On Sunday 6th July Daughters of Charity from all over Ireland converged on their Provincial house in Dunardagh, Blackrock, to begin a 5-day Provincial Assembly. Assemblies provide an opportunity for the sisters in each province worldwide to evaluate their lives and promote fidelity to their Vincentian charism. This time the theme was Prophecy and Hope, now and everywhere.
It was officially opened when Sr. Catherine Prendergast D.C., Provincial of the Irish province of the Daughters of Charity, welcomed the sisters as they gathered for their 6-yearly meeting. The group invoked the blessing of the Holy Spirit on the gathering.
The keynote speaker for this event was Denis McBride CSSR. He spoke about examples of prophecy and hope in the biblical tradition, referring to the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Jonah. He then went on to explore the biblical characters Abraham and Sarah as older people who never gave up hope. He reflected on a painting by Picasso entitled, The Old Guitarist, and likened the old guitarist to Abraham who is continually Playing for Time and never gives up hoping that God will fulfil his promise to him.
Fr McBride then invited the group to consider the question, where do you get your hope from? He noted that when Abraham and Sarah looked in the mirror they saw two old crocks who, humanly speaking, couldnt possibly conceive at their age. But Abraham tells Sarah to stop looking at their reflection in the mirror and to look up at the stars, assuring her that Gods promise is that their ancestors will be as numerous as these stars.
Are you looking in the mirror, seeing only a reflection of what is in front of you or do you get your hope from elsewhere? he asked.
During the rest of the week reports were presented by various sisters involved in new ministries in Ireland, including Console, prison work, mission integration, and work with the travelling community. The ten sisters working in our new mission in Kenya described their work there and told us of the four seminary sisters and postulants who now form part of the new Kenyan community.
Group discussions and plenary sessions on the theme of Prophecy and Hope focused on mapping the way forward. Dr Johannah Merry, the group convener, facilitated this group work and encouraged us to expand our frame of thinking to help us to imagine new ways of being at the service of the poor and deprived in our world today.
