As Religious of the Sacred Heart we do not stand outside our national culture and institutions, which at their best hold out the promise of equality and opportunity for all, and at their worst perpetuate poverty, violence, racism, sexism, and educational inequity. We know we often share in the prejudices and choices that our culture promotes. We also discover, however, within the most negative forces, our call to be women who seek to heal division and create communion. Moreover, the Catholic Church in the United States has a long tradition of work for justice and concern for the poor. In recent times we have been particularly challenged by the pastoral letters of our Bishops on social justice, peace, racism, the economy, and most recently on the environment. While we know that we alone can neither change the course of poverty, racism, sexism, and violence in our country, nor redress the inequities of American education, we know, too, that we have gifts and resources to bring to this endeavor.

The voice of the Society of the Sacred Heart—the Constitutions, the Chapter of l988, the Working Paper of the International Education Commission—and the voice of the United States Province in our ongoing reflection continually reinforce the following convictions.

First, we strongly affirm the centrality of prayer and contemplation in our lives. They guide our response to human need, enabling us to see the face of God in the painful realities of the world and to respond wholeheartedly in faith. As we deepen our life of prayer and the desire to make known God’s love, we strengthen the foundation from which we act together, in union with the international Society and in solidarity with each other and those we serve.

At this moment in our history we want to focus our energies anew, in an act of hope, in response to God’s call discerned through our charism and the needs of our time. We choose as Province to orient our life and apostolic service toward:

• joining the poor in the struggle for resources and conditions essential for human well-being, recognizing that education is central to this effort and to our vocation;

• working against racism, sexism, and violence of every kind, recognizing in these forces a call to become, in truth, women who build communion.