News and Events

On June 8th, Sisters, families and friends will gather at Mount St. Joseph in Peterborough with six Sisters to celebrate wonderful milestones in their lives of loving service to God and neighbour. The Jubilee will begin with a Eucharistic Celebration presided over by Bishop Nicola DeAngelis, Bishop of Peterborough. Following the Mass, there will be a reception and time for the Jubilarians to enjoy time with family and friends.

On Wednesday, May 1st the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada began again the process of obtaining approval of the Ontario Legislature for the civil amalgamation of the four Congregations. The process was interrupted when the Legislature was suddenly prorogued last October. Grant Crack, MPP (Glengarry--Prescott--Russell) presented the bill to the Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills. Our counsel, Mr. Terry Carter, and Sister Veronica O'Reilly made brief presentations to the Committee. They were accompnied by Sister Loretta Manzara, Sister Mary McGuire and Sister Anne Kargas.
The Committee passed the Bill, and we now await the continuation of the process to Second Reading, Third Reading and Royal Assent. We pray that the process will not be interrupted by an election call!

Historic Leadership Circle Installation

On the feast of St. Joseph, Tuesday, March 19th, the first Leadership Circle of the new
Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada
was officially installed.

The ceremony, held at St. Peter-In-Chains Cathedral, Peterborough, ON, was attended by Sisters from the four founding Congregations, Associates and Companions, clergy (including bishops) and many friends and supporters. With a moving mix of music, Scripture and symbol, the outgoing leaders of the founding Congregations were honoured, and the members of the new Leadership Circle were anointed and affirmed by all the Sisters present. The five new leaders then missioned the Sisters into this new venture. Sister Veronica O'Reilly, the Congregational leader, gave a challenging, hopeful reflection and the ceremony ended with the symbolic sprinkling of all those present and the singing of "You Are The Voice of the Living God". The Eucharistic Celebration for the Feast of St. Joseph followed, with Bishop Nicola DeAngelis presiding, and Bishop Michael Mulhall giving the homily.

Leadership Circle Installation - Sister Veronica's Reflection

Watch the video of the reflection!
(requires RealPlayer)

Good Morning everyone! It appears to be a good day for installations. And it is a Happy Thing that this morning we stand together in the reflected light and hope and promise of the new Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis.

I second Sister Mary’s welcome to each of you and say on behalf of us all in the Congregation here and in our neighbourhoods we are pleased and humbled that you are with us for our installation And for those who are able to stay, to celebrate the Eucharist on this Feast of St. Joseph who belongs to us all as patron of the universal church.

A thoughtful person said recently, and I believe her, that it is a risky business to assess the times you live in, but still more risky to avoid the challenge of doing so. We are here today because, in as much as we are able, we are trying to see and to see through this moment in our history. We want to discover what it invites us to, what opportunities it offers us, and what responsibilities we have at this time to offer our lives and resources at the service of God and God’s people.

Almost 50 years ago, in 1965, our beloved Church gave to vowed religious an extra special mandate to do this assessment. The Second Vatican Council, guided by the Holy Spirit, explicitly directed us to read the signs of the times and in true gospel fashion reorient certain aspects of our lives to meet the needs and opportunities that we discerned.

This obedience has brought us, not without pain, more deeply into who it is we are and are called to be in this moment. I believe I can say that the process has opened wider our hearts and minds to the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the people of this age.

It has led us more deeply into the mysteries of the universe revealed through science and theology and it has led us through faith and experience and ongoing revelation to approach with greater awe and greater joy the Ultimate Mystery of a compassionate God, to reverence this God as immanent in all of Creation, lovingly involved in all that exists, and yet infinitely and always Other. We have come, I believe, to a more profound faith in Jesus the Christ as the primary expression of God’s self-involvement with the world from the beginning. We know him, St. Paul says, as “the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and earth, and he was the first to be born from the dead.” And in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we have come to know and to embrace the promise of more abundant life here and in the world to come. Most importantly we are reinforced in our belief that the dynamic of creation, the energy the scientists speak of, is love.

One could say that we always knew those realities, but we know them differently now and in a different context. As the prophet in Second Isaiah heard in his time and place: God speaking:

Now I am revealing new things to you.

Things hidden and unknown to you,

created just now, this very moment,

Of these things you have heard nothing until now,

So that you cannot say, “Oh yes, I know all this”

You had never heard,

You did not know,

I had not opened your ear beforehand. 48:6-9

Because not only did our understanding of many things deepen, but our context changed. Something else has been happening in these years when our faith lives, our lifestyles, our theology and our spirituality were evolving: the world around was changing in ways that may well be unique in many centuries of recorded history. Each of us here, even the younger people among us, knows from personal experience that galloping pace of change and the effect it has on our lives, on our long-held social and religious traditions.

Those tumultuous decades have shown us clearly that as thinking human beings on our planet, our understanding, our very consciousness, needs to expand with the breath of God’s Holy Spirit. Our consciousness needs to evolve so we can wisely and bravely go where God is inviting us into what promises to be a very different future. It is critical that

we, being ever more conscious of God’s creation in all its forms and our struggling but precious humanity, enter into the conversations that predict a less than human future for humankind, perhaps a cyber-consciousness born of the almost total absorption into the virtual world that science, aided by technology, creates and promises.

