DOES THE VISION OF JULIE BILLIART OFFER A

LIBERATION THEOLOGY IN THE FACE OF

GLOBALISATION?

Margaret Clark SND

Submitted to the University of Wales in partial fulfilment for the

Master of Arts (Globalisation and Liberation theology)

University of Wales, Lampeter2006

CONTENTS

PageSummary 3

I. INTRODUCTION 4Experience 4Liberation theology 5

II. THE STORY OF JULIE AND HER COMMUNITY 61. Context of Julie's Life and the French Revolution 72. Community becoming global 9

III. OUR WORLD AND GLOBALISATION 141. Our World 142. Globalisation 163. Understanding Globalisation 22

IV. HARMONISING JULIE'S INSIGHTS WITH GLOBALISATION

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1. Themes 292. Rapture of Action 373. A response to Globalisation 39

V. CONCLUSION 46

Glossary 47Bibliography 48Appendices 52

A Julie's story/experienceB Millennium Development GoalsC Report of the Notre Dame International J&P MeetingD From Reuters re: Dorothy Stang. SNDEe (English)On the Supernatural Life Ef (French)De la Vie Surnaturelle.

536162636466

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Abstract/summary

Under the aegis of St Julie Billiart, this dissertation explores the theological interface between traditional religious activity and political action in the context of globalisation. The dynamic of the text attempts to mirror the spherical praxis-reflection-praxis process of liberation theology. Julie’s reflections are scrutinised for their relevance to the problems of the contemporary world.

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Does the vision of Julie Billiart offer a Liberation Theology in the face of globalisation?

I. INTRODUCTIONPersonal experience led me to this study and to the topic of this paper. The experience can be illustrated by two episodes in my own life at the end of the last century when I was living in Brussels.

ExperienceWhen Pope John Paul II broke his leg and was unable to visit Belgium to canonise Père Damien, a woman from the mid-USA was staying with me. She was Sr. Mary Damien who had been given a trip to Europe for that canonisation as a gift for her golden Jubilee. She was a sister of Notre Dame of Coesfeld and had requested hospitality from me (whom she did not know) because I am a sister of Notre Dame de Namur (hereafter SND). Both our congregations look to St Julie Billiart as our foundress. When Damien's canonisation did not happen, I invited her to join our Namur community on a pilgrimage to Cuvilly the birthplace of Julie1, for Saint Julie's feast day. We travelled into France by coach with our sisters praying and singing hymns to celebrate the feast of our foundress. Arriving at Cuvilly, we joined local disabled people2 in the parish church to celebrate Eucharist for the feast. There we were joined by other SNDs, of Namur and Coesfeld, some of the latter having cycled from Germany for their pilgrimage. After the mass, we walked through the two-street village to the house in which Julie had been born and lived, stopping on the way while the local Mayor renamed one of the streets for Julie. Then we explored Julie's house, all two rooms of it, and the fields in which she had given catechetical instruction to village children in her young days. We were given refreshments by people from the village and then returned to Namur, the motherhouse of the SNDs. It was a most enjoyable, devout, old-fashioned type of religious pilgrimage.At about the same time, an invitation came to the office where I worked asking me to visit and talk with a representative of the Economic Directorate General of the European Union. The request came from the chief negotiator for the EU (European Union) at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) about the introduction of the MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment) in that forum. The request came to us because our network was lobbying throughout world to protest against the MAI being included in the regulations of the OECD. We judged that the MAI would be an instrument that benefited affluent companies from the developed world to the detriment of the people with whom we were concerned, those attempting to live well in the poorer regions of Africa. A Belgian priest co-worker and I discussed with two members, English and Portuguese, of the EU's negotiating team at the OECD the reasons why they should drop the MAI. This was not a religious experience, though the politicians seemed bemused by us 'religious' people who were engaged in political lobbying to change economic rule making.These two experiences may seem to have nothing in common but in fact both are direct responses to my commitment as a SND, living in a religious congregation and working in a political lobbying network concerned with justice and freedom for the people of Africa in the face of globalisation. There is no incompatibility between these two experiences and this paper will

1Notes? in the dissertation, I will refer to St Julie Billiart simply as 'Julie' for three reasons:

as an SND I consider myself a 'sister' of Julie and the more formal appellation seems inappropriate the use of a patronymic is a minor pillar of the patriarchy of our society which I do not want to supportuse of a person's first name encourages an easier, more life-giving relationship.

