principal of Kincoppal-Rose Bay, School Leadership Team and Student Representatives
• Kincoppal-Rose Bay Chapel Society
• Collaborators on Provincial Committees and Provincial Administrators

We remember, too, our Sisters and collaborators In Queensland and Melbourne and, in a special way, in New Zealand. They, in fact, are our older Sisters, founded two years earlier in 1880.

When the Foundresses arrived, they would have brought with them and been guided by the Constitutions of the Society, dating from 1815 and the beginnings of the congregation under the leadership of Madeleine Sophie Barat.  Our Constitutions were rewritten in 1982, following Vatican II.  Sister Marnie Kennedy will bring forward both the original Constitutions and our present ones in the Offertory Procession, marking our origins and our contemporary commitment.

The expression of our mission and charism may have changed since 1882, but not the essence.

            We are sent by the Church to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus.

            In Him all find their true growth as persons

            and the way towards reconciliation with one another.  (Par. 10)

We celebrate in thanksgiving the lives of Religious of the Sacred Heart in Australia over 125 years, the untold ways in which the love of the Heart of Jesus has been communicated by them.  We acknowledge also ways in which this love has not been manifest and ask forgiveness for our failures to witness to God’s love.

You, representatives of the family of the Sacred Heart, share our charism and are central to our mission in the Church. Together we are sent to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus. Together we are called

• To participate in God’s work of transformation of persons and societies;
• To renew our commitment to the service of education which is confided to us by the Church (Chapter 2000)

If our Foundress, St Madeleine Sophie Barat, could be said to have a catch cry, a call to each of us to-day it may well be the theme that has been highlighted in the Mass Booklet:  Courage and Confidence. This was an oft repeated phrase in her letters and conferences to the Religious. Let us receive it as her word to us to-day:

• Courage and Confidence  in our lives as members of the family of the Sacred Heart, sharing the charism of the Society in making known the love of God
• Courage and Confidence as we participate in God’s work of transformation of persons and society
• Courage and Confidence as we commit ourselves to work for justice and peace in our world, our country, our religious communities, our families and homes, our school communities.

As we commence our Eucharist to-day, I echo Madeleine Sophie’s words and say to each one here Courage and Confidence.