Weaving One Heart

What does it mean to be a young religious sister in this day and age? And more specifically, to be a member of the Society of Sisters, Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ)? 

These were some of the questions that spoke to the hearts of 16 of us newer members of the FCJ Society, as we spent an unforgettable two weeks on pilgrimage in France in July of 2018. To be with our contemporaries from around the world – sharing and eating and praying and laughing, with women from 7 different countries – was itself an amazing and joyful experience of unity in diversity. 

But how much more so was it to visit together those places in France that were significant to the foundress of our little Society, Marie Madeleine, and her first companions! Walking through the streets where they walked, the rooms where they lived and worked and dreamed, the churches where they encountered God, and the places where they now lie at peace – many of us experienced, for the first time, an almost tangible connection to the past; to those who came before us. 

At the same time, we were also filled with a new sense of responsibility and excitement, for the mission that had been entrusted to them so long ago was now ours to continue. “Each generation has had the privilege of courageously unwrapping God’s gift of Charism... moved by God’s Spirit” (General Superior Claire Sykes fcJ, in her Christmas Letter 2018). While Marie Madeleine and her sisters educated the children of cotton pickers in their time, and many of our sisters through the years have run schools for rich and poor alike, our ministries nowadays are more diverse. Some of us are teachers, campus ministers, nurses, hospital chaplains, catechists, youth workers, administrators, psychologists, social workers, spiritual directors, researchers and social justice advocates – just to name a few!

The world has changed much in the 200 years since the founding of the Society by women who yearned to be, in name and in fact, “faithful companions of Jesus”. And yet violence, conflict, inequality and oppression still cast long shadows. We face no less urgent a call today to continue their work by being God’s compassionate presence in a world that needs so much healing and love.

We who have chosen to answer this call in our day have been gifted – through this pilgrimage – with a new awareness of the incredible way in which the Spirit calls people together to the same mission, from vastly different contexts across space and time. Many of us now come from lands that Marie Madeleine and her contemporaries could not have imagined going to, including Asia, Australia and the Americas. And yet, as cloth is woven together from many strands, forming more and more intricate patterns from what has gone before, so their lives and ours are woven together by the Divine Weaver, in whose grace alone we trust to produce something of beauty for the world. 

This blog gives homage to that weaving. In these pages, we seek to explore how God is speaking to each one of us newer members of the Society as we entrust ourselves to the weaving, in our experiences of ministry and of living out our vows as FCJs in the contemporary world, in the various contexts and cultures where we find ourselves. We invite you to join with us in this journey of discovery. May our journeying together help us to be the unique and collective face of God that we are called to be in our world today.

Some "newer" FCJs on pilgrimage in France in July 2018.
Top, from left to right: Cornelia (Romania), Elvie (Philippines), Agnes (Indonesia), Lorenza (France), Rowena (Philippines), Michelle (Canada), Lina (Indonesia), Meita (Indonesia), Ciony (Philippines), Audrey (Singapore), Anouska (England), Els (Belgium), Hartini (Indonesia), Dewi (Indonesia), Tyas (Indonesia), Gabriella (Romania).
Bottom: Mei (Indonesia)