The Congregation of the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres (SPC) is a Roman Catholic missionary group founded in 1696 in France. They focus on teaching, nursing, and caring for the poor, orphans, the elderly, and the mentally ill. The congregation values sacrifice and service for the benefit of others, and has borne much fruit through the three interlinked apostolates of teaching, health care and pastoral care.
We have had the opportunity to gain deeper insight into the Sisters of Saint Paul de Chartres, exploring their mission, motivations, prayer practices, daily routines, and how we can discern God’s call.
The Congregation of the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres
What is the Congregation of the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres and what ministries do you focus on?
So, I’m from the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres Australia. But originally we are from France, we are a French congregation. We started also very humbly visiting the poor and the sick and teaching the poor girls how to read and write.
Our mission is all things for all people. At the moment our main focus is in education, in nursing, health care, and in pastoral care. Our purpose of life is to focus on the Lord.
What does your daily life look like in the Congregation?
So our life start with prayer and also end with prayer. I do teaching in a school, other sister also working in a nursing home in the age care or visiting people in the hospital and some working in the parishes. But we all start with prayer. And after that with Mass to give us the energy for the whole day.
Each individual sister will go to their personal assignment or apostolic work.
And then in the afternoon we come back we have a moment of adoration, and recollect our day and give thanks to God for the day. And also we have our Vesper evening prayer and Rosary together. And then we have some time for personal time before our dinner. And after our dinner we have what is called, a community time where we sit together watching the news knowing what is going on in the world so that we can pray for our world. And also we have time to share our day and also playing game together or having a chat of our day before night prayer. And after night prayer we enter what is called, a great silence, a time of communion with God until the next morning.
Why did you decide to join this Congregation?
So wonderful really, even becoming a Catholic! Really is a miracle. All the time it’s not I or anyone who had chosen God, God is the one chasing after each one of us. That is what I have experienced all my life from my early childhood until even now.
To join a convent is something I never had an idea because I wasn’t a Catholic. When my sister got baptism and when I was there, I had no idea what a church like I was so scared, I so sit at the back. And when I was just there I saw in front was a sister came out from the sacristy and it just hit me like that, oh that is a life I’d like to join!
Firstly I was curious what are the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres? I meet a friend and she showed me the history of the congregation of the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres. That really made me question, why so many young girls they dare to spend their lives inside a congregation, what drives them? And what were their motivation that make them even to dedicate their whole life? That question keep coming up to me. I want the answer.
So the work, the mission, is for charity for the poor people. So it’s just something in my heart the Holy Spirit inspire for me that this might be for me. When God, the Holy Spirit empowers me to keep going on to see the sisters I found out this is really one part of me and this congregation is my family.
The reason that I join this congregation is simply a respond to the love of God. And I believe that God’s providence have brought me into this congregation. And I find fulfilment and love in the life and mission of this congregation.
God calls me. Because I was very young, only sixteen and a half, so I did asked God to give me two signs, and the signs are given in the interview between a Mother General’s Assistant that was sent to interview us and also between my parents answer. So I’m sure that God wants me so that’s why I enter and become a Sister of St Paul, and I never regretted it.
What do you enjoy most about being part of this Congregation and serving God in this way?
Earlier in my life I was assigned to teach in a high school for more than a quarter of a century in that school because later I was placed as the principal. Teaching had been my dream career since a very early age. What is so special is that you know, as teenagers we could tell them anything and they would listen. So the relationship is very close. What we may not tell our parents, we could tell the sisters. My students love the school very much. And this is what I enjoy most.
I enjoy most about being part of this congregation is that it help me to realise and being the best version of myself and also being part of the international congregation, a missionary congregation, that is much bigger than myself. And it is really healthy for my spirit and my journey to holiness.
The attract to me is the community life and prayer life in this congregation. Even though that we are working hard as Sisters of St Paul de Chartres, but we always keep ourselves on track in prayer life to connect with the Lord, we know who we are that we are the worker for the Lord.
I wanted to be a Salesian, I wanted to be a Dominican, but I ended up to be a Sister of St Paul de Chartres. It also is God’s providence and God’s love for me. So my whole journey so far in the congregation I think is a merciful call from God. What I treasure most is the personal encounter with God at every step of my journey. Through my rise and falls, it doesn’t matter, it just only Him, and the encounter with Him is the most valuable thing for a Sister like me.
What challenges do you face? Is it particularly hard being part of your Congregation in a secular society like Australia?
Even though Australia may be a secular country, like many people think. But I think there’s only one truth that we cannot deny, that we all craving for love. No matter what stage or profession you are, we all need that kind of affirmation that I am loved, that I want to be accepted. So as religious we are called to be Christ’s arms, hands and feet, to go out to people and embrace their pains. To be able to carry Christ we need to have Him in our heart first.
So it has been great challenge for each one of us to live in the world and yet not of the world. So for me personally, preaching is not the only option. But even a better option is by witnessing. Witnessing God’s presence in us as religious and in other people. But that means first of all we have to live very authentically a religious life truly dedicated to God. And I pray every day for conversion so that God can possess me more fully.
For Sisters of St Paul de Chartres the real challenge is the community life. In our society we think that freedom is about doing whatever we like. But at the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres
we have the centre on Christ. We centre and focus on Christ loving us and allow us to share a common life living and loving one another.
What would you say to any woman who is considering the call from God?
Well if you are considering a call to religious life I believe that God has put an initiative in your life. That would be the first indication that God show you, the call, the call is always come from God. But how can you hear God’s voice? Because God often speaks in the silence of our heart. And so I would say we need to make time, create space, and live a prayerful life. And to seek out those who can love you and support you and will help you.
And also perhaps go visit some convents and stay the weekend, come and see, and then pray over it and ask God to show the way.
Don’t be afraid. Just come and see. Because I myself, I even did not know that I should enter the convent, I avoid it at the beginning. But the Lord has empowered me with His love and called me back though I hesitated a lot. To give up everything from from my family, go to further country. But I find my happiness in here, I find my freedom in being with the Lord.
This could be a very joyful experience, doesn’t matter if you enter any congregation or you become a religious or not, it doesn’t matter. But whatever inspiration or ideas has come to you act on it. So pray, listen and act.
Vocation is a call from God, it’s a gift from God. And if He wants you, He will nag at you all the time and you will come back and come back. As long as we are open, God will guide us. God calls us, God calls anybody and we’ve just got to be prepared and be generous enough to respond.
If you give yourself totally to God, He will guide you and lead you. But if we spend time to let God’s will reveal to us through our prayerful reflection. And when we are willing to trust God, we can overcome the fear.
What would you like people to know about your Congregation?
I enjoy and love most is the simplicity of the Sisters. The simplicity of spirit that brings such a joy in our hearts that enable us to share joy, no matter what.
I hope you can realise our joy. And the serenity that we experience. Because there’s so many things inside of our hearts and our minds you won’t be able to see, but at least you can see our joyful appearance. That you know that we are having a happy life and we are content with our vocation.