Doreen Boland rscj

Doreen Boland is an Irish rscj who went to Joigny in April 2004, after long years in the service of the international community and as a missionary in East Africa. She tells us about her mission past and present.

I’m a happy jubilarian; I can hear Abba saying to me: “You are my daughter, the beloved.” Throughout my life, Abba has always shown himself as the God of surprises, and he still does!

I was born in Dublin. I can see the first stage of my life as consisting of childhood, youth and entry into the Society of the Sacred Heart, up to my profession in 1960. A second stage began in 1963, the year of my missionary vocation, when I heard the Lord saying to me: “Leave your country”, and I set out for Uganda. Another stage is made up of the years 1968-1976, which I spent in Rome. That was when I had the great privilege of knowing the face of the international Society, or rather its heart, through our sisters living in every part of the world. Between 1970 and 1976 I had another great privilege, that of working as a team with Concha Camacho, Maria Luisa Saade, Mickey McKay, Françoise Cassiers and Mary Braganza in the General Council. From 1977 to 2004, I lived in Africa again. Then, towards the end of that last period, I heard the Lord saying to me again: “Leave your country for the land that I will show you.” The country that was mine by then and which I had to leave behind was Africa. And the new “land” that I had to reach was Joigny.

I went to Uganda a year after the foundation, which took place in 1962, so I feel I have been instrumental in bringing to birth a new family of Religious of the Sacred Heart in Uganda and Kenya. Now the province is in the hands of Ugandan and Kenyan rscj. I have had the privilege of living in a very international province of the Society, which in itself is a sign of the universal love of the Heart of Jesus, and of putting into practice my probation motto: “The universal charity of the Heart of Jesus.” In lands where tribalism reigns, our life together as sisters was an important sign. During the last twenty years I spent there, it was also my privilege to help the growth of religious life in indigenous congregations, directing retreats, being a “facilitator” at assemblies and chapters. In this way I have been able to participate in the growth of a young African Church.

As well as the responsibilities that were entrusted to me in Africa by the Society of the Sacred Heart – I was Provincial and, for a few years, Mistress of Novices – I was very glad to form part of a pastoral team, working right in the city with the White Fathers; they taught me what it is to be a true missionary. In that parish, in the slums of Kampala, I lived among the poor, the sick, the refugees, the young… If I had to sum it all up, I would paraphrase what St Paul says about being all things to all; it means “being God’s goodness for others, shown in Christ”. For me that expresses the double dimension of our life as religious of the Sacred Heart. “In Christ”, rooted in Him through contemplation, “being the goodness of God” through action: we wish to be women who create communion.

For me, that meant stressing Christ’s love for each one. I had to start by doing so with Christians, and especially the older ones, since the education they had received – and which Western missionaries had given them – was not necessarily in line with that idea. When war broke out in Uganda, many people there said: “Uganda is the country God forgot.” When the AIDS epidemic began, many Ugandans saw the disease as a punishment.

Now, it’s as the result of a “call” that I’m in Joigny. A few years ago, in Africa, I felt a call to live more directly the contemplative aspect of our religious life, and I understood that call as the continuation of my missionary vocation: as I grew older, I had to become more fruitful for the mission, especially for the young Churches of Africa and for our young sisters. In 2000, I saw at first hand that the house where Madeleine Sophie Barat was born belongs very much to the international Society. I saw then that in the “cradle” of the Society I could live out the call I was discovering, and at the same time I could offer my services as a member of the Joigny community, by spiritual accompaniment and by taking part in the other work of that house.

That’s what I’m doing at present. I realise that in Joigny I can live both aspects of my vocation. I am happy to be able to contribute my tiny share to the beautiful mission carried out by the international Society through its many and varied contacts with people who come from every continent to draw “from the source”.

Personally I am greatly enriched and even “challenged” when I accompany people. I am full of respect and wonderment when I see the Holy Spirit’s action during a retreat. It often makes me think that Elizabeth “accompanied” Mary: Mary needed to share her spiritual experience after the Annunciation, and Elizabeth affirmed her in that experience of God which had filled her to overflowing.

Groups come to Joigny from all over the world: Irish teachers, a group from one of our Korean schools who came to spend a day “with Sophie”, a dozen American teachers belonging to the “network” of Sacred Heart schools in the United States, who had come to see for themselves our way of life, so that they could share it with their colleagues and students… I find this very moving. The charism of the Sacred Heart was first transmitted by St Madeleine Sophie’s daughters. Now it is the Alumnae of the Sacred Heart, and lay people throughout the world, who are spreading it and sending us young people, like the forty-five Australians who stopped in Joigny for a few hours on their way to the World Youth Days in Cologne. Yes, in Joigny, as in Africa, it’s always about discovering and revealing the love of Christ’s Heart.

Doreen Boland rscj
Province of Ireland - Scotland