St Joseph

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St Josephs Spirit

• Prepared by Mary Cresp RSJ

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• The Sisters of St Joseph
• Founded by Julian Edmund Tenison Woods and Mary
  MacKillop 1866.

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• Sisters of St Joseph
• Founded Le Puy, France, 1650

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It was while I was in Auvergne that I formed
the idea of the Sisters of St Joseph. I found
that in many parts of France, a convent system
prevailed which was of great assistance to the
Church in every way. The daughters of farmers
and humble people were the sources from which the
convents were recruited. They were not highly
educated, nor probably very refined, but they
lived a life of great edification, and supplied
most of the wants which religious communities
could fulfil. They lived in great poverty and
simplicity, and there was no fine ladyism about
them.
J. T. Woods, Memoirs.
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Chapter Decision, 2001

• To explore connections and networks with other
  Josephite Congregations throughout the world.
• Research was required for this.

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World Context
We Christians have no road map for humanity. We
have no more idea than anyone else what will
happen to humanity in the next hundred or
thousand years. So, with the disappearance of
confidence in progress, we have to recover a
genuinely Christian hope. If we may do so, then
humanity will discover in us something for which
it longs and which is ours to give.
Timothy Radcliffe OP
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Our hope

• The unity (communion) of all peoples with God and
  each other

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To each person the manifestation of the
Spirit is given for the common good.
(1 Cor 127)
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Charism (Greek gift)

• a gift of the Spirit
• given to persons
• and taken up by a group
• to carry out the mission of Jesus,
• serving with a special spirit
• which tells us something special about God.

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Charism flows out of how the person understands
God
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What is the particular experience of God of our
founders?

• God is compassionate love. (The Hebrew word
  Compassion comes from the same word as womb)
• Gods compassion is shown through us to others.

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The Sisters in the Providence should consider
themselves the servants of the poor, and
therefore treat the inmates with the most
affectionate consideration. They must bear with
much, and be mild and patient. No deserving poor
person should be refused food and shelter, for
the Sisters are only the administrators of a
bounty which is Gods, who expects that
everything should be done for His poor.

(Book of Instructions, Of Charitable
Undertakings)
(Sisters) are to .. (make) their children happy
by the way in which they show in practice that
the service of the Lord is sweet. Let them
remember that children will be attracted to Jesus
by a bright smiling exterior, but would be
repelled by too much gloom, or spoiled by
boisterous hilarity. (First Rule, 1867).
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How will those who share the Josephite spirit act?

• What face of God
• will they try to
• show?

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Julian Tenison Woods

• Born in London
• on 15th November, 1832

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Julian in France

• In 1853
• goes to France and tramps the countryside of
  Auvergne before entering the Marist Novitiate in
  Lyons
• meets small groups of working class religious
  women (Sisters of St Joseph of Le Puy) who
  minister with the poor, giving them religious
  instruction and teaching them basic skills so
  that they can support themselves.

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New Horizons

• 1854
• Julian returns to England and his family (because
  of ill health)
• Travels to Hobart Town at the suggestion of
  Bishop Wilson with a view to teaching and doing
  final studies for ordination
• He goes to Adelaide to join his brother
• 1855
• Meets Bishop Murphy (Adelaide)

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Ordination

• 1856
• Julian places himself under the guidance of the
  Jesuits at Sevenhill to prepare for ordination as
  a priest in the Adelaide diocese
• January 1857
• He is ordained and moves to Penola

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Julian sees need for Sisters of St Joseph
France
(Recalling Sisters in France) I had been
accustomed to regard a nun as one on whom a great
deal of money had to be spent, and who must be
raised above the labouring classes, both in means
and in education. I felt instinctively that a nun
to be one with the poor, and a servant of the
poor, should belong to the humbler classes,
especially as the immense wants of the Church in
that direction could only be effectively and
abundantly recruited from that class. But when I
saw how the want was supplied in France, I made
up my mind that I would use all my efforts to
extend these institutions
to my own country, though I never dreamt of
trying myself to establish a thing of the kind at
that time, as naturally, it seemed utterly out
of my power. J. T. Woods, Memoirs.

• Australia

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• Why are charisms given by the Spirit?

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1650
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An Age of Turmoil
Reformation,
Wars of Religion,
Famine,
Social changes.
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Religion and Politics mixed

• Civic powers to Church
• Church needed civic permissions
• Power clashes

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Women Religious 1650

• Rome all women Religious to live enclosed in
  monasteries.
• Dowry required.
• No lower classes.
• Apostolic work joined to Monastery.

• If needed for good of diocese, women could live
  as Apostolic Sisters if they did not look like
  nuns. (not classed as nuns)
• Some Bishops used civic powers to recognise them
  as consecrated laywomen.

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Father Jean-Pierre Médaille SJ
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Sisters of St Joseph

• Lived in small, unnoticeable groups, serving God
  in the neighbour.
• Got lay women to work with them.
• Work practical.
• Do whatever is in the power of women to do!

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Sisters of St Joseph in France

• Dressed as widows
• Survived without strong male leadership (Fr
  Medaille removed)
• Push to become monastic (rather than
  Apostolic).
• Ministries gradually focussed on education,
  health care

• History before Revolution (1790s) lost.

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The Revolution (1790s)

• Six Sisters executed.
• Many others imprisoned.
• Properties destroyed, confiscated.
• Sisters impoverished, homeless, returned to
  families.

• Some carried on ministries as best they could.

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After Revolution (1807)

• Sisters of St Joseph officially refounded 1807
  (Mother St John Fontbonne).
• Religious (monastic) dress
• Hierarchical structure (according to conditions
  laid down by Napoleon).
• Apostolic Sisters now the accepted way of being
  Religious.

Mother St John Fontbonne
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Branches of Le Puy Sisters of St Joseph
Throughout World
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Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart
Throughout the World
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Sisters of St Joseph from Le Puy and from
Australia

• Very similar
• God is found in ordinary life.
• Gods compassionate (or great) love is shown.
• ordinary, roll-your-sleeves-up approach,
  hospitality, practicality, being with the
  other, simplicity, humility, no fan-fare,
  serving God in the neighbour.
• Not the only ones
• but this is who we are!

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Do you identify with Josephite? Is this your
charism?

• ordinary,
• roll-your-sleeves-up approach, hospitality,
• practicality,
• being with the other,
• simplicity, humility, no fan-fare,
• serving God in the neighbour.

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Our aim - To signify hope

• If our life in Christ means anything to you
• if love can persuade at all
• or the Spirit that we have in common,
• or any tenderness and sympathy,
• then be united in your convictions
• and united in your love,
• with a common purpose and a common mind.
• 
  Philippians 21-2.

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Our goal