Faithful To the Mission…Bold For the Future!
Sr. Margaret Mayce, OP, DSIC International Coordinator, reflects on her recent trip to Australia, where she had the privilege of serving as the keynote speaker at the Dominican Education Australia Symposium in McLaren Vale, South Australia, held September 8-9:
It was a privilege for me to be a keynote speaker at the Dominican Education Australia Symposium (DEA), September 8-9, in MacLaren Vale, South Australia. This was the celebration of the 10th anniversary of DEA, which is the legal entity that holds the Dominican schools of three Congregations in Australia. Ten years ago, the three Prioresses of these Congregations realized that they no longer had the resources to maintain their schools. After a great deal of soul-searching and careful planning, they made the decision to turn the schools over to their lay partners in mission. One of the primary responsibilities of the founding Congregations was to form their colleagues in the Dominican Charism. It was such a grace for me to witness how these wonderful women and men have “absorbed” the Charism and make every effort to communicate this to their students.
The theme of the Symposium was Faithful To the Mission, Bold for The Future. We reflected on the life of St. Dominic, drawing wisdom and grace from his spirit in these very challenging times. Our brother, Timothy Radcliffe has described St. Dominic as “stupefyingly free.” This was one of our primary considerations, as we understood more deeply that to create something new, one must be free! To create DEA, the three Congregational leaders had to be free – despite the very real cords that may have been trying to keep them tethered to “the way things always were.” Faithful to the mission, the founding Congregations carved a new path by taking the best of what was and bringing it to bear on the signs of their times – and they created something new!
These are the Founding Congregations and Congregational Leaders of DEA:
- Dominican Sisters of Eastern Australia and the Solomon Islands – Sr. Judith Lawson (Sr. Mary-Clare Holland, current Congregational Leader);
- Holy Cross Congregation of Dominican Sisters – Sr. Bernadette Kiley;
- and Dominican Sisters of North Adelaide – Sr. Shirley Macklin.
Each of these Congregations have made the decision to come to completion; or, as one Sisters expressed it – “we are coming to fulfillment!” I also had the opportunity to visit with these Sisters and offer them the support and prayers of all of us in DSIC as they continue on this journey. I was deeply impressed by what I saw in our Sisters in Australia – their very intentional decisions – and the peace that follows in the wake of these decisions for those who are willing and able to give themselves over to the process. God bless their freedom to move forward and not let themselves be bound by the past! May we all follow their grace-filled example!
