Schools and College all celebrated the Feast of Sacred Heart on June 24th, 2022. Here are some of the Highlights.

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_{Roehampton Primary school}

It was a very special feast day here as they celebrated 150 years since the School was founded. Mass was celebrated in the school grounds.

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They ended the Mass with shouting Happy Feast day as loud as possible so that the Sisters at Duchesne could hear them. Watch the video here.

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Also, lots of bubbles went into the sky to celebrate. What an achievement for the pupils to do this! Watch the video here.

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_{Fenham Primary School}

A Feast day liturgy celebrating the goals of faith and Intellect. Watch the video here.

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_{Hammersmith High School}

At the High school, the mass was celebrated on the lawn and as always the sun was shining on the feast day.

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_{Digby Stuart College}

There was time for reflection on the Sacred Heart in the Sacred Heart and St Thomas’s Chapels. Prayers were written on shared hearts cards on hopes for our world.

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Sacred Heart of Jesus, give me a heart that is one with your own;

a humble heart that knows and loves its nothingness;

a gentle heart that holds and calms its own anxieties;

a loving heart that has compassion for the suffering of others;

a pure heart that recoils even at the appearance of evil;

a detached heart that longs for nothing other than the goodness of heaven;

a heart detached from self-love and embraced by the love of God, its attention focused on God, its goodness is its only treasure in time and in eternity.    

Amen

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On Saturday 18th June, with immense joy and gratitude, we celebrated the Perpetual Profession of nine of our sisters, from three continents. You can watch the slideshow and download the Mass booklet here.

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We spend five months preparing for our profession as part of an international group, known as Probation. Towards the end of this time, as per a tradition started by St Madeleine Sophie, the Superior General gives each group name and a devise (motto), chosen for them as a probation community, which marks the group and serves as a call and a reference point for each one as she begins her journey as a finally professed RSCJ. You can read more about this here.

Please join us in praying for our sisters as they return to their Provinces, to live their mission of discovering and revealing the love of God, wherever they may be.

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Our venue for our summer meeting of Exploring the Goals was in our school in Hammersmith. We had a very fruitful meeting and took time to plan our ideas for focusing on the Goal of Community next year, including joint projects with our school, which also links in to 180 years anniversary of the Sisters coming to England.

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It was also a time to reflect on the past year and to give thanks for all the staff who keep the Charism and Goals of Sacred Heart education alive in our schools and college.

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On June 7, 2022 the community at Duchesne House, the Society’s care home in west London, gathered for tea in the garden which was bathed in beautiful summer sunshine.

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This gathering was in order to say “thank you” to Julie Murrin, our long-serving care manager at Duchesne. In her 27 years of service,Julie has overseen many changes and developments and in more recent years has helped Duchesne to weather the challenges thrown up by the pandemic. It is no accident that we lost no-one directly to Covid.

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As well as flowers and a gift, Julie was presented with a booklet full of memories and loving messages from sisters in the province and from present and former staff. There was genuine appreciation for Julie’s skilled care and friendship often experienced when sisters are at their most vulnerable.

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We wish Julie and her husband John, good luck and Godspeed as they enter this new chapter of their lives.

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Sr Cath Lloyd RSCJ and Ann Gregory, Schools’ Network Goals Coordinator, were invited to Woldingham School on Saturday 28th May 2022. It was a wonderful celebration which started with a Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by Fr. Nicholas King SJ.

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The guest speaker at the prize giving was Lucy Hawkins, daughter of Stephan Hawking, followed by an inspirational speech from the Head Girl, Desiree Fitzgerald, in which she used many quotes from Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat.

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Sophie’s founding vision was born in the chaos of her own time. As we celebrate her feast this year, let us begin by bringing to mind the chaos of our current world that calls out for our response, our compassion, our creativity, our energy.

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The Religious of the Sacred Heart in England and Wales wish you all a happy feast of Sophie and invite you to pray with us:

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Gracious God, your Spirit spoke in the depth of Sophie’s heart and gave her the courage to act with compassion and generosity. We pray that following in her footsteps we might be freer and more passionate in our response as you call us to be your presence in the chaos and the pain of our time. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

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Year 6 students from Sacred Heart Primary School Newcastle have been in Rome this week visiting their sister school, Istituto Sacro Cuore della Trinità dei Monti, attending the Papal Audience, seeing the sites, including today, the Basilica of St Peter's where they spotted the statue of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat RSCJ. They will have so many stories to tell when they go home.

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The Senior leadership team and governors from our school in Hammersmith met in the convent parlour at Digby Stuart College in Roehampton on Saturday 7th May, 2022.

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Sr Cath Lloyd spoke about living the Sacred Heart Charism and rooting it in the needs of today, along with the schools Network team focusing on how this could be achieved in everyday school life.

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For the remainder of the day, the school’s vision and key priorities for the next 5 years were discussed.

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Sr Lorraine Pratt finished the day with interactive prayer.

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“Great sharing of ideas inspired by the Charism that the students will come to know and experience God’s love and share it with others.”

