Are you a young woman searching for something more in life? Do you want to contribute to enhancing the lives of others? Are you passionate about social justice? Do you want a deeper relationship with God? Then read on.
The Good Samaritan Sisters are hosting a “come and see” weekend in Sydney in late May for young women who are interested in religious life and would like to find out more.
“We believe our way of life can bring life, purpose and fulfilment and we want to
share that by inviting young women to hear about and experience something of our way of life by spending time with us,” explained Good Samaritan Sister, Bernadette Corboy, one of the organisers.
“We are inviting young women to a weekend to hear our Good Sam story, pray together, share conversation and meals, and attend to God’s invitation – to have face-to-face conversations about the call of God and to assist them in this process of discernment.”
It’s been some time since the Good Sams hosted a “come and see” weekend, but Bernadette hopes the experience might attract about 8 to 10 young women.
“Hopefully, coming away from places of living and working will provide them with the environment, space and time to reflect and attend to the call stirring within,” said Bernadette.
According to 36-year-old Good Samaritan Sister, Sarah Puls, the chance to “come and see” is important for young women who might be considering whether religious life is for them.
“The question of whether God was calling me to religious life didn’t actually mean much until I had the chance to work with and get to know some Good Sams. Until then, the idea was an abstract one, and not really one I could even consider properly,” she explained.
Sarah, a social worker, first met the Good Samaritan Sisters about 14 years ago while volunteering at The Inn in Melbourne, a ministry of the Sisters which provides crisis accommodation and care for women and children escaping domestic violence and homelessness. For Sarah this connection was her “come and see” experience.
“The sisters I met there showed me that there is not one type of Good Samaritan Sister, but that they were different, and genuinely themselves. I think that’s what touched me most – that each of them was living her vocation as a Good Samaritan Sister with integrity and compassion, and that that had a big impact on the work that we did, and on me in my experience of them,” she said.
“There was something free in the way that they were answering God’s call, and serving the people of God, not as women who presented themselves as ‘special’ or ‘holy’; they were just themselves, trying to listen to God, to respond with the compassion of the kind Samaritan in the parable.”
Sarah recognises that “even being open to the idea of religious life is a big thing for a young woman”.
“I remember being quietly excited and utterly terrified when I started out on the journey of considering religious life. I think I worried that I would feel pressured, or that I wouldn’t be ‘right’. But what I found is a group of women who genuinely wanted (and want) for me to be happy and at peace, wherever I found that.”
The Good Samaritan Sisters’ “come and see” weekend will be held from 6:00pm, Friday May 17 until 3:00pm, Sunday May 19, 2013 at Mt St Benedict Centre, Pennant Hills.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict, known affectionately as the Good Sams, is Australia’s first ‘home-grown’ congregation of Catholic religious women. They were founded in Sydney in 1857 by Archbishop John Bede Polding, an English Benedictine monk and Australia’s first bishop. Today, there are around 253 sisters living and working throughout Australia, in Japan, Kiribati, the Philippines and Timor Leste.
