The Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters in Australia and Fiji are celebrating the 125th jubilee of their congregation, which was founded in Holland by St Arnold Janssen, the founder of the Society of the Divine Word, and established in Australia at the end of World War II.
In preparation for the Jubilee, which will be formally celebrated with a Mass at the Holy Spirit Chapel in Carseldine, Brisbane on December 7, the Sisters have arranged a workshop with Sr Mary John Kudiyiruppil SSpS, from India, to reflect on the congregation’s call to Mission, both in the past and now.
Sr Mary John will lead the workshops in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in September and October, and they will be attended by both SSpS and SVD communities.
“When we gather with the SVDs for our two day workshops in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, we will have a special Mass on the second day to celebrate and give thanks to God for the way God led us during these past 125 years,” says SSpS Provincial, Sr Sarita Kurikattil.
SVD Provincial, Fr Henry Adler, says the Divine Word Missionaries of the AUS Province are looking forward to celebrating the Jubilee with the Sisters.
“We are particularly looking forward to taking part in the Jubilee workshops with Sr Mary John,” he says. “It is always wonderful to be able to come together as the Arnoldus Family and celebrate not only our common heritage, but also our shared call to mission in the world today.”
St Arnold Janssen founded the women’s mission congregation, Servants of the Holy Spirit in the little village of Steyl in Holland on December 8, 1889. He had already opened the first men’s German mission house there in 1875 and founded the Society of the Divine Word.
The co-foundresses, Sr Maria (Helena Stollenwerk) and Sr Josepha (Hendrina Stenmanns) had been through a long and arduous time of waiting for their desire to become missionary sisters to be officially approved. They spent seven years persevering in difficult living and working conditions, before they finally began their religious life. In 1893 the Bishop of Roermond approved their constitutions and on March 12, 1894 the first 12 sisters took their vows.
The first missionary Sisters were sent to Argentina in 1895 and since then, the congregation has grown and spread across the globe. Today, there are 3,500 Sisters, serving in almost 50 countries around the world, living for and with the poor and underprivileged, and oriented towards the mission challenges of a torn and increasingly secular society.
The Sisters’ history in Australia evolved in tragic circumstances, when, in May 1944, 26 Holy Spirit Sisters, survivors of the Japanese prison camps and death ships in Papua New Guinea, arrived in Brisbane. They joined five others who had come earlier, as refugees, after trekking for months across the mountains and valleys of PNG. Fivty-five of their Sisters had died tragically during the WWII years in PNG.
The Archbishop of Brisbane at that time, James Duhig, invited them to stay and open a novitiate house and they set up their first Holy Spirit Convent in Aspley (now Carseldine) Australia.
Over the years, the Sisters have been involved with many ministries here, including: with Aboriginal people; with refugees and migrants; prisoners; pastoral assistants in parishes; hospitals and aged care; youth; Catholic psychiatric pastoral care; with trafficked women; inter-faith; retreats and spirituality ministry.
They currently have communities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Alice Springs, Cairns and Fiji and their community represents 17 different nationalities.
Each year, six younger Sisters, usually from different countries, come to Australia to spend time preparing for their Final Vows. It is a time of enrichment for our province as well as those participating in the program.
To learn more about the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters in Australia and Fiji, visit www.holyspiritsisters.org.au.
PHOTO: Sr Magdalena Leutterova SSpS sharing a meal with friends in Alice Springs.