Sr Siobhán

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	We reprint the following article by kind permission of Helen O’Callaghan and the Universe Newspaper, Sunday October 4th, 2009


	Celebrations in Cork as nurse joins Sisters of Sacred Hearts


		By Helen O’Callaghan

	THE first Irish woman in 40 years to be professed into the order of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary took her final vows in Cork recently. Sr Siobhán O’Keeffe, from Donoughmore in Cork, said joining the order was something she had “desired for a very long time” and explained that her interest in the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary had been sparked both by her aunt – who was a member of the congregation – and by the order’s “very beautiful and powerful mission statement”. Aged 47 and a nurse, the newly-professed sister said she believed there was no such thing as a late vocation. “I think we need to drop this word ‘late’. God’s timing is perfect. We respond when we accept the grace to respond. I’ve known I had a vocation for a very long time. There would have been a lot of faith in my home and a great sense of mission among members of my family,” she said.Sr Siobhán returns to Essex this month, where she is based in the order’s mother house at Chigwell. Speaking about what she described as “a new chapter” in her life involving “a deepening relationship with God and with others”, she said: “I’m in the process of setting up a new support service for families of people with dementia. We’re searching for funding for it at the moment. Our order’s ethos has always been one of social justice.”


	Call answered: Sr Siobhán O’Keeffee shows her new ring to the other members of her order - Sr Elizabeth Dawson (Congregation leader) Sr Lynn Walker, Sr Annie Mary Nally and Sr. Katherine Lehane

Currently, the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary have 16 women in initial formation worldwide, spread across countries such as the Philippines, El Salvador, Uganda and the UK, but Sr Siobhán said she believed many women in Ireland had a vocation to the religious life too. “There are rising numbers joining the male congregations. I have no doubt that the Spirit is moving across the female hemisphere too.
“I firmly believe there are many women in Ireland who are called to religious life. I would encourage these women to pray, reflect, contact congregations and give themselves the freedom to do that inner spiritual work of discernment.”
Adding that her view is that “there’s a place for consecrated religious life in Ireland and in the world”, she said, “otherwise I wouldn’t have joined”.

Speaking at her final profession, Bishop of Cork and Ross John Buckley congratulated Sr Siobhán and the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Blackrock, Cork, on a joyous occasion.
He said the sisters “had adapted their ministry over the years and it was great to see people like Sr Siobhán committing themselves to religious life and to the service of God’s people”.
Bishop Buckley encouraged Sr Siobhán by telling her that her “work as a religious sister should be an overflow of her prayer life”.

Anyone interested in the life of a Sister of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary should contact Sister Una at unashjm@aol.com or visit the order’s website at:
www.sacredheartsjm.org


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