Two Personal Reflections on Le Puy Experience
1. Sue McGuinness ssj
It was indeed a very rich experience to visit Le Puy, the foundation place of the Sisters of St Joseph and also a place of pilgrimage for thousands of people annually. For a pretty inexperienced traveller like me, to walk on what for every Australian must be described as “ancient” soil, and to imbibe something of the culture of this wonderful French town, was a memorable, precious time. To see the lace-makers sitting contentedly, working skilfully at their craft outside their beautiful shops took one back into the origins of the Josephite story. It was in this way that the first sisters worked alongside their “dear neighbour” making lace before the French Revolution forced them to disband their communities and to return to their families. The narrow cobbled streets and the tall, old stone buildings beautifully adorned with colourful window boxes and statues of Mary and the saints guard many secrets, I’m sure, of the period of the revolution and its aftermath. Overlooking the whole town is the famous statue of Notre Dame de France. Not far from her stands in similar splendour the wonderful rock and chapel of St Michael.
We were treated to a tour of the Mother House and the archives of the Sisters of St Joseph by the very French Sister, Simone. She was engaging and entertaining, steeped as she was in the story and in the current movement within and among the global Josephite family. This whole complex houses the retired sisters as well as a hospital. The archives are being renovated at present to make this precious story more accessible to international visitors, so much had the global movement taken on a new and vital dimension. The Mother House and its environs is of course steeped in history, too. We spent precious time in the original kitchen where the early sisters cooked the food for the boarders. We touched the mantelpiece over the hearth and journeyed back in time with the thousands of others who had ministered from this simple, ‘ordinary’ place.
The chief purpose of our visit, of course, was to participate in the Radical Grace programme between 7 and 14 June. This was held at the Centre International St Joseph. It was a beautifully balanced experience comprising as it did opportunities for contemplative dialogue, communal contemplation and time to practice personal contemplative awareness. Two Canadian Josephites, Joan Atkinson and Sue Wilson, facilitated the programme and provided rich and wonderful input which grew out of their shared experiences as coordinators of Justice and Peace for the Canadian Federation.
Five Josephites from “Down Under” participated: Katrina Brill, Pat Malone, Margaret Gillespie, Jill Dance and Sue McGuinness. Others in the group included a Chambery Josephite from Germany and five Canadian Josephite Associates from London, Ontario. The Associates added a particular dimension to the group, steeped as they were in the charism of Joseph and lovingly, generously committed to the mission of the Sisters of St Joseph. We delighted in our shared gift of being Josephites and marvelled at how much we held, and treasured, in common.The sisters who staff the International Centre displayed typical Josephite hospitality. Lorraine Malo, from Toronto, Donna Cicalese, from Philadelphia and Martha Tharamuttathu from India, a member of the Lyon foundation, gave us the warmest welcome imaginable and shared with us the story of the Centre and their vision for its future use.
For me, while relatively brief in its duration, the Le Puy experience will endure for many years to come. It was an inspiring, moving and privileged time for which I am deeply grateful.
2 Sr Margaret Gillespie rsj
Twelve eager Josephites journey to Le Puyseeking out their roots in the dear St Joseph tree.
Some are rooted elsewhere, but the energies which flow,are similar in each of them, and give them strength to grow.
Disciples on the journey, we listen and we share,with dialogue contemplative, with power-point and prayer.
We recognize ourselves as the drama queens we are creating fancy stories in which we love to star.
We learn to step right back from them, and then with God to see that the stories are illusions and not reality.
We study the Beatitudes and at the fears they bringwe see the need of ‘letting go’ and try surrendering
to the One who wants our happiness, who leads us to our core, to forget the ego-consciousness, and find the true self more.
Our lives take on a Mobius shape and we begin to see the flow of grace within, without, embraced by Trinity,
God in all creation and here the mystery, there is no separation, we are one reality.
The pain of my dear neighbour and her joy is also mine.We share the dish of Eucharist, we share the cup of wine.
This life with all its humanness, but also with its grace, we have new eyes to see the way injustice shows its face.
The tree is in its autumn now, and leaves will slowly fall,but other leaves are growing, who will answer to the call,
and keep alive the mystic roots, steeped in Trinity for the sake of all dear neighbours within life’s mystery.
Twelve grateful Josephites sadly leave Le Puy, carrying within their hearts a golden memory, of bread and wine at table shared, the bread of who we are.
Our roots are twined forever, and although we live afar, there’s a spirit that unites us and enables us to see we’re dear neighbours for each other in our dear St Joseph tree.
