Union of Our Lady of Charity

Chapter of the Union of Our Lady of Charity

Carrollton – 2007

Monday, 9th July


In the morning Sister Brigid invited us to immerse ourselves in the universal mission of the Good Shepherd family through prayer and also through a slide show that she had prepared from encounters with the Good Shepherd communities around the world.
Whilst listening to the moving stories told about these communities and looking at the faces of the people involved in them, each delegate held a card with the name of one of the countries where the Good Shepherd had a mission – an invitation to draw closer with the heart.

After some personal time and some time for sharing in the groups of life, the delegates were able to discuss what they had heard and ask the 4 Good Shepherd sisters questions about how they experience internationality, the way they network, and their lay collaborators.

Tuesday, 10th July

At the start of the day we had a presentation on the founding and history of the Sisters Magdalene, who are currently contemplative sisters of the Good Shepherd and fully integrated in an apostolic congregation where they dedicate their life to contemplation.

Then the two leadership teams shared with us their tremendous experience of the 18th of December and the fact that they really felt they had been guided by the Holy Spirit. They showed the delegates the letter that had been sent out to our Congregations during the feast of the Heart of Jesus. 95% of the Sisters have accepted the common process to jointly create a new reality that would take into account the insight of our two founders and both congregations expressed similar reactions: joy, fear and concern.

After time devoted to sharing in the groups of life, when we came to the moment for reporting back, it became clear that we wanted to start journeying, work together for the mission, unite our spiritual riches and at the same time involve all the sisters in the reflection process and explain thoroughly everything to those sisters who still found difficulty in joining the process.

We are heading towards something new, we have a joint vision and the Holy Spirit is guiding us! And during the journey the Spirit will help us find what we need. Both our church and the world that has been ripped apart need this show of unity and reconciliation. What do we want future generations to say about us?


The 3 days shared with the Good Shepherd Sisters ended with a festive evening: we offered our thanks to them for having given us their time and having shared their lives with us.



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