Know it well, love is its meaning.
Who reveals this to you? Love.
What does he reveal? Love. Why? For Love.
Remain in this and you will know more of the same.
—Showings
“I love that song,” she exclaimed, almost plaintively. “I need somebody to show me how to get that recording!” And so it was we danced that night away to the song she loved!
Video: Sisters Singing and Dancing
Paleontologist and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote that love is the very physical structure of the Universe! As a scientist he saw love to be more than mere sentiment or a profound state of the heart. It is the very life energy “attracting all things and beings to one another, in a movement toward ever greater complexity and diversity—and yet ironically also toward unification at ever deeper levels.” ¹ Indeed for Teilhard, love changes everything!
125th Anniversary of the RNDMs in Canada
In 2023, we RNDMs in Canada marked the 125th anniversary of our arrival in this country. Four brave and adventurous souls—Marie Louise Palatin (M. de l’Eucharistie), Pauline Dutronquoy (M. St. Paul), Virginie Chapuis (M. Madeleine de la Croix) and Marie Annoite (M. St. Valerie) —arrived in the small prairie village of Grande Clairière MB, in 1898.² Surely love was ultimately the compelling force that illuminated their “fiat” (let it be done!) in this land so far from home. And that love, that life force, would surely challenge them, purify them, transform them.
Thus from 2023 to 2024, we RNDMs have been celebrating the arrival of these women on Canadian soil, pledging ourselves in their spirit to continue on the path of love for however long it is asked of us. Our quest, our mission, is to follow the life and example of Jesus whose radical and inclusive love changes everything… including us. In light of this call, we chose to commit ourselves to a process of shared learning and spiritual growth called Thresholds of Transformation. ³
This process was born of the desire and passion of three amazing women—Donna Fyffe, Hilary Musgrave and Monica Brown—who wanted to make a positive contribution to the emerging new world order on a planet that is in crisis. Inspired by Pope Francis’ dictum—”if you want to change the world, then first our hearts must change”—these visionaries set out a seven-fold pathway of transformation to be experienced in community over a ten-month period. The process is rooted in the belief that it is through genuine personal transformation that communal and systemic transformation can happen. We met monthly and invited other friends, both religious and lay, to join us.
The metaphor of trees was chosen to capture this journey of growth and transformation. Last year we had planted a Celebration Maple in honour of the past 125 years of RNDM life in Canada. This year we danced beneath her branches with the promise of more life to come.
“Love changes everything,” she sang, as we danced our way into God’s future.
¹ Rohr, Richard. The Universal Christ, How A Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe. New York: Convergent Books, p. 69, 2019.
² The First RNDMs sent to Canada, blog article by Veronica Dunne, RNDM https://rndmcanada.org/2023/02/28/momentous-adventure/
³ Thresholds of Transformation https://thresholdsoftransformation.org/
Sandra Stewart is a member of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions in Winnipeg. Originally from Windsor, ON she has spent most of her religious life in Manitoba but has also served in France, Senegal and Papua New Guinea. She holds a Masters degree in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University in Chicago, majoring in spiritual accompaniment from the Institute for Spiritual Leadership.
Presently she serves as a spiritual director, a facilitator of Centering Prayer workshops, and an advocate for social and environmental justice.
Sandra currently serves on her community’s province leadership team in Canada.
What a beautiful reflection. Indeed, “love changes everything”. I continue to ponder your words that “it is through genuine personal transformation that communal and systemic transformation can happen”. Dance on Sisters!!