Sister Joan Chittester OSB

A Prophet for our Time

Full Address can be at www.goodsams.org.au

When I tried seven weeks in advance, to get a ticket to hear St Joan Chittester’s keynote address for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations in Australia of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict, I was told that they were sold out but I could go on the waiting list in case of cancellations. To my delight I got a call a few days later to say that two tickets were available. So I was fortunate to be one of 900, who came from all over Australia, to hear Sr Joan Chittester’s stirring address in the lecture hall at St Benedict’s College, Pennant Hills on the night of 19 July 2008.

Sr Joan with consummate skill used her powers of gesture, frank stare and modulated voice to present complex concepts on politics, sociology, theology and economics in compact statements that stirred our hearts and kept up on the edge of our seats for more than an hour. Sr Joan likened the ills of our current age and particularly the arrogance of Western society to those that faced Europe after the conquests and fall of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the Sixth Century. She challenged all Christians to rediscover the spiritual values of St Benedict that played such a crucial role in saving European Civilisation at that time - the values of Creative Work, Holy Leisure, Sabbath, Stewardship, Community, Humility and Peace.

Her lecture was “fire in the belly” stuff. She contrasted the evils of Western Society – its exploitation of the third world peoples; the destruction of the environment; the misuse of our planet’s renewable resources; the relentless measurement of everything in monetary profit with little thought for people’s needs and the importance of understanding the value of leisure, the Sabbath and community; the prolific cost and production of armaments at the expense of other forms of human productive effort; a culture that thrives on media assassination and encourages violence and exploitation of peoples – to the peace nurturing values of Benedictine Spirituality. Sr Joan believes that

“the world needs to urgently re-discover the wisdom and gentleness of Benedictine spirituality if we are to successfully address the many challenges that face our world today.” She finished by quoting Teilhard de Chardin ‘the only task in our hand is the construction of the future.’ and John XXIII said ‘Evil flourishes because good people do nothing.’ Sr Joan concluded:” Time changes nothing people do!”

As Sr Joan powerfully boomed out her passionate message, I was reminded of the part played by the early band of Marists who brought hope and energy to the people of post-revolutionary France, through their preaching, teaching and caring for the poor in the spirit of Mary. I felt the stirrings of hope within, that today, we too can make a difference by bringing the Marist Spirit to the people we live with, meet, teach, minister to, to be all embracing, particularly to those who appear to be different from ourselves. We can be agents of justice and peace for so many in our fractured world.

– Barbara Ashwell