Participants danced to drumbeats.

Participants in the Spirituality Forum included RSCJ, Sacred Heart Associates and faculty from Sacred Heart schools. Marilyn Lorenz Weinkauff, quoted in the article, is in the center of the front row.

We began our prayer and reflecting with the sounding of a bell to lead us into profound silence for peace: hearts beating as one in the face of the awful bombing and tragic deaths in Lebanon and Israel and throughout the world. Each morning and evening we prayed in various ways to begin and end the day. We celebrated Eucharist before dinner. Kate McMichael of Schools of the Sacred Heart, San Francisco, lit Shabbat candles and said the ancient traditional blessings of our Jewish sisters. On Saturday, Hilda Bamwine, RSCJ, former provincial of Uganda/Kenya, talked about Ugandan spirituality and we danced to many drums.
Marilyn Lorenz Weinkauff, Sacred Heart Associate

Many RSCJ, Sacred Heart Associates and faculty members at Sacred Heart schools who participated in a Spirituality Forum in late July described it as one of the highlights of the summer. The number of participants – nearly 90 – well exceeded expectations, as did the strong presence of non-RSCJ: about half of the total, divided nearly equally between associates and faculty.

The program, held at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, featured talks and workshops by numerous RSCJ, including Patricia Garcia de Quevedo, RSCJ, former superior general of the Society of the Sacred Heart, who talked about rooting prayer in culture; Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ, former U.S. provincial, who shared tidbits from her research on the spirituality of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat; Nancy Kehoe, RSCJ, psychologist, who related her personal journey with people who are mentally ill and the way they have transformed her prayer, and Justine Lyons, RSCJ, spiritual director, who showed how a passion for beauty draws people out of themselves to find life’s meaning.

Among many workshops, Mary Ann “Sis” Flynn of the Spiritual Ministry Center in San Diego, led participants on “labyrinth walks,” inviting them to reflect as they walked on significant moments in their lives or memories of a departed loved one, or to ask for a special intention or grace. Other workshops focused on such topics as contemplative prayer, prayer and aging, praying with poetry and icons, and the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart at the United Nations.

One of three men who participated in the forum, Paul Parker of Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Miami, said he had learned from the presentations “how wide and deep Sacred Heart spirituality is.” Parker, chair of Sacred Heart spirituality at Carrollton, was one of five faculty members from who attended from hat school.

“There was an instant bonding that happened there. There were no separations. It was kind of remarkable,” he said.

“Old friendships were renewed; new bonds were created,” said Marilyn Lorenz Weinkauff, a Sacred Heart Associate from St. Louis. “The charism of the Society is being lived in myriad ways and in very diverse persons. I believe our foremothers would delight in the new life we are nurturing in these encounters.”

Because of the success of the program, another is being planned for 2008. Some of the talks from the forum may be featured in future issues of Heart, the magazine of the U.S. Province.