July 5, 2005

Dear Friends of the Society,

I want to add a personal note to the more formal announcement of the General Council about Mater and the changes at the Trinità.

Every one of us who has ever visited the Trinità and gazed on the picture of Mater knows the amazing, perhaps occasionally embellished, story behind the painting and the painter.  What we leave with, however, is not the historical details but the simple beauty of the young Mary, a figure in repose, spinning quietly in the temple.  She has been precious to the Religious of the Sacred Heart and to students, alums and friends, as the model of the contemplative life, of what is invisible and essential, of a life of prayer and praise.

As the Society withdraws from the Trinità, stepping aside for a new community whose chief work is the welcoming of pilgrims, Mater will remain where she is, not moved to one of our other houses in Rome. This is such a wise decision.  She was painted, hidden, and then discovered on the wall of the Trinità.  She belongs there and she will remain completely accessible to us and to all future generations who love her through the good services of the community members of the Monasteries of Jerusalem.

To find out how to visit Mater, click here , and when you visit, pray that all of us who are part of the family of God’s Heart will learn again and again from Mater how to nurture our own life of prayer and praise and how to remain open to the mysteries of God’s love in today’s world.

In the Heart of Christ,

Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ
Provincial