Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 150 years, celebrating the APA Safeguarding Conference

Today, our APA Safeguarding Conference officially ended.

We began the day with a Eucharist hosted by Indonesia and celebrated by Fr. Kimi MSC.

During the Eucharist, Sr. Philippa announced that the next APA Conference will be held in 2026 in Indonesia and handed the APA candle to the Indonesian Province.

 Following the Eucharist, the APA participants gathered for a final reflection and the official signing of our APA Safeguarding Commitment Statement, which was handed to Sr. Margaret Bob, the Secretary of the Congregation, to be taken to our Congregational Leader in Rome for endorsement.

Our APA Safeguarding Conference has been a truly fruitful time, during which hearts and minds were opened to deepen our commitment to safeguarding. Our APA participants will now enjoy some leisure time in Sydney before departing for their home countries.

Some photos of the Conference

Chaplain to the Conference, Peter Hendriks MSC - blessed by Provincial, Philippa Murphy

Presentation by tim Brennan MSC

For photos of visits to Sydney, Canberra and the Sisters at St Joseph’s Kensington, visit the Facebook page of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Australia.

Today, August 30th, 150 years, Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart

Below, the statement of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart - and an international photo celebration

Kiribati

We, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, are an international, apostolic religious institute of pontifical right with a specific missionary orientation. Centred on the Heart of Jesus, ours is a Spirituality of the Heart with a special Maria dimension.  Our spirituality and mission are expressed in the motto given to us by our Founder: “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus Be Everywhere Loved”.  (FDNSC Constitutions No 1)

Philippines

We were founded in Issoudun (France) on 30 August 1874 by Fr Jules Chevalier, MSC who personally guided the congregation in its first years of existence.  In 1882, our first superior general, Mother Marie Louise Hartzer, FDNSC joined the young congregation and embarked on faithfully passing on to the early sisters the charism and spirituality of the founder.

Brazil

Today, we look back with gratitude over our 150 year history of making the Sacred Heart loved everywhere.  On the following pages, we will tell you more about Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, our patron; Fr Jules Chevalier, MSC, our founder; Mother Marie Louise Hartzer, FDNSC, our first superior general; and our Charism, Spirituality and Mission.

Indonesia

Our first Superior General, Mother Marie Louise Hartzer, was born in Alsace, France in 1837 and died in Thuin, Belgium in 1908.  She first married, had two sons, and later as a 45 year-old widow, joined the young congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.  Her two sons became Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.  For 26 years (1882-1908), she led our congregation, faithfully passing on the founder’s charism and spirituality to the sisters.  She saw the congregation expand from Europe to the Pacific, becoming a truly international congregation.

Korea

“As Father Chevalier, by the exercise of his spiritual paternity, has given life to the Congregation, so Marie Louise Hartzer by the grace of spiritual maternity bestowed up her for the purpose of fostering that life, may be called and is its venerated Mother.” (Mary Venard, fdnsc, The Designs of His Heart)

Sister Rita Grunke OLSH, from Sudan to Hughenden

From the Bishop of Townsville. Timothy Harris

“We welcome Sr Rita Grunke OLSH (on my right) to the Diocese . Sr Rita joins Sr Gerardine Doherty OLSH our Clergy Formation Director and Sr Christine Martin OLSH. Sr Rita has volunteered to be a pastoral presence in Hughenden. The Hughenden Catholic Community in particular is looking forward to having Sr Rita live with them and be there for them. We are delighted to have Sr Rita with us. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved. +Tim”.

We are posting again this write-up of Rita to remind us of her ministry for so long in Sudan.

By ACI Africa Staff, Rumbek, 24 October, 2023 / 8:45 pm (ACI Africa).

Sr. Rita Grunke, an Australian member of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Sacred Heart (OLSH), who is leaving South Sudan for her native country after two decades of service in Africa looks back at her experience in the world’s newest nation with appreciation.

“Rumbek Diocese has offered me the opportunity to be a missionary really into the heart of the communities, women, and family life, and other services to the community,” 82-year-old Sr. Rita has told ACI Africa in an interview, recalling her 19-year apostolate in the South Sudanese Catholic Diocese.

Set to leave South Sudan for Nairobi on Wednesday, October 25 before proceeding to Australia a few days later, Sr. Rita joined members of her Religious Congregation at St. Josephine Bakhita Mapuordit Parish of the Catholic Diocese of Rumbek when she arrived in South Sudan in 2004. She joined late Sr. Mary Batchelor who had arrived in the South Sudanese Catholic mission in 1996. 

