Charism Connection

Associate Pin-crafted by artist, Marg Maheu CSJ Associate from Sarnia

In the Associate pin, pictured left, the heart is surrounded by deep roots, representing being rooted in God’s love; the tree symbolizes all creation (including humankind); the bridge in the centre expresses the desire of Associates/Companions to connect neighbour with neighbour and neighbour with God.

Recently, on Saturday June 17, 2023 some of the Sisters and Associates of the London Community of the Sisters of St. Joseph (CSJ) gathered with family and friends to welcome four new Associate members.

Associates are lay women and men who form small communities to be contemplatives together and to share in a common mission, one of transformation in and through love.

In the morning, the candidates and team met to step back and prepare to take this final step towards full Associate membership.  

The Charism Connection Ceremony, held in the afternoon, was a joyful celebration.  This celebration is held as new candidates become ready to connect to journeying alongside the Sisters after a process of study and discernment.  

The Sisters and the Associates are drawn together by God's call to live by a Charism of 'unity and reconciliation'.   We recognize the oneness of ourselves, others, and all of creation with God.  We live this out in our everyday lives and in our ministries. We are enriched by regularly coming together in sacred spaces to share our experiences of God working in our lives.  Our practice of sharing the State of the Heart and the Order of the House keeps us on the path originally given to our CSJ ancestors.  

We Associates are nourished by living life in communion with God and the Sisters who give us strength to live counter-culturally in the world.  We are Eucharist for each other, and we are grateful.

-Jean Bowden, Associate of the Sisters of St. Joseph

Interested in becoming an Associate or Companion? More info here.

Fancy a read?

I’ve got another great book to add to your summer reading list…Someone Else's Shoes by JoJo Moyes.

Pure chance in a gym locker sends Nisha and Sam home with the other's gym bag; these contain an expensive pair of stilettos and a plain, discount pair of flat shoes with frayed seams.

What happens next dramatically changes each woman's life in many ways, especially in their relationships with and attitudes towards others.  

The plot twists and turns as more characters flesh out the worlds of these two women who literally walk in each other's shoes. ENJOY!

-Jackie Potters, csj Associate

A Summer Read

The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb

Travel back in time to the early 1900s when waves of European immigrants arrive on Ellis Island.  Each group has its own language, culture, and background; yet each person is an individual fleeing untold hardship, hoping to build a better life in America.

Most of the activity takes place on Ellis Island or in nearby New York, a starting point for many.  The realistic situations and the varied cast of characters make for a good story, about the times and human nature.  

It is an engaging look at a time that may have been an early rendition to both the intolerance and warm welcome that Americans offer 'the other'.

- Jackie Potters, csj Associate

Getting to Know You

June is Indigenous History Month, and Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21) is a time all to honour the cultures and contributions of Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Inuit, and Metis).

As I was reflecting on what I wanted to put into this blog, the song “Getting to know You came to mind.  It is the one that Julie Andrews sang to the children in “The King and I”

Perhaps some words of the song can apply to our growing relationship with Indigenous peoples.  It has been and is a process of “getting to know” each other and “getting to know what to say” when entering into the Indigenous ways of knowing.

June 21st is National Indigenous Peoples Day in which we honour the Indigenous peoples, Elders and ancestors to commemorate the Indigenous culture, language, land and ways of being.

It was first self-declared Indian Day in 1945, by Jules Sioui and chiefs from across Turtle Island (North America). In 1982, the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations) called for the creation of a National Aboriginal Solidarity Day to be celebrated on 21 June.

Sometimes, critics say of the indigenous Peoples that “they need to get over it” when the topic arises about the residential School system, the “60’s scoop”, the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, 2 spirit, and gender diverse people (MMIWG2S). “Getting over it” is not what it is about. Journeying together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous/settlers through those painful years of history is what it is about.

It is important to remember, not forget what has happened and continues to happen in the unjust treatment of Indigenous peoples.

It is about re-member-ing.  And to better understand at a heart level what was done TO the first peoples when the settlers came. We all are called to re-mem-ber that we are one people with diverse ways of being, knowing and enriching each other.

By journeying together in openness, respect, humility, love, truth courage, honesty and wisdom, we can come to a new united people on this land.

Healing must be part of the process of being reconciled, being one.

The colonizer needs to be healed from the shame that exists about what the early colonial ancestors did. Education about the true history of colonial and Indigenous relationships is absolutely necessary, followed by a commitment not to have this treatment repeated.

Many of the First nations Peoples do not even know the truth of their past, because Residential School survivors never spoke of their experience.  When the truth is told, there is more of a chance of reconciliation.

The peoples of the 14th and 15th Century, Indigenous and colonizers, were taught by the Doctrine of Discovery, that the first peoples were savages, inferior.  They believed it of themselves, and the colonizers were thereby justified in taking the land and resources.

Healing for the Indigenous involves dealing with the anger, sense of loss, frustration, through the various Indigenous ways of healing. 

The colonizers also need healing, through education and by ensuring that what was done so cruelly in the 14th century to the present, is never repeated.

Forgiveness is an act of the Creator, where restoration to a new order happens after the victim is able to remember the atrocities, and to choose to move beyond the anger even to a point of forgiveness of the wrongdoer. (see pp. 17-19, 11 in The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and Strategies by Robert Schreiter, C.PP.S

Once the wronged Indigenous person can forgive, the wrongdoer can be moved to express true sorrow and reshape his/her actions.

So, on this day of honouring the Indigenous peoples of this part of Turtle Island, called Canada, let us embark on a journey together.

For example, some of the opportunities available to us as non-Indigenous, are attending a POW WOW...these are open to the public; visit a friendship Centre; attend webinar or a Teaching and Sharing circle online, visit a reserve in your area.

“Getting to Know You” begins with Education.  In the words of former Senator, Murray Sinclair,

“It is education that got us here, and it is education that will get us out.”

-Sister Kathleen Lichti, CSJ