The former Province of IRS commemorated their transition into the New Province of CEI on two occasions in June.
June 14, 2025
On June 14, 2025, the IRS communities in Dublin and in Edinburgh gathered on Zoom, along with a few lay colleagues. A poster was displayed with photos of each member of the IRS Province, arranged in the heart shape of the Society logo. There was a photo of the oldest sister above the cross and the youngest underneath the cross, and it was captioned: “IRS Thanksgiving. Letting go into our future in CEI.” A beautiful ritual was held in Dublin, which the Scottish sisters followed via Zoom. It was in three parts, linked with the Holy Week Triduum and interwoven with the theme of Courage, Confidence and Transformation.
June 27, 2025
On Friday, June 27, 2025, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, the communities held a festive meal.
From the homily by Tom Casey S.J. for the Mass of the Sacred Heart at which the RSCJ renewed their vows and the associates pledged their commitment:
The town fire had terrified her mother into labour. And Sophie, not expected for two more months, arrived into the world wrapped not in swaddling clothes, but in urgency and in frailty. So fragile that they baptized her only hours later.
Later, when she was just a girl, someone asked her, “Who gave birth to you?” And with a smile both innocent and wise beyond her years, she answered: “Fire.”
There’s a mystery hidden in these words… It was as though Sophie, even as a child, understood that some flames do not burn to consume, but to awaken.
And so, her answer becomes a parable for us. A whisper from the past to remind us: we too are born of fire… Not the fire of earthly catastrophe, but the fire of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of a God who says: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49)…
The Jesuit man of vision, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, once wrote: “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time, humanity will have discovered fire.”
This is that second fire: the holy fire, the fire of the Sacred Heart. A fire carried by each of us, if only we dare to let it burn.
Aideen Kinlen RSCJ
Ireland, Province of CEI
Section |New Provinces
Province |CEI - Central Europe and the Islands|Ireland/Scotland
Our Spirituality |Celebrating the Seasons
Tags |CEI|Feast of the Sacred Heart
