Global Coordinating Group Meets at the International Centre

 

Every two years the Global Coordinating Group comes to Le Puy for its meeting. (Every other year the group meets on zoom.) 

 

This year the Italian Federation planned the meeting for September 29-October 1 and featured Sr. Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ, the first woman to serve as undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops and the first woman to have voting rights in the Synod.  Sister Nathalie offered and facilitated an interactive presentation on Ongoing Formation on September 30. 

 

The Global Coordinating Group is comprised of the general superiors of Annecy, Chambéry, the Institute St. Joseph, and Lyon as well as the presidents of the Federations of Canada, France, Italy, and the USA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sister Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ              is undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. She has held this position since Pope Francis appointed her on February 6, 2021.

 

Table decorations included the globe and names of representative groups

 

Sister Judy Donovan (Lyon) presented Sister Eluiza and Olga with a gift as a good-bye to their 10 years of service and ministry to the Centre. The gift was a fabric with the Kitchen printed on it.

The Lace Is Not Yet Finished

 

The Lace Is Not Yet Finished program by Sr Jane DeLisle (Orange) met September 14-21 at the International Centre. 

The group spent an hour praying in the Kitchen before they visited Martine's lace shop. Sharing has been intense throughout the week, and the Centre has been Spirit-filled with energy, hope, and love. 

"You are more like the Founding Six Sisters," said Sr Jane, "than at any other time in our history. You are creating a new future." 

 This was a sobering thought and participants not only took it seriously, they embraced it. 

 

The group couldn't resist climbing the statue of the Blessed Mother. They could easily see the Centre from far above (the big house in the center of the photo).

 

 

The group visited Mother St. John Fontbonne's birthplace in Bas-en-Basset and held a prayer service in the dining room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julie and Sr. Jane pose with Mother St. John. They both 

hail from southern California.

 

 

 

 

 The sunsets during the week were spectacular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This session of "The Lace" is Sr. Jane's last year at the Centre after 10 years. Here is a brief history of her service and ministry of the program written by Sr. Jane. 

Beginning in 2014 in Orange and Los Angeles, California, and expanding to Rochester, New York, Jane DeLisle, CSJ from Orange, California has offered The Lace is Not Yet Finished program. The program found its way to Le Puy en Velay, France in 2016 and has been offered at the International Center of the CSSJ Federation for the last ten years, with a two-year break for the Covid pandemic. Participants have included Sisters, Associates, and lay partners hailing from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, various African countries, France, India, Mexico, England, Ireland, Wales, Eastern Europe, and the United States, in groups varying from six to twenty participants.

The program highlights the CSSJ founding vision—the spirit and spirituality of the Sisters of St. Joseph through the use of site visits, documents, visual media, music, prayer, state of the heart, and processes that expose participants to the original graces experienced by the first women of St. Joseph. All who have gone through the program have discovered the same grace at work within them today. 

Additionally, The Lace is Not Yet Finished has ignited passion for the mission of unifying love—and a deeper awareness of God’s abiding presence within and among the participants as it was experienced by the founding women and men of St. Joseph in 1650. Participants came as people captured by the charism and left renewed, inspired, and confident in their call to bring people together and bring them to God. We are bound together in the great love of God and are called to stir up love and unity.

Our physical presence for five full days of shared community in Le Puy en Velay’s historical area near the Cathedral offered a special experience of presence that awakened the reality of the first women of St. Joseph and nurtured a deeper sense of our shared attraction to the CSJ Charism.

The Communion of Saints became tangible as we walked in the footsteps of our founders. Our visit to the original kitchen was always the highlight. Silence and shared prayer in this place as a touchstone of grace seemed to bring forth the presence of our first sisters and Father Medaille. Each person shared a letter written to one of the first women of St. Joseph. Each one brought forth a sense of companioning presence through the centuries. In Le Puy we walked the same streets as the first women and prayed in the Cathedral and College Church just as they did. 