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Someone recently asked me for the date of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. I began to explain that it's a moveable feast, coming at the end of a whole series of moveable feasts, which begin with Pentecost... no, with Easter... no, Lent... Ash Wednesday... And as I heard myself describe this liturgical continuum, something within me broke into a gleeful little dance. Wow, I thought... Wow... from Ash Wednesday to the Sacred Heart, in one unbroken movement!

From the day when we turn to God with all our hearts, seeking grace and forgiveness and mercy... through Lent, when we yearn and learn to love, and Easter, that greatest of all feasts of Christ's love... and then Pentecost, the love of the Trinity, and of Corpus Christi... to the day when we celebrate the Heart of God, the fathomless source of all that tender, overflowing, compassionate and merciful love.

In a pastoral letter for Ash Wednesday, Cardinal Vincent Nichols once wrote that Ash Wednesday is the doorway into this season of renewal. And so it is... And it's also a doorway into God's wide-open Heart, a sure companion on our journey. And this is the hope and the assurance which strengthen me as I enter this time of growth and renewal, and this Lent which is, as always, filled with a promise which holds as much blessing as it does challenge.

Have a happy, grace-filled Lent, everyone!

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Adapted from a reflection by Silvana Dallanegra RSCJ, which first appeared in All this Life and Heaven Too

On Saturday 2nd August Sisters Mon McGreal RSCJ and Steph Romaine RSCJ quietly celebrated their Golden Jubilees of perpetual profession of vows, made in 1975.

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Here, Steph, who is part of our community in Fenham, Newcastle, shares how she spent the day...

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I began my Jubilee Day with Mass in the Cathedral, and to my surprise the first reading from Leviticus (25:1, 8-17) reminds us of the origin and meaning of Jubilee. God owns the land and for a whole year it was to remain uncultivated, unworked on, so that the land itself had a holiday! So, after coffee and a scone at the Oak and Iron Heritage Centre I went for a walk at nearby Gibside.

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The first thing that showed itself to me was the beginning of a new leaf on a twig - it told me that this is the beginning of a new stage of my life. As I walked on it felt as though I was walking back through my life again, through the woods of my life:

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Babies in buggies, young children playing….older children making dens. I remembered the woods of my childhood on Putney Heath; the woods at Woldingham when I was a novice – the Dark Night where I had an illegitimate cigarette or two; and the woods at the top of St Michael’s Mount when I was teaching in the school at Woldingham, taking a walk on a day off from the boarding school. On I walked in the Hollies near Leeds and Roundhay Park, on a Saturday with Vivien Bowman. On and on, until surrounded by woods and mountains at Llannerchwen. A few sedate walks around Bolam Lake and Wallington here in the North East, until today the woods at Gibside. I’ll come again now I’ve found the bus route!

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Woods hold so much, speak with so much symbolism of my 80 years of life and now 50 years of Final Profession: so much variety, so much contrast, so many beginnings and endings, and handing’s over; so much darkness and light and dappled light and deep shade. There was deadness, dead leaves, dead trees, dead ends; and yet fresh greenness, new buds, new leaves, and fresh fruit, hollows and vistas... and always stillness with rustling leaves and silence, silence broken only by birdsong; clear paths and brambles with no way through and yet always The Way.

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So much to be grateful for, so many companions on the way, and through it all, invisible and everlasting arms holding and guiding, picking up, comforting, never letting go and always loving:

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‘The Good news of the Kingdom’ (my Probation Name)*

And my devise (motto)

‘I praise you, Father, because you have revealed these things to little ones
and hidden them from the wise and prudent.
You have put all these things in my hands.’
Lk:10:21

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We send our congratulations and prayer to Steph and Mon, and to the other RSCJ around the world for whom this is a Jubilee year.

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* 'Probation' is our preparation for final vows, a process done in an international group, lasting almost five months. At the end of this time, as per a long Society tradition, the Superior General will give the group a name and devise which give them a communal and individual new identity and call as professed RSCJ.

On a very hot day at the beginning of July, the Head Girl teams from Sacred Heart in Fenham and Hammersmith joined their fellow students leaders from Woldingham School for two days of student leadership training. The conference, titled “ Leading from the Heart” gave them the opportunity to consider their leadership styles, their role within a team as well as important skills such as effective communication and using your initiative.

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It was a delight to see how quickly the students bonded and enjoyed sharing their experiences of leading in a Sacred Heart school. In the evening, a poignant moment was had in Woldingham’s new vineyard as we learned more about the symbolism of the different parts of the vine and the importance of the vines to St Madeleine Sophie Barat.

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The Society of the Sacred Heart around the world celebrated 100 years of St Madeleine Sophie Barat on May 24th. The schools and college in our province marked this very special occasion with liturgies and special assemblies, heart-shaped lollies and prayer cards. Students and staff also came together to watch a new film made by the Schools Network to tell the story of Sophie's life and share some of her most loved quotations, read by our RSCJ Sisters. You can watch the film here:

75 students and staff from across all of our schools and college gathered at the end of September to celebrate HeartFest 6, our biennial student conference at the Emmaus Youth Village, County Durham.

