Jane O'Shaughnessy professes her first vows in the Society of the Sacred Heart as Sister Kathleen Hughes, Provincial, United States Province, receives here in the name of Sister Clare Pratt, Superior General of the Society in Rome. Mary Frohlich, in background, has just professed her vows. Jane O'Shaughnessy (left) and Mary Frohlich stand in front of the Sacred Heart statue at Woodlands Academy, Lake Forest, Illinois.

Jane O'Shaughnessy and Mary Frohlich professed first vows in the Society of the Sacred Heart at a ceremony July 11 in the chapel of Woodlands Academy, Lake Forest, Illinois. Sister O'Shaughnessy lived and worked with RSCJ in Taiwan off and on between 1998 and 2001 and worked with young women from China in Sophia House of Studies in the Philippines. She holds a master's degree in theological studies from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is a certified spiritual director. She will be moving to Boston where she plans to do spiritual direction and work with poor and marginalized people.

Sister Frohlich will resume in fall her full-time position as associate professor of spirituality at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Reflection by Barbara Dawson, RSCJ

Vow Ceremony, July 11, 2004, Woodlands Academy chapel

We are here to celebrate with Jane and Mary as they begin the next chapter in the story of their lives – to witness with them as they vow themselves to follow Jesus Christ in the Society of the Sacred Heart.

We are all here because we are part of their life stories – Jane’s family – her two daughters, Katie and Lisa, and her granddaughter, Sheehan, her extended family and friends; Mary’s cousins and friends, her CTU colleagues, and both of their friends from Chicago and points east, west, north and south; and the Religious of the Sacred Heart and our Associates. We also have with us many people who are here in Spirit, especially the Religious of the Sacred Heart throughout the United States as well as Jane’s special RSCJ sisters in Taiwan and the Philippines.

The Constitutions of the Society of the Sacred Heart say that this next part of Jane and Mary’s journeys will be a time to deepen their lives with Christ and their understanding of the Mission of the Society – to manifest the love of Christ through the service of education.
When I asked Jane and Mary what was at the heart of this whole thing for them, they pointed me towards a part of the Constitutions that sums up their hopes for their lives as Religious of the Sacred Heart

The Spirit dwelling within us gradually transforms us, enabling us through His power, to remove whatever hinders his action. The Spirit unites and conforms us to Jesus and makes us sensitive to His Presence, within ourselves, in others and in all that happens. Thus we learn to contemplate reality and to experience it with His Heart, to commit ourselves to the service of the Kingdom and to grow in love: Have this mind among yourselves which was in Christ Jesus.

Jane and Mary are already on this road.

In the gospel for today, Jesus tells us in a fairly straightforward way what all of us are called to do and be in order to have life – to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength and with all our mind and to love our neighbor as our self. In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus calls us to expand our understanding of our neighbor -- to cross the boundaries of culture and language and history, and prejudice. He also calls us to pay attention, to stop, to put aside some of our preoccupations, some of our built up excuses for why we cannot/why we are not able to respond to the very people who are right in front of us. He calls us to be sensitive to his Presence within ourselves, in others and in all that happens.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we are called to be united in our convictions and united in our love, with a common purpose and a common mind. And Paul tells us what we need to do to get there – get rid of competition, be humble, value others, think of other people before you think of yourself – in short, to develop the attitudes of Jesus. Paul’s words are a call to follow Jesus as part of a community. We learn how to take on the Heart of Jesus through our relationship with each other. It is, in the very day to day of life lived in relationship with each other that we smooth down our rough edges, that we build up our weaknesses, not just to be better people, but to learn together how to love with the tender Heart of Jesus each person we meet along the road.

T.S. Eliot has a wonderful line in the Four Quartets: “We shall not cease from exploration and the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” These words remind me of both the words of Deuteronomy and the lives of these two women. Their journeys in search of God has led them both on a variety of paths, to different faith traditions, to various countries, to different religious congregations, through our Associates program, to marriage and motherhood. In the end, they both have discovered that the Word of God for them is very near – it is within their hearts for them to observe and know.

Several years ago, someone asked me how I saw the future of our religious life. I believe today, as I did then, that the life that Jane and Mary are publicly vowing themselves to today in the Society of the Sacred Heart is primarily a contemplative life lived in community for the sake of God’s people. There is a life and love-creating tension in the lives of the Religious of the Sacred Heart – the on-going movement of contemplating, experiencing, and responding to the realities of life within the compassionate Heart of Jesus. We are called to live this life together – not just the results of our contemplation, not just our experiences of life, but what in that contemplation and experience breaks open our hearts. We have hope that this life helps each one of us to know and experience the word of God deep in our hearts, to know and experience God’s constant love and to discover together the way to show this love to the very real people we meet along the road.

That is why what Jane and Mary are doing here today is sacramental. After many years on the journey, they have each found their way to the Religious of the Sacred Heart. We are all part of their journey to holiness and they are vowing themselves to be part of our journey to holiness too. We, as Religious of the Sacred Heart, commit ourselves to create a space where they can contemplate the Heart of Jesus and discover more deeply his love for each of them. And they are committing themselves to do that for us, too. Together we commit ourselves to discover the presence of Jesus in this broken scary world in which we live, to be part of transforming suffering into wholeness in whatever small way we can, to expand our understanding of neighbor, to teach each other to pay attention and respond to the presence of God in each person we meet along the road.

Whenever I think of women at the mid point of their lives undertaking a bold venture, I think of Philippine Duchesne, the Religious of the Sacred Heart who brought the Society to the Americas. At 49 she left her country and her security and ventured off in a rickety boat to the New World, with a few of her sisters, with little money and with few relevant skills or language. At 70, she went off to the wilds of Kansas to work with indigenous people. Her life was not a straight path nor was always successful. Her life was filled with obstacles and detours. Both the world she left in France and the world she came to in the Americas was tumultuous. Her experience of Church was not always supportive. Even her experience of the Society sometimes left her disappointed. And yet she journeyed on. John Courtney Murray, in his homily on the beatification of Philippine Duchesne, rightfully characterized her as a woman of ardor, courage and generosity. As Mary and Jane take the bold step to publicly commit themselves as Religious of the Sacred Heart, let us pray that together with their sisters, they too are filled with the same ardor, courage and generosity for the journey.