Thank You, Sr. Hazeline...
We are proud and deeply touched by Sr.Hazeline’s “yes” to assist the people of Haiti at the time of their devasting earthquake. It was humbling to know that Hazeline carried the compassion of the Servants of Mary to people in such tragedy and need.
Hazeline stated: “I was struck by the generosity and love of the people who came from all over the world to help, risking their lives (the constant after-shock tremors reminded us that there was still danger), giving up their comforts of life to be present to the Haitian people in their hour of desperate need.”
Thank you, Hazeline, for being one of those to put your comfort aside for those in need. We are proud to call you sister!
The Vision of the Servants of Mary Generalate
2010 - 2014
It is our goal to work together as a General Council, with the Provincial and Regional leadership, (through ENCOM) and with all the sisters, to address each of the Directions from the General Chapter and the Mandates.
We recognise that there is much Ambiguity in our lives today and that this ambiguity is experienced in our community, our work, the Church and our world. As a Generalate team, we wish to ‘model’ our living with this ambiguity for the Congregation and with the Congregation, in the hope that together; we shall ‘model’ living as ‘women of faith’ amidst the complexities of today’s world.
Our vision is also that we shall work to develop a culture of Unity and Non-Violence within our team and within our communities, our Provinces and Regions so that we are able to ‘model’ this to the world. We recognise that we must become aware of the ‘violence’ we do to ourselves and that is within our communities if we are to ‘model’ this to the wider Church and the world.
Our Vision is to see ourselves as One Congregation, rather than as individual Provinces, Regions and Communities.
The metaphor we have chosen to represent this is a garden. Each kind of plant requires different conditions in order to grow well and to flourish. We would never dream of treating a beautiful rose bush in the same way that we would treat a tree or vegetable. Yet they all can flourish in the same garden!
In the same way, we wish to look at the Congregation as ONE garden but with many different, flowers, plants and trees growing in it, each one as necessary and important as the other, yet each one requiring its own special care.
We also discussed the concept of our being a ‘Congregation sans Frontiers’ in the same way that the organisation ‘Medicins sans frontiers’ operates throughout the world.
This does not mean that we shall, necessarily, all be going to live in each other’s countries! However, we must, together, work out what this will mean for us as we work together over the next five years. We must find ways to ensure that the life of the Congregation is allowed to grow and develop wherever it is and we must also be prepared to take risks to allow new life to spring forth.
However, we do recognise that we must find ways to communicate with each other across the Congregation, in order that we develop our relationships and form new ones. We aim to find ways to use current technology to help us do this. During our General Council Meeting in Quebec, we used ‘Skype’ to meet with Barbara Valuckas ssnd, our facilitator, who was unable to be with us due to surgery. Through ‘Skype’ we were able to have a video conference with Barbara (in the US). This communication was free of charge!
We recognise that our working on these aspects of our life and our mission the Congregation shall re-energise itself bringing us together in a way that will give renewed meaning to our Marian spirituality and enabling us to continue to be a prophetic voice in our Church and our world.
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