The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
21 September 2003
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Heaven
scent floral feast
Welcome
strangers’ call
Bishops:
Fight racism
Bishop
Mayne dies at 75
Senate
‘yes’ to gay bid
Benedictine
nuns gather in Sydney
Tears
of joy at Marriage Sunday Mass
Donor
club
His
Holiness, the poet
Concert
to mark Pope’s jubilee
It’s
‘weakness of faith’
Still
a need for Catholic voice: Dr Pell
Editorial:
Spectre of fear
Letters:
Christian values
Conversation:
Amanda McKenna, Catholic singer and songwriter - ‘God’s messenger’ on a journey
of faith
Opintion:
‘Good mother of all ...’
Voice
of Youth: ‘Most wonderful day’
Insights:
Biblical ancestors?
Religious:
Spirit-ualities are everywhere
North
American, Irish, Australian sisters in historic Loreto reunion
Education:
Decade a day at school
Social
Work degree course at Strathfield
Balmain
kids hit right note
Catechism:
Daytime course
New
bishops ‘help God’s light shine in darkness’
Capacity
to forgive ...
‘Heroic
witness’ to the Gospel of hope
‘Kids
worth dying for’
Inspirations:
‘Schoolies’ faith patrol
Religious: Spirit-ualities are everywhere
By Marilyn Rodrigues
“We can get a lot of ‘spirit-ualities’ in the plural. They are everywhere; various schools within the Church and aids to spirituality that can become central to a person’s spirituality.
“I’m thinking of the enneagram and reiki, things from other cultures that are valid, but are not equal to the call of Jesus as we have it in the Gospels.
“We talk in the US about the café or buffet mentality, where people pick and choose what they want. I would call myself a minimalist or a centralist.
“For me the central focus is the mission of Jesus, and what he did and how he did it.”
So says Sr Anne Hennessy (pictured), a Sister of St Joseph of Orange in California, who has been visiting Australian Sisters of the congregation at Sans Souci, Sydney.
She lives at the congregation’s motherhouse in eastern California.
Sr Anne, newly-elected secretary of the US’s Leadership Council of Women Religious, is a strong advocate for the “centrality of Jesus Christ” in Christian expression.
“The ministry of Jesus Christ is the model of all we do, whatever culture we’re in,” she says.
Sr Anne speaks from experience of working with very different cultures. She has “walked to ministry across an American university campus, across the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee and across the cobbles of St Peter’s Square”.
She spent 10 years in Israel (1989-99) where she worked at a retreat centre on the Mount of Beatitudes for people involved in various aspects of mission work for the Church.
“People would live simply and help with the cooking and cleaning and go out to places close by to contemplate the mission of Jesus,” she says.
“They would stay for 10 days and then they would go on to Jerusalem.”
Sr Anne has also taught on pilgrimage and the mission of Jesus in Galilee at the Gregorian University in Rome.
“It was a wonderful experience because the students were usually young priests or religious who were going to be involved in the formation of others,” she says.
“Many were from Latin America, Eastern Europe, and South-East Asia, so we would all speak Italian.”
She was impressed by the students’ deep devotion “to Jesus Christ primarily and to the Church”.
“Even the people I met who were connected to the Vatican had deep spirituality and integrity,” she says.
“It was not a matter of disagreeing or agreeing on theology, it was the integrity and devotedness which was really outstanding. Ninety nine per cent of people in the Vatican are working out of a deep sense of devotion to Jesus Christ and the Church.
“There is the bureaucracy there - it’s like any organisation, by and large - but the thing that came across to me was the deep sincerity of people.”
Sr Anne says there are parallels between the experience of women religious in the US and Australia.
“We are also facing a diminishing and ageing congregation, but at the same time there is tremendous energy and we have to find ways of making the best use of that,” she says.
“And there is great interest in supporting the laity and sharing some of our enthusiasm, of sharing the mission of Jesus with them.”
The work of the Sisters of St Joseph of Orange encompasses many areas, including education, health and ministry to immigrant populations.