A mix of mums, dads, lots of little children, university students, young adults, fellow religious and clergy filled up Holy Spirit Chapel to pray and listen to four visiting Sisters of Life at Australian Catholic University, Banyo recently, reports The Catholic Leader.
Among the four sisters in the US-based community were two Australians – Sr Rose Patrick from Toowoomba and Sr Mary Grace from Sydney.
Sisters of Life, Sr Mary Grace, Sr Rose Patrick, Sr Miriam Bethel, and Sr Marie Veritas with ACU Campus Pastoral Associate Gabby Fernandes (centre). PHOTO: ACU/Catholic Leader.
Sr Rose Patrick, who is the sister of Toowoomba priest Fr Nathan Webb, said it was her first time returning to Australia in an official capacity with the sisters.
She said it had been “awesome to come back to Australia”, especially on the evangelisation team.
The culture around evangelisation was different in America, she said, where people were more open and emotional with their faith.
But she said she had been surprised by how open and responsive everyone in Australia had been so far.
“It’s beautiful to see that people are willing to be real with their desires and real with what they want real with what they need, which is Jesus,” she said.
“To see people really moved, to see tears, to see people being real with the Lord is very encouraging.
“I’m so grateful to be able to come and to be part of that encounter with the Lord in this particular charism of the Sisters of Life.”
The four Sisters of Life had just travelled north from a series of evangelisation events in Sydney.
It had been Sr Rose Patrick’s dad, Paul Webb, who had reached out to ACU to create an event in Brisbane.
Mr Webb said with the Sisters of Life based overseas, the Brisbane event had been the first time he had seen his daughter in her element with her sisters.
“You can just see that’s where she’s meant to be,” he said.
“The joy that comes out of these Sisters of Life, I couldn’t not want my daughter to be with them.”
He said his daughter had wanted to be a Sister of Life from the age of 11 when she met the order at World Youth Day Sydney in 2008 and he was so excited to see where her ministry would lead.
ACU organiser Gabby Fernandes said she was encouraged to see so many people from the local Catholic community engaged with the events on Monday.
She said the response showed there was a strong interest to hear their message.
Mrs Fernandes said the sisters had spoken “beautifully about the importance of being people who speak the truth and being real”.
Simple things, she said, like listening to someone could lead to life-changing moments.
One of the ministries of the Sisters of Life is to accompany women in times of crisis, especially crisis pregnancies.
“They sit with them and receive them and hear their stories and allow them to just feel listened to and heard, and through that, so many women just experience God’s love,” Mrs Fernandes said.
She said they reflected back to the women “what they see, the beauty that they see” and how “we are all loved”.
The Sisters of Life are a contemplative and active religious community of women founded in New York in 1991 to protect and proclaim the dignity of human life.
This article by Joe Higgins was published in The Catholic Leader.