The different facets of the experience worked together to stir into life the shared commitment to the CSSJ Charism as the motivating principle of God’s original invitation to live and work as people centered in God, seeking to bring all into one. The lace begun in 1650 is not completed yet: the threads are now in our hands. We are challenged to be responsive to grace poured out in our world, revealing God’s great love.

Besides leaving with their hearts on fire, program participants returned home with all the materials used in the program, including videos, to enable them to offer the program among their circle of influence—Sisters, co-ministers, associates, and those involved in their ministries.

 

Thank you Sister Jane for your service and ministry to the Centre!!!

 

Mission Alive!

 

The Mission Alive program met September 5-12. This program is designed for lay leaders of SSJ-sponsored institutions. 

The 13 participants hail from Brazil, Canada, Denmark, and USA. Sister Dolores Clerico (Philadelphia) was the presenter and Sister Joana Mendez (Rochester-Brazil) and Sister Jeya Pratha (Lyon-India) were the translators of Portuguese and French, respectively. 

 

The group took time out of its busy schedule to celebrate Sister Dolores' birthday.

  

Here they are at the Origin & Evolution Centre of the Lyon Congregation posing with a sculpture of Mother St John Fontbonne.

The Eucharistic Letter

  

Twenty-two sisters from Africa, India, and France joined Sr. Marie Heckman (Institute St. Joseph--France) who presented a program on the Eucharistic Letter August 17-23 at the International Centre. The program was a pilot and will be offered next August as a Centre program.

The objectives of the program were fourfold:

1. To become aware of what resonates with each participant in the charism of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. 

2. To discover how I have inherited the way the Sisters who came before me received these texts, as well as the evolution of the Sisters of Saint Joseph’s spirituality over the centuries. 

3. To revisit the texts left to us by Jean-Pierre Médaille with fresh eyes—immersing myself in their context and the places where they were shaped—in order to hear what he intended to convey in his own time. 

4. To continue making these texts our own in the times in which we live. 

 

Group work 

                        

The sisters divided into groups to discuss various questions relating to the objectives of the program.

Journey to original SSJ communities 

The sisters visited Dunières, Riotord, Marlhes, Saint-Romain-Lachalm, Saint-Didier en Velay, Tence, Saint-Jeures--early communities where they began their ministries.

 Exploring Le Puy

Entering St. Michel, a walk of 285 steps up a mount, presents an eerie picture at a sacred and ancient sacred site.

 

 

Re-enactments of the SSJ story

____of Godly Play instructs the sisters on how to re-enact the original documents through role playing and then asking and answering questions about the particular parts of the history of the Sisters of St. Joseph. She uses playing pieces to tell the story and then invites the sisters to explain what piece says something to them.

 

 

 

 

 The playing pieces depict the town of Le Puy and various aspects of the Founding Sisters' lives: habit, lace-making bobbin, the Kitchen, and the Constitutions.   

 

The sister participants try their own hand at re-enacting the Eucharistic Letter in small groups. 

One group enacts the "founding sisters" who receive a package from Fr. Medaille that contains the Eucharistic Letter. The Letter opens a discussion among the "sisters" to guide them in their ministries. 

A young woman inquires about joining the Sisters of St. Joseph.

The "early sisters" make connections (with yarn) with various small communities that profess to serve the poor people.

 

 

Reading the Eucharistic Letter in an attempt to follow its directives.

The community of the Little Design discusses their ministries to the poor people of Le Puy.

 

"Fr. Medaille" walks in the countryside and then prays for guidance regarding the foundation of "The Little Design". 

 

 

"Fr. Medaille" recruits a young woman to join the Sisters of St. Joseph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sloppy Joes for Dinner  

The sisters try out an American favorite: sloppy joes, which consist of loose hamburger and onions drenched in ketchup, a bit of mustard, a dash of white vinegar, and a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and chili powder. The sisters eat their sloppy joes in their own ways.

 Good-byes involve cute cut-ups and dancing