August 2018

What does it mean to live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as a Sister of St. Joseph today? How do we explain the evangelical counsels to others? 

On Aug. 2-5 a meeting was held in Chicago of the CSSJ (Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph) Into the Future Collaborative entitled "Self-Emptying Love: Living the Vows for Our Times." Four Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine attended: Ss. Diane Couture, Mary Kuester, Rosa Lopez and Carol Stovall. The gathering was held at the Felician Sisters central convent in a suburb of Chicago.

Sisters Diane Couture and Mary Kuester in front of Felician convent, Chicago.

Sister Mary Pellegrino, from Baden, Pennsylvania, spoke on the vow of obedience. In the reign of God , she said, the way things are is that all belong, all have what they need, all are loved and all are free. Religious life is called to model life in the reign of God. 

She began by explaining the root of the word obedience is "to listen." Obedience, she said, is all about relationship - our relationship with God and with authority. Consecrated life is about deepening these relationships.

S. Mary cited Peter Block who said that in order to change the world today communal transformation is needed, not just personal/individual transformation. As Sisters of St. Joseph, S. Mary said we already have the dialectic between personal and the communal, sharing both the state of the heart 

Sister Mary Pellegrino spoke on obedience.

and the order of the house. She shared two experiences in her life that demonstrated a deepening of the vow of obedience as relationships - the Vatican investigation of the LCWR and the apostolic visitation when she was on the leadership team in Baden. Communal discernment was used in both cases. 

For religious life to be prophetic, S. Mary said, there only needs to be daily fidelity to consecrated life. 

Sister Judy Donovan, from Winslow, Maine, addressed the vow of poverty. She began by saying that unifying love is God's business, and we need to be deeply embedded in God's love as God's Beloved as vowed women religious. She saw personal, community, civic and global relationships all connected in a living ecosystem with the vow of poverty and shared five different times (often humorous) her life was "disrupted" by striving to live the vow of poverty.

Sister Judy Donovan spoke on poverty.

As her congregation dwindled in numbers they sold their motherhouse in Winslow and now still are a part of the large Lyons France congregation and no longer have to hold chapters. They also no longer accept new members. S. Judy quoted Diarmuid O'Murchu who wrote "vows are centers of values radiation" and that poverty is "mutual sustainability." With limited resources they do not initiate a lot of ministries but still are able to discern where unity is happening locally and collaborate with others.

A Chesnut Hill member, Sister Joannie Cassidy, spoke on the vow of chastity. She entitled her talk: "Women in Love: Living the Vow of Chastity." She began by showing a slide of the Rodin sculpture The Cathedral that is two hands arched towards each other but with space between them. She said we need to leave sacred space between us for the Beloved and God's inspiration. We move from the center to the circumference, from the core to the edges in love. She shared a story of visiting her mother in her last years when the mother had both MS and Alzheimer's disease. She would go into her room in the facility and put lotion on her feet. One day her mother said to her, "We know each other, don't we?" 

S. Joannie said we need to nourish our relationship with God, to know we are loved by God and called to be in relationship with others. She saw chastity as a vow of vulnerability. We create sacred space for God, she said, by cleaning out the clutter inside of us, whether it is work, worries, fears, ego concerns or compulsions. We are, she said, to hold the paradoxes with unioning love as Sisters of St. Joseph. We are called to be deep listeners to find common ground. 

The gathering was attended by 57 Sisters of St. Joseph from across the U.S. and Canada.