Thirteen women make final profession as RSCJ

Thirteen women from ten different countries made their Final Profession as Religious of the Sacred Heart on January 11, 2004. The ceremony took place in Rome, in the chapel of the Villa Lante where St. Madeleine Sophie lived many years and prayed long hours.

Secondina Baitwababo (Uganda/Kenya), Mylene Caffo (Peru), Maria Hozana Duarte (Brazil), Arola Farré (España Norte), Noelle Favet (France), Kim Young Hee (Korea), Brygida Jalowa (Poland), Lucy Kabagweri (Uganda/Kenya), Olga Madan (Cuba), Rita de Martino (Italia), Nuria O'Callahan (España Norte), Madeline Ortiz (Puerto Rico), and Antonella Rutelli (Italia), made their commitment in front of the many relatives, friends and RSCJ who gathered from all parts of the globe to witness this joyful day.

Gladis Davila (Peru) will be professed in Lima on January 17, and Jacquelín Jiménez (Venezuela) will make her commitment in Jusepín on February 7.

Sister Son In Sook, member of the General Council, reminded those present that “We are all experiencing a crisis of Peace, the result of broken relationships between human beings, with nature, between nations, between persons. These relationships are broken because they are based on the use of the other for one’s own good, on the exclusion of others. The result of these broken relationships is violence against the other.” Addressing those who were about to make vows, she continued: “ When you make your vows to live poorly, powerlessly and in love, it means you are including everyone in your life; when you are poor you cannot exclude anyone but you can have the experience of being excluded. You cannot violate others because you do not have power. And you are stating that you want to love everyone. “

Sister Marisa Sacerdote, also a member of the Council, reminded us that “Their definitive consecration says to us, “Jesus is my Chosen One, my Beloved… I wish to belong to Him forever… I want to follow Him and live with Him and as He lived, fulfilling the Father’s plan, with the attitudes and sentiments of Jesus…. Just as Jesus did it before the people around John, so they too, publicly make known this fundamental decision before us. Throughout their lives and during these months of preparation, they have had the experience of the preferential love of the Lord. They have once again heard the call to belong to Him forever and to follow His footsteps in making known the Kingdom. They have discovered – even rediscovered – His love and they want to make it known with their lives. They will continue to discover and learn it every day of their lives, just as Jesus ‘learned obedience in the flesh’ as St. Paul tells us. This is obedience understood in the deepest sense of listening to and fulfilling God’s plan. God’s plan is the Kingdom, a Kingdom of peace and justice, a Kingdom of love. This is the meaning of our lives: to live as sons and daughters of God, loving each other as brothers and sisters.”

Sister Clare Pratt, Superior General, accepted the perpetual vows: “With joy and gratitude in the name of all our sisters, I receive your consecration to Jesus Christ in the Society of the Sacred Heart. In the strength of His Spirit, together we will glorify his Heart.”

The rings and crosses, signs that these women are now finally professed in the Society of the Sacred Heart, were blessed by the celebrant and given to each one by Sr. Clare Pratt: Merciful and loving God, bless these crosses. May the meaning of this sign permeate the lives of those who wear them, for the mystery of the cross is the mystery of your love for all people, May the cross be for us a source of new life and hope. Bless, Lord, these rings that they may be for them a reminder of God’s fidelity.

The Eucharistic celebration concluded with the Missioning of the Newly Professed. Sister Clare Pratt sent them to the provinces where they will live out their commitment in mission and in service.

It is a tradition in the Society of the Sacred Heart that each group that makes profession receives a name and a “devise”, words that will become daily reminders of each one’s perpetual commitment. The name of this group is “New Life received and poured out in love”. The words from the Gospel of John, “The water I shall give will become in her a spring of water welling up to eternal life” now belong very specially to these newly professed rscj.

We pray with the final words of the Eucharist,

May he make each of you a witness
and sign of his love for all people.
Amen