| Written by Lisa Petsche,
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 Waterloo, Ont. - “Call to Solidarity” was the theme of the North American Major Area associates of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) recent conference at St. Jerome’s University.
Associates are lay men and women called to relationship with the SSND to continue Christ’s mission, respond to the changing needs of the church and strive to live the charism, values and ideas of the foundress, Blessed Mother Theresa Gerhardinger. Associates and sisters from Ontario, western Canada and across the United States attended the July 17-20 gathering.
The purpose of the conference, hosted by the Canadian associates, was to review the SSND directional statement of the 22nd General Chapter and begin to develop a mission statement that the associates can integrate into their day-to-day lives. The directional statement focuses on three essential elements: a new way of living internationality, ministry of education for the transformation of the world and Eucharist as the centre of SSND life.
Carol and Bruce Sheldon, an associate couple from Regina, talked about the Eucharist as a sacrament of love — a bond of unity with all creation and the ultimate gift of God. They portrayed the Eucharist as an active concept.
The Sheldons shared a vision of creation, the web of life, enclosed in the womb of God; He nurtures us, sustains us and sends us out to be Eucharist for others.
Education was addressed by associate Lorraine Petsche from Hamilton, Ont. She pointed out how education begins with personal growth, which transforms our awareness and understanding of the needs and cares of others.
Petsche shared an example of how her relationship with the SSND empowered her in her ministry to married and engaged couples, inspiring her to be “a voice raising the profile of marriage to a holy and sacred vocation.” She reflected upon how “often our mission is hidden in the quality of how we treat others, and as we give fully, we become acts of love.” Those acts “send ripples of hope, which become currents, sweeping down walls of resistance.”
Petsche also noted that, living in a global village, we can't help but hear the cries of the Earth and God’s people.
“Our associate relationship helps us to be more understanding, more compassionate and more loving as we yearn for oneness, openness and inclusivity for all,” she said.
Sr. Julie Lattner gave a presentation on internationality, which involves “crossing cultures, customs, language and rituals.” Typically, this is accompanied by fear and a degree of risk.
Lattner described how, in a multicultural society, we all encounter differences daily, in our network of family, friends and co-workers.
“These differences can divide and separate us, or we can use them as moments of grace to listen, listen, listen,” she said, adding that as we listen with compassion and understanding, we become Eucharist to one another, and transformation and acceptance become possible.
Lattner proposed "a new mindset, a new consciousness, from multi-cultural to intra-cultural." It will bring out the best that is within us, she said, enabling us to "become one mind and one heart — the oneness for which Christ prayed.”
One of the highlights of the conference was a heritage bus tour to St. Agatha, the first SSND Canadian mission, established in 1871 to care for orphans. Many schools and parishes in Kitchener-Waterloo were also visited, to commemorate the order's deep roots in the area. As well, participants were welcomed for Mass, lunch and tours at the Canadian Motherhouse in Waterdown, Ont., built in 1927.
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