Our Priorities

From the very start, our founder Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat called Religious of the Sacred Heart to respond to the urgent needs of God’s people by demonstrating a contemplative sensitivity and regard for the human dignity of each person through the service of education. Today, in accordance with the Society of the Sacred Heart Constitutions, and the call to discover and reveal God’s love, RSCJ choose to express this mission through a set of four global Apostolic Priorities in response to the needs of the world. 

As we seek ways to revitalize our mission in the world today, to reorganize ourselves to foster collaboration, coordination, and communication for greater impact both locally and globally, we recognize that there are four core components — four portals leading us to the same end: Education, Spirituality, JPIC (Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation) and Formation. These are not arbitrarily named components. Careful reflection indicates that these core elements are different facets of the same reality: they illuminate all our service in the Church.

Education
Education is inherent to the process of humanization and, therefore, is at the heart of our mission to discover and reveal the love of the Heart of Jesus. Education is the process of seeking truth and understanding humanity. Generating learning through experience, encouragement, and mutual discovery, we engage all the members of the community in processes that are inherently relational, dynamic, dialogic and reciprocal. Integral formation encourages the virtues and habits essential to live a fully human life. It includes any process through which learnings are exchanged; experiences are shared; skills, knowledge and attitudes are developed, imparted, acquired — all within the contexts of formal education, popular education, and socio-educational projects. We carry out our work of education across all generations — children, youth and adults.

Spirituality
Our spirituality impels us toward transformation through contemplation of the pierced Heart of Jesus in the fractures and potentiality of our world. The deepening of interiority and the core encounter with Jesus that sensitizes us to his presence in ourselves, in others, in our world — through the contemplative dimension of our life as well as through accompaniment of retreats, spiritual direction, pastoral work, and evangelization. At the same time, we strive to open spaces, in our widely diverse contexts, within which our lay sisters and brothers, our partners in mission, can explore, develop and express their spirituality. This allows us to listen to one another more deeply and to listen for the voice of God speaking through each one.

Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)
In the face of the urgent needs in our world, this focus of passion, hope, and energy impels us to act on our desire to become better informed and educated about the interrelationships among the local, regional, national, and international levels so that we may work more effectively toward structural and systemic change. We search for ways to respond to the four imperatives of our time: dealing with relationships of power; working for transformation and willingness to be transformed; caring for our common home; and welcoming those who seek refuge and hope for a better future. Our steadfast commitment to our world in need of justice, peace, and the integrity of creation, beckons us towards transformative engagement and action, especially in situations of vulnerability. 

 Formation 
“Adapted to the capabilities of each one and directed towards responding to the challenges of the world, formation envisages the development of our spiritual, human and apostolic life.” (Society of the Sacred Heart Constitutions, §72). It is essential that we work together in training ourselves and our mission partners to know and understand the charism of Madeleine Sophie Barat, the spirit of the Society, the contemplative dimension of our educational philosophy and our view that education is transformative. Our hope is to foster spiritual, human growth and apostolic life at every level — in the context of initial and ongoing formation of RSCJ, formation with our lay partners in mission, for the transmission and sustainability of our charism, for leadership and processes of change and transformation.