For three days, students worked collaboratively on a range of tasks linked to all 5 Sacred Heart Goals of education, as we are celebrating this school year, the 50^th birthday of the Goals which launched in the United States in 1975.

Despite the torrential rain, spirits were high as creative skills were used to express each of the Goals in workshops such as friendship bracelet making (for the Goal of Community) and re-imagining our ideal world in art (for the Goal of Social  Awareness)

HeartFest 6 concluded with a moving liturgy at Sacred Heart High School, Fenham where all those in attendance were commissioned as the first Sacred Heart Network Student Team, who will now take an active role in leading Goals based activities in our schools and college.

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UPDATED 29th JULY - We send our prayers and best wishes to the Alumnus of Sacred Heart Schools around the world who are competing in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this summer:

(clockwise from top left)

Tierna Davidson from Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton, California (Class of 2016) will compete in soccer for the USA

(photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Lanihei Connolly from Baradene College of the Sacred Heart, Auckland, New Zealand (class of 2023) is competing in swimming (100m Breaststroke) for the Cook Islands.

(photo credit:www.birmingham2022.com)

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Gaby Lopez from Collegio Sagrado Corazon, Mexico (class of 2012) will compete in Golf for Mexico

(photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Mary (Daisy) Mazzio-Manson from Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, Boston (class of 2016) will compete in Rowing fours for the USA

(photo: LinkedIn)

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Georgia Bell from Sacred Heart High School, Hammersmith (class of 2010) will compete in Athletics (1500m) for Great Britain

(photo: Michael Steele / Getty images)

Isabella Russekoff from Sacred Heart Greenwich, Connecticut (class of 2018) will compete in Equestrian Showjumping for Israel.

(photo credit: @shgreenwich Instagram)

Katie Ledecky from Stone Ridge Sacred Heart, Bethesda, Maryland (class of 2015) will compete in Swimming (400m freestyle, 1500m freestyle, 4 x 200m freestyle relay, 800m freestyle) for the USA.

(photo credit: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)

Carlota Ciganda from Sagrado Corazon, Pamplona, Spain (class of 2008) will compete in Golf for Spain

(photo credit: Wikipedia)

Erin Gemmell from Stone Ridge Sacred Heart, Bethesda, Maryland (class of 2023) will complete in Swimming (200m freestyle and 4 x 200m freestyle relay) for the USA

(photo credit: Jack Splitser / Splitser photography)

Phoebe Bacon from Stone Ridge Sacred Heart, Bethesda, Maryland (class of 2020) will complete in Swimming (200m backstroke) for the USA

(photo credit: Wikipedia)

Paige Greco from Sacre Coeur Glen Iris, Victoria (class of 2015) will compete in Paralympic Cycling for Australia

(photo credit: Paul Harris)

Mewen Tomac from Lycée Sacre Coeur, Amiens, France (class of 2020) will compete in Swimming (100m and 200m backstroke) for France

(Photo credit: Faugere / L’Equipe)

Annabelle Smith from Sacre Coeur Glen Iris, Victoria (class of 2010) will compete in Diving (3m synchronised) for Australia

(Photo credit: @annabellesmith Instagram)

Beth Yeagar from Sacred Heart Greenwich, Connecticut (class of 2021) will compete in Field Hockey for the USA

(Photo Credit:www.teamusa.com)

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NEWLY ADDED (centre left)

Marie Simon from La Perverie, Nantes, France (class of 2018) will compete in Field Hockey for France.

(photo credit: www.ffhockey.org)

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NEWLY ADDED (above centre)

Blanca Hervas from Sagrado Corazon, Rosales, Madrid (class of 2021) will compete in Athletics (4 x 400m relay) for Spain.

(photo credit: www.worldathletics.org)

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NEWLY ADDED (centre)

Elizabeth Dekker from Duchesne College, University of Brisbane (class of 2022) competing in Swimming (200m butterfly) for Australia

(photo credit: Delly Carr)

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NEWLY ADDED (centre right)

Noe Jouin from La Perverie, Nantes, France (class of 2020) will compete in Field Hockey for France.

(photo credit:www.ffhockey.org)

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We send our congratulations also to Samantha McGill (former Head Girl from Kilgraston Sacred Heart, Scotland) who joins the Team GB support team for Tennis.

Please let us know if we have missed anyone on our Sacred Heart Team sheet  – and consider following our Schools Network Instagram account for schedule updates and results: heart_filled_year

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As part of our 1842 celebrations and in recognition of the Year of Community, schools across our Network raised a phenomenal £12,374.08 for the building of a new Sacred Heart Primary School in Eldoret, Kenya. Schools took part in a range of creative fundraising activities including sponsored walks, bake sales and singing competitions. Their collective efforts will make a huge difference to this exciting project which will provide an education for young children, many who are orphaned and living in poverty on the outskirts of the city of Eldoret. It is hoped that once the school opens, links can be made with primary schools in our network in order to set up some joint student projects.