Thanks to Meg Canty and Joan Gannon, the Albany Times Union published the following article about RSCJ elders at Teresian House.

On Sunday, September 6, 2009, RSCJ from New Orleans and Grand Coteau/Baton Rouge got together in a unique way to mark the 4th Katrinaversary. They joined over 116 other Healthy Gulf hosts across the country in an entertaining, educational, and action-oriented special event centered on the serious issue of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands.

At the 2009 meeting of the Academy of Management in Chicago, Jean Bartunek, RSCJ, PhD, received the Academy’s Distinguished Service award. This career award was given for her long and excellent service on the editorial boards of some of the management field’s premier journals and for her foundational work when she served as President of the Academy of Management and in other offices associated with the executive committee. She was instrumental in developing a document that spells out the Academy’s relationships with management associations in the US and other countries and in leading a revision of the bylaws of the Academy.

Thank you for your concern and prayer for Taiwan's terrible typhoon disasters. We, in the northern part of the island, are not so affected.  God was really looking after us.  Here school was off one day. Food was cooked and brought to us by a graduate, but we were quite all right.  Here on our campus, one big tree fell across the road to the Retreat House, and no other damage on our property. However the southern part of Taiwan was very badly affected.  So many bridges were swept away by torrents of water, and so many houses and even buildings on the west coast were swept away.  I think it is the worst typhoon Taiwan suffered from in more than 50 years. I can foresee that vegetables and fruit and all food will go up in price since the southern part of the island produces nearly all of it.

We have been praying for the victims and the homeless these days at Mass. We shall join the local church for helping the victims.

Like Moses, a lot of us find ourselves hearing and seeing the needs of others around us – physical needs, spiritual needs, material needs, global and local needs – and we, too, have to wait, sometimes anxiously, for God’s promptings, or a grace, to guide us in how to respond: what to say, what to do. Of course, many times we can’t wait, and we have to act before we have heard anything very clear, and in those times God may be saying: “Do your best in the moment, and I will be with you” – the grace comes afterward, and it’s come to the person or situation at hand, and we may never know it. How hard it is to live that way, so often in darkness and in real dependence on God, having to let go of the outcome. Moses seems only to have said to the people the words that God gave him to say, and I’ll bet he had no idea how God was going to make good on that promise. Can you imagine?

Madeleine Sophie was permanently installed in the church of St Francis Xavier in Paris on Friday 19th June 2009, at the Mass of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, presided over by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, in the presence of Kathleen Conan, Superior General, her Council, religious of the Sacred Heart from various countries, many parishioners, colleagues, friends, students, alumnae and young adults, lay people connected with the religious of the Sacred Heart throughout the world.

Visit rscjinternational.org to see videos, photos, homily and more from the ceremony.

Sally Stephens, Margaret Munch, Nancy Kehoe, Mary Pat Ryan, Fran Tobin and Tita Lapeyre

A Jubilee of Profession, like a wedding anniversary, is a time of great rejoicing. A fiftieth jubilee is a time of amazement as well – so many years, so much love, so much faithfulness, such a collection of memories when you look back…and you’ve each lived to tell the tale—as you have been doing with each other for these last several days. Of course, all of us surrounding you join in marking this jubilee with great joy.

Pope Benedict XVI invites all the people of God to join in prayer for vocations on Sunday, May 3, 2009. Pope Benedict has designated this Sunday as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations; his message is attached. The purpose of the World Day of Prayer is explained in the message: to constitute a public witness of the community at prayer in obedience to the Lord's command, 'Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest' (Mt. 9:38; Lk. 10:2).

Which priority do we hold
with the greatest energy and
what next steps might we take
to implement the priorities
from the Chapter?

Chapter 2008 offers all who hold St. Madeleine Sophie Barat’s vision in trust certain key challenges in the five priorities outlined in the Chapter documents. As we enter into the holy season of Lent, the United States Province offers our colleagues, alumnae, associates, and co-workers this Reflection Booklet. We hope that you will join us in prayer, thought and discussion as we determine which priority(ies) do we hold with the greatest energy and what possible next steps might we take to implement the Chapter calls.

Click here to download the Reflection Booklet

NEW from HEART! The story about General Chapter 2008 in the new issue of HEART is introduced by "postcard" text written by Paquita Tamayo, RSCJ. To read her complete article in Spanish, click here; for an English translation by Georgiana Logan, RSCJ, click here.  

I think you all know that each religious congregation in the Catholic Church lives and draws its inspiration from a particular charism. The dictionary defines charism as a divinely inspired gift. In our case, St. Madeleine Sophie was very clear that the charism of the Society of the Sacred Heart was and is, to show forth the Love of God. She had a passionate desire for people to know that God is, indeed, a loving God and out of that experience, each one of us could then live and move and have our being with the freedom of the children of God.

You are invited to view or read the talks given at the Spirituality Forum in June 2008. Click below for more information.

A photo tapestry by Lolín Menéndez:

In Congo, green is all around -
a land truly green, and abundant
in life, lots of new life...

Carli Carolei loves to milk cows. She spends two afternoons a week, after school, in the barn prepping a herd of 26 cows, moving the milking machine around, collecting and piping the milk to a stainless steel holding tank. She’s a wisp of a girl, barely a teenager, flitting among the restless animals as they lap up their evening meal. Carli helps to turn grass into cheese at Sprout Creek Farm.

In October Living Wages volunteers Tom Dodd, Ed Prendergast, and Jerry Hoskins along with Bob Crittenden, Betsy Hartson, RSCJ, Alumna of St. Charles Susie Bleyaert from Petoskey Michigan, and Kit Collins, RSCJ traveled to New Orleans to help the city in a small way.

During the week of July 23-28, 2006 14 Network students and 17 “Green Teens” from the cities of Poughkeepsie and Beacon, NY joined together for a week long experience of learning the skills of carpentry and masonry.  

I have a friend who collects heart-shaped stones. So one day while traveling in Rwanda, I gathered several for her. We had stopped to admire a magnificent view, one of the many that each bend in the road unfolds in this country of “the thousand hills.” This time, though, my mind was on another stone, a huge one, in the heart of the government of Rwanda — the “refoulement.” or forced repatriation, of the Congolese refugees in the country.