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Hayes Stuart Community
Baking bread on our community day (it took two and a half hours with pauses to let it rest and rise and rest again) "It represents the slow, patient, attentive and transforming love of God as we allow Him to knead us like dough in His hands." (from a reflection by Katie) Our specific mission in the province is that we are the novitiate a place where we welcome women who, having lived a year in one of our communities, have asked and been accepted to the two year period called the novitiate. It is a time dedicated to deepening our relationship with God, studying the Scriptures, imbibing the spirit and charism of our Society in particular through study of our Constitutions and above all, learning to live fully and lovingly in a community of sisters. We are very human and ordinary, flawed but redeemed and forgiven. Life follows a rhythm of prolonged times of individual prayer, community prayer each evening, silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on Fridays, study, silence, sharing in the daily tasks and reaching out to the wider community of our immediate neighbourhood and the world. In our prayer we come to Him with everything that touches our life, with the sufferings and hopes of humanity& we learn contemplate reality and to experience it with His (Jesus) Heart. (Constitutions of the Society of the Sacred Heart paras 20 and 21) We are an apostolic community as well as a novitiate. Maureen has provincial responsibilities in addition to being the coordinator of the community. Mary Totton works one day a week in the provincial archives and is an active member of the Association of Alumnae. Mary Hinde is novice director and keeps in touch with the wider community through a weekly visit to central London with a group of parishioners who offer friendship and food to men and women who are homeless. Siobhan, Katie and Janet are involved in ministry outreach one day a week and from January, the second year novices (Siobhan and Katie) will spend three months in another community on a placement. Our sisters in Emmaus are an important part of our extended community as is the community of the parish, especially those who come to the Eucharist celebrated in our chapel every morning. We are told by our many visitors that we are a happy, hope-filled lively group and so we should be it is a blessing to live in the novitiate!
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Siobhan Burke, Katie Colbran, Maureen Cunnion, Mary Hinde, Janet Hopper and Mary Totton form the community, together with Anne Hine and Mairead Quigley who, as attached members, are a significant part of it. We are named after Janet Erskine Stuart whose centenary is celebrated this year. In a special way we want to draw from the well of her spiritual and educational teachings in this her year. We are a community of sisters, disciples and learners helping each other grow in the habits of Jesus' Heart and His mission of revealing a God of tender love and mercy.
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