With our ears now being opened we have choices to make. One such choice is to trust in the promise of a future that resurrection gives us and to move forward into it with hope and joy. A colleague in our wider congregation lights up this choice with two little examples; one from Greek mythology, one from the Hebrew Scriptures:

The Greek story features Odysseus who travels for many years after the Trojan War to return to his home on the island of Ithaca. There he hopes to rejoin his faithful wife Penelope, his devoted son Telemachus, and his irreplaceable dog Argus. Along the way Odysseus has a slew of exciting adventures - who can forget the LotusEaters or the Sirens, the Cyclops, or Scylla and Charybdis. But the overall trajectory of his story is one of return. He is aiming to go back to the security and joys of the known past.

The Hebrew story features Abraham who hears a call from God: “Leave your country, your kinfolk, and your father’s house and go to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). Centuries later the New Testament summed up Abraham’s awesome response: “he went forth not knowing where he was going” (Heb 11:8). Unlike Odysseus, Abraham and his wife Sarah, with Hagar & the rest of their household, did not have extraordinary adventures. At times things were so bleak they had to keep “hoping against hope”, as Paul later wrote in Romans (4:18). But they looked toward the stars and imagined what was possible, until in their old age a child was born. The God who promised was faithful, and a new future dawned.

So we are making choices in the light of God’s promise to be faithful, among them this wider sense of community we celebrate today. We continue to choose deep prayer and contemplation as our preferred way of discerning; we ask for and try to practice an increasing respect and love for all of God’s creation, especially the Earth and its resources and all its species.; we choose to continue our commitment, in all the ways we are able, to those persons whom Jesus favoured, those who have been left on the side of the road by circumstance and oppression, and we seek to live and speak courageously the truth of the gospel as we discern it together in our time and place. We know we won’t live all these choices perfectly and as lovingly as we would wish, but we are trying and we trust that it is in making even small choices, as Pope Francis has so movingly done, that we can be transformed, converted even, in our personal lives to meet the future God is inviting us to.

This morning we express the hope that we can continue to stand together with all of you in imagining and hoping the new love story of Creation and Incarnation that God is opening our ears to hear.

INTO A NEW MOMENT...

On November 22, 2012, in Markham, Ontario, a new chapter was opened in the long and storied history of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Four of the six Canadian congregations---Hamilton, London, Peterborough and Pembroke joined together to become one new congregation---the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada. They recognize within themselves the impulse of the spirit toward creating a global community in which all may flourish. With Sisters of St. Joseph in 57 countries around the world, this large network allows them to partner with others on such important concerns as human trafficking, the growing disparity between rich and poor, gender inequity and ecological perils.

In a very moving ritual on the first evening, Sisters wearing different solid-coloured scarves according to their congregations, came forward, removed the scarf and gave it to their Congregational leader. She in turn gave each one a multicoloured scarf which included all four colours of the original scarves. Sister Ann MacDonald, who came to the meeting from Malawi, Africa said, “Coming from such a great distance for our Chapter and returning to Malawi with our symbol of the scarf, will now remind me of our new founding moment as CSJ women.”

On the first day of the five day meeting, the group set to work on naming their priorities for the next four years. The Sisters embraced the new moment, opening themselves to an ongoing conversion, rooted in a graced evolution of consciousness. From this foundation, they committed themselves to discern and engage in the transformation that is needed in order to move toward a more just world that supports the thriving of all of life.

One way in which they wish to contribute to a more inclusive and just world is in the use of their resources. They have chosen socially responsible investing for their pooled resources. The philosophy statement which guides their investments highlights two particular areas: the elimination of poverty and the promotion of ecological justice. They are conscious that women and indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by these issues. Use of their investments becomes one more way to claim a public voice for the common good.

A new leadership of five sisters was elected to animate these promises among all the sisters. When asked what her hopes and the hopes of the sisters are for this new moment in the history of the sisters of St. Joseph, the newly elected congregational leader, Sister Veronica O’Reilly stated, “We hope to sustain our serious commitment into this new moment with the grace of God and the continuing partnership of those who share our hopes for a better world.”

The Sisters departed from Markham heartened by the spirit and energy evident among them and conscious that the renewal of Vatican II in which they have been engaged for over 50 years has led them to this new moment. They continue the journey, faithful to the unfolding of God’s design in their life together.

As we move forward in hope,
we ask your prayers that we will continue
to be guided by the Spirit
as we live out the charisms left to us by our founders.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Peterborough are about to begin an exciting new stage in our development! After a four year process of prayer, discernment and consultation, we have decided to merge with the Sisters of St. Joseph in Hamilton, London and Pembroke to form the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada.

This major decision was made because we sense a call to new life. Aware of the reality of our declining numbers, we chose this route us to seed the future with all the life we can. We believe that we can accomplish more for the mission and ministries we embrace by this merger. This restructuring will allow us to work with one Leadership Team, instead of the four we have now, providing us with a greater number of women as potential leaders now and in the future. The 300 members in the new congregation will give us a stronger public presence and a voice in the world. We also anticipate that there will be new possibilities for ministry, for collaborating together, and for complementary strengths that will emerge. We have a sense of energy and enthusiasm for the possibilities which the new congregation brings!

From November 18th to 24^th 146 Sisters from the four merging congregations will meet in the first ‘General Chapter’ of the new congregation. At this time the direction and priorities of the new community will be decided, and the first Leadership Team will be chosen.

The principal seat of the new congregation, Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, will be at Mount St. Joseph in Peterborough. The large residences of each of the founding communities, which serve as home for many senior Sisters and infirmary care for those in declining health, will remain for those Sisters. In fact, for most Sisters their daily life and ministry will remain unchanged.

Historic Leadership Circle Installation

INTO A NEW MOMENT...