Speaking to ACI Africa on Monday, October 23, after her farewell party over the weekend, Sr. Rita recalled her first encounter with “real suffering” when she arrived in Rumbek Diocese that was under the leadership of the late Bishop Caesar Mazzolari. 

“When I first came it was really the plight of the women that touched my heart because it was the first time I saw real suffering among the women,” the OLSH member said, and added, “Polygamy has severe effects on family life and mothers carry the weight of the family; they gather school fees and look after the children.” 

She recalled the initiatives she had with various stakeholders in view of empowering women around St. Josephine Bakhita Mapuordit Parish.

“When I first came, we had groups; we had community meetings with mothers and government representatives,” Sr. Rita recalled, adding, “We tried in those meetings to bring families together in order to support the mothers.”

Over the years, she has facilitated the realization of “simple gardens”, having embarked on farming through irrigation as “the real empowerment”, the Australian Catholic Nun who has been known for facilitating the drilling of boreholes for local communities in Rumbek Diocese told ACI Africa, taking pride in the fact that through the initiative, “many different groups of women have gardens.”

“Women have got greens, tomatoes, pawpaw, and onions,” she further said, and added, “I have worked a lot through agriculture trying to support the mothers to support and look after their children in a healthier lifestyle.”

The OLSH member who said she “arrived in Africa at the end of 2003 and in South Sudan in January 2004” went on to describe her service in the world’s youngest nation as “a beautiful occasion” and the Diocese of Rumbek as “a beautiful place”.

“I have really enjoyed this time in South Sudan,” she reiterated, and added, “It is a kind of mission that I really wanted to come to. I was impressed with the foundation OLSH members laid.”

Sr. Rita continued, “I had followed in the footsteps of the pioneering sisters; they were a source of inspiration and it is my joy to be part of them in the Diocese of Rumbek and in Mapuordit.”

OLSH pioneer members in Rumbek Diocese, she recalled, “talked about the people; they talked about poverty; they talked about so much that really appealed to me and I really wanted to be able to be part of that mission.”

“I’m leaving Mapuordit; I’m going back to Australia because I am already at a certain age and health begins to diminish,” Sr. Rita told ACI Africa during the October 23 interview.

While in Australia, Sr. Rita said she would take up “simple things in a small rural parish.”  “I hope to guide a rural Catholic Parish as a pastoral person, to do catechetics in schools,” the Australian OLSH member said.

And now that is happening in Hughenden.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Jules Bicentenary, FDNSC Sisters 150 Years

The Chevalier Family has sent out this April reminder of these 2024 events.

Jules Chevalier names Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

His life:

In Issoudun, one afternoon in 1859, in the shade of some lime trees, where Rules Chevalier and some companions were sheltering from the spring heat, he asked them this question: "Under what title shall we place the chapel of the Virgin in our church?" Rules was obsessed with the idea. There were several proposals for a new name, but Rules was clear: "We will have Our Lady of the Sacred Heart". He turned to her for help in founding the congregation and, grateful for the favours granted, promised to give her a special place. Two years later, in 1861, faithful to his promise, he also had the stained glass window of the church made, in which the first image of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart would appear.

Due to the success of the publication of an article by Fr Chevalier in the Messenger of the Heart of Jesus and the campaign for images for the construction of the church, devotion to Our Lady of the  Sacred  Heart spread quickly. In 1864, the Association was founded.

His words:

Artist, Richard Campbell

This is how he described to the artist what it should look like: "...it will represent the Immaculate Virgin, of normal size, with her hands and eyes turned downwards, towards the Child Jesus who will be in front of her. On his breast the child will have his little heart surrounded by rays, which he will show to the faithful with his finger". (Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Jan G. Bovenmars, msc, p. 15).

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart: "This word means that Mary, as a consequence of her divine motherhood, possesses great power over the Heart of Jesus, and it is through her that we must go to this divine Heart". (Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Jan G. Bovenmars, msc. p. 29).

"Let us often say to her: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, pray for us" (MI 718).

The love for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart has reached our days with the same enthusiasm with which Jules Chevalier made her the protagonist of the congregation. It has spread to all continents and is still very topical, not least because John Paul II, in his encyclical letter Redemptoris Mater (RM, March 1987), makes several comments about her.

And when Chevalier further adds that Mary is "the hope of the hopeless", John Paul II echoes him by saying that She "remains for all a sure sign of hope" (RM 11).