2 St Julie is a particular patron saint for people with handicap in the locality.1

explore what harmonises them. It was to explore such coherence between religious and political activity that I engaged in the MA Liberation Theology and Globalisation. That study has confirmed my surmise that for me and members of my congregation the integration has to do with how Julie encourages us to know God. The theology and spirituality of Julie may be of help to others facing globalisation especially because of the context3 from the perspective of liberation theology..

Liberation TheologyThough liberation theology has its roots in Latin America it has spread world-wide and evolved into various forms. The commonality is that such theology is contextual, concerned with orthopraxis more than orthodoxy, political in the analysis of its context4 and concerned with liberating people. For the purpose of this paper, the context is the globe and the praxis is action on the side of those who are impoverished5 (in the political sphere because of analysis of the impoverishment). The work for which Julie started her congregation and which has continued through her sisters has been in education of poor girls, so the 'praxis' of the sisters has been normally a work of liberation through education. In addition, one of the evolutions of Liberation Theology has been into feminist theology6. For my purpose this is an entirely appropriate viewpoint for women who were on a pilgrimage to the birth-place of St Julie. It is also important because of an analysis suggesting patriarchy as one of the oppressive strands of the action of the EU. That, more than a coherent systematic concept, Liberation Theology is a process where praxis7 is essential betrays its belief that God is really present in the history of the world. (See below for Julie's beliefs)Liberation Theology starts with the real experience of people struggling for liberation then moves through an analysis of the situation in which they find themselves and opens up a theological reflection on that experience. The conclusion is in further action for justice, which leads to a renewed experience, thus restarting the process. (Often called the 'pastoral cycle'8)This dissertation will follow the same process. It will look at the experience of Julie in the world as it was for her, of the growing community she started, and of our world today. There will be attempts to analyse these experiences. Then it will look at Julie's reflections in the light of current theology, obviously Julie lived before there was a 'liberation theology', but I want to read her in that light. There will be no attempt to conflate dissonances between the experiences and responses of Julie and those of today and the dissonance will be mirrored in the writing here about Julie and our world. I am looking for a harmonisation that could provide an impetus to fruitful action

3 Julie was in practice working through education for the liberation of poor girls in the aftermath of the French Revolution.4 See What Is Contextual Theology from the Institute for Contextual Theology, PO Box 322047, Braamfontein 2017, South Africa. and Linden Liberation Theology, coming of Age? (London: CIIR, 2000) p.21 ff.5 A stance which today would be called an 'option for the poor', but using the word impoverished to indicate that poverty does not just happened but is caused.6 See Mary Grey, 'Feminist theology: a critical theology of liberation', in Rowland, Christopher (ed.); The Cambridge Companion to Liberation Theology, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press ,1999) pp.89-106.7 Praxis: 'the action and practice of the poor in seeking their liberation from every kind of oppression' in Ian Linden, Liberation Theology coming of age, (London: CIIR, 2000), P5.8 Julie's mode of operating was similar to this - action/reflection.

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II. THE STORY OF JULIE AND HER COMMUNITYIn attempting to follow the dynamic of the process of liberation theology, and believing God is to be found in history, I will start with a synopsis of Julie's story and its context in the French Revolution (a fuller outline may be found in Appendix A). This will be extended to the story of the Institute becoming global before moving on to looking at the world today.

Early yearsJulie was born, 1751, in a small village in Picardy. There she attended the local school and benefited from the presence of a highly educated and spiritual parish priest. At a young age she started giving lessons to children in the fields around. The lessons continued after she was confined to bed with a nervous disease following a violent attack on her father, as did visits from some of the aristocratic ladies of the neighbourhood who came to her bedside, for prayer and conversation9.

First impact of the French RevolutionWhen, in 1790, the National Assembly demanded from all clergy an oath of submission to civil authority. Julie's parish priest was replaced by a priest who submitted to the legislation. She herself refused to have anything to do with the new priest and encouraged other local people to reject him. Because of this the revolutionaries started to pursue her and she had to flee, eventually to Compiègne where she changed her lodging five times even though still paralysed and unable to walk or talk. (In this period tradition says Julie had a vision of the Institute she would found, and of the women who would join her in it). She eventually found refuge in Amiens, in the house of the Blin de Bourdons.

Julie's friend, Françoise Blin de BourdonThe Blin de Bourdons were aristocrats who, on their release from facing the guillotine, together with their daughter Françoise, moved to their house in Amiens. It was here Julie found relative safety and eventually Françoise looked to Julie for spiritual direction and they became friends.They moved out of Amiens to escape increased harassment after the coup of 1797 and in Bettencourt, taught the women and children.It was here, in Bettencourt, that Julie first met Père Varin the superior of the Fathers of the Faith which was formed to keep alive the Jesuits when the latter were proscribed.

Salvation prepared for all nations 10 They continued teaching when they returned to Amiens in 1803 and P. Varin instructed Julie to found a religious teaching Institute. So on Feb 2nd 1803, Julie, Françoise and Catherine renewed their vows and dedicated themselves to the Christian education of girls and the training of teachers. For Julie and Françoise, it would always be poor girls and they refused to allow payment for schooling11. Tradition in the Institute says that, on this day, Julie had an inspiration from God that 'her daughters should one day carry the message of the Gospel to the nations sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death'12. The following year Julie was cured of her illness, recovering her speech and the ability to walk. Amiens welcomed a new bishop, Demandolx, who the next year approved their first Constitution and Julie became the first Superior General.

9 In To Heaven on Foot, p. 8 Sr. Mary Linscott suggests that even at the age of 15yrs 'It was partly her goodness, partly her urgency, partly her vivacity and her sheer joy in telling a story that captivated her listeners, but her charm was irresistible'.10 Lk. 2:32 Jerusalem Bible, from Gospel for feast of Feb 2nd11 It is fascinating that, even with her friendship with the aristocrats, Julie still opted for the poor, one wonders whether this came from her rootedness in scripture.12 De Chantal, F. Julie Billiart and her Institute, (London, Longmans, Green and Co Ltd.1938) p. 40.

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By 1806, the number in the new Institute had risen to eighteen sisters, and they had received provisional recognition by the State

Consolidating to NamurAlso in 1806, Julie met the bishop of Ghent, Mgr de Broglie, and took her first step outside the diocese of Amiens and France. This dispersion from Amiens was confirmed and expanded the following year, 1807, when Julie responded positively to the request of Bishop Pisani de la Gaude for a convent and school in his diocese of Namur.For her remaining years in Amiens, Julie and her sisters had to contend with attempts to both modify her vision of an Institute where sisters would be free to go anywhere in the world there was need, and with the attempts to remove her authority and liberty as Superior General. By 1809, she and her sisters were expelled from the Amiens diocese and found refuge in Namur. Even after this she had to continue the struggle for financial autonomy. It was only after 1813 that the bishop of Amiens wrote a formal vindication of Julie, recognising her as the superior general of the Sisters of Notre Dame.

Last years and expansionIn the final four years of her life, Julie continued visiting houses of the congregation and founding new ones. By her death in April 1816 Julie, with her friend Françoise, had started twentlyeight convents and schools for poor girls13 in France and in what later became Belgium. During the latter part of Julie's life she wrote many letters. From those, we get indications of the way her mind was working at the time. What we get little of, is the socio-political-economic and religious situation in which she was living. It is to that we now turn for a very brief overview. (Of great help here is an unpublished paper14 by one of the historians in the institute today)

1. Context of Julie's Life and the French RevolutionSocio-economic

Most of Julie's active years were lived during the French Revolution and the subsequent regime of Napoleon. For our purposes, it is perhaps just as important that her early years were spent at home, working with her father who was a small landowner and a draper. The land in Picardy is good but, in Julie's time, there was discontent because of the prevalent sharecropping system. There were frequent famines and when, in 1797, there was a year of famine throughout France15 about a third of Amiens population was made indigent. The industrial revolution was just beginning in France with expansion of the textile industry with major centres such as Beauvais and Amiens. In Belgium, where Julie moved, the spinning jenny was introduced in 180116 and mechanisation of cloth production was begun in Ghent. At that time, Belgium was occupied by France and so came under Napoleon's Continental System which banned trade with England. In the textile industry there would have been positive and negative consequences for those with whom the fledgling Institute was working17. In Namur too, they would have been aware of this trade regime as the Walloon steel and machinery industry had to

13 Linscott, Sr. Mary SND, Quiet Revolution,( Glasgow, Burns, 1966) p. 43.14 Hayes, Mary, The Life And Times Of Saint Julie Billiart, unpublished paper in the Archives of the British Province of ND, 1987.15 Jones, Derek and Gardiner, Juliet (eds.) The French Revolution, London, Channel 4 TV, 1984.16 see http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/lowcountries/belgnap.html17 see http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/lowcountries/belgnap.html 'The Continental System then protected the Belgian textile industry against English imports. It also interrupted the import of overseas raw materials such as American cotton, thus impacting the Flemish cotton industry.'

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compensate for lack of imports from England18. For the poor with whom Julie was concerned, the lack of legislation in this economic sphere19 could only have exacerbated their plight.

Political and ReligiousMore directly impacting on Julie was the Act of the Civil Constitution of the clergy which eventually necessitated her fleeing from her home and subsequent legislation kept her on the move. Even when she reached Namur her friendship with the bishop there caused her problems when he escaped internment for supporting the rights of the church in opposition to Napoleon's decrees. Political activities against the church in these years not only made a difference to Julie's life; they also made a difference to the church she knew, devaluing the authority of the priests20 and increasing lay activity21 especially that of women. The power of women in the church increased22. At the same time more women began working in the church23 and more women's religious congregations were started24.

EducationIt was not just in the church that the Revolution provided space. In society it provided space for education when the previous provider, the church, was destroyed. Room was made for a new approach, of which Julie and Françoise took advantage.

Time of turmoilJulie's last year in Namur was the year that Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo and advancing and retreating armies moved through the town where the SNDs lived. Even so, Julie kept visiting her sisters, to assure herself of their safety,Even the final place where Julie became established did not gain a measure of independent existence until the end of her life. It was only in 1814, due to the insistence of the British denying the port of Antwerp to the French25 that the country was united with Holland to become part of the United Netherlands26.There was nothing stable about the time when Julie started the institute and there was a burgeoning awareness of the smallness of the global community (for example, the possibility of deportation, in the case of non-juring priests, to French Guyana.27)

18 http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/lowcountries/belgnap.html19 van Kalken, Frans, Histoire de Belgique, (Bruxelles, Office de Publicité, 1956) p. 504. '(up to 1814) le Régime de la liberté économique illimitée prive le prolétariat industriel de tout protection légal. Par suite de l'abondance de la main d'œuvre, les salaire sont très bas. Femmes et enfants exécutent un travail exténuant dans les filatures et dans les mine…. Le droit de coalition est interdit aux ouvres; ils ne peuvent former de syndicats ne se mettre en grève.'20 Tallet, p. 19. 'The Revolution not only deprived it (the laity) of a priesthood, but also devalued the authority of the priests. Confronted by the oath to the Civil Constitution, the clergy revealed itself to be divided and in disarray.'21 Tallet, p. 15. 'The absence of a clerical hierarchy during the 1790s, and in particular the virtual elimination of a priesthood in the year II (1793-4) generated a need, and made room for, much greater lay activity in religious matters. Insofar as religious instruction of the young was carried on in 1793-4 and subsequently it was done in the home.'22 Mills, Hazel, 'Negotiating the Divide: Women, Philanthropy and the 'Public Sphere' in Nineteenth-Century France' in Tallet, Frank and Atkin, Nichols (eds.), Religion and politics in France since 1789, (London, Hambledon Press, 1991). P. 41. '(the)Revolution of 1789-99, which in its most radical phase pursued a policy of de-Christianization… met enormous resistance in provincial France, it had been women above all, certainly from 1796 onwards who had queued outside boarded up churches… and run clandestine masses and religious ceremonies.'23 Mills, p. 44. 'On the eve of the French Revolution the male personnel of the church outnumbered the female by at least two to one, across the nineteenth century that sexual disparity in vocation was reversed.'24 Tallet, p. 23. 'One sign of this is the number of women's religious congregations that were started after the revolution - 400 between 1800 and 1880 with 250,000 women joining them.'25 Palmer, Alan, Encyclopaedia of Napoleon's Europe, (London, Weindenfeld and Nicholson, 1984.) 'Belgium1813-14 Peace negotiations : Napoleon insisted that Belgium would have to remain French, Castlereagh, for Britain, consistently rejected any peace terms which would have left Antwerp a French port.'26 Palmer, Encyclopaedia of Napoleon's Europe, Belgium: 1814, the June 21 protocol provided for the union of Belgium and Holland in a Kingdom of the United Netherlands.27 Tallet, p. 10.

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Though Julie makes little reference to the major changes taking place round her, one can still sense her awareness of those living in that epoch. These would have remained in the 'acquis'28 of the congregation as sisters followed her and were deliberately formed in her spirit. When we consider globalisation today, there will certainly be echoes of some of the themes here and it will be interesting to find if there is any echo possible in present day responses - from the way Julie responded.

2. Community becoming globalAfter Julie's death, Françoise became Superior General of the Institute, but it was with her successor, Mère Ignace, that Julie's vision of the world-wide nature of her mission started to be realised. In 1840, eight sisters sailed from Antwerp to found a convent and educate girls in the (then) Frontier State of Ohio in North America. In the founding of the congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame (SND), the formulation of Constitutions for that congregation assumes a large role in the struggles Julie had to face. The Constitutions governed the life of the sisters in community (members of the congregation were all known as 'sister'29) and many took a new name when they entered (joined). After the struggle to get them right, the constitutions were able to provide an energy in the subsequent expansion of the congregation into different continents and countries.It was during the Generalate of Julie's friend, Françoise, by then named Mère St Joseph, that the Constitutions for the congregation were finalised, in 1818, and consolidated its work in, what became in 1830, Belgium. From the beginning the activity of the sisters was the education of poor girls. This is what they took to be their 'mission', their specific response to imperatives in the gospel.

Cousin congregationsThe work of the sisters in Belgium went so well that a Jesuit priest in Holland wanted to emulate it. At his instigation, six young women from Holland went to Belgium. Starting in a Flemish speaking community until they were familiar with French, they went to the community of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Namur. From 1819, they with others who came later, remained there in training until 1824. When they returned to Holland, they started a new congregation of Sisters of Notre Dame in Amersfort. Twenty-five years later, in 1850, an invitation came to them from Westphalia in Germany. Women there wanted training similar to theirs. Some of the Amersfort sisters went and another congregation looking to Julie for its inspiration was formed - the Coesfeld Sisters of Notre Dame30. These two autonomous congregations31 expanded across the world independently of the SNDs of Namur.

Requests from overseasWhen Mère St Joseph wanted to send sisters to America, in 1824, political difficulties meant she had to abandon the idea for the time32.Under William of Orange, there were also political difficulties concerning the autonomy of schools from State control. Mère St Joseph negotiated these so successfully that Sisters of Notre Dame became ubiquitous throughout Belgium.Apart from the expansion into different congregations in Holland and Germany, the sisters moved out from Belgium and France for the first time in 1840. It was then that the bishop of Cincinnati

28 Used as untranslatable in English texts of the EU. © 1996 Larousse. Computer software copyright © 1996 INSO Corporation. Acquis, 1. knowledge, 2. experience, 3. established privileges, rights to which one is entitled. 29 Except for the Superior General who was called Mère (mother).30 The congregation to which my friend Sr. Mary Damian belongs.31 The three characterise themselves as 'cousin' congregations.32 De Chantal, p. 207.

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in the USA just happened33 to be visiting a friend in Belgium and addressed a retreat of sisters in Namur. After this one sister volunteered for service in Cincinnati. Eight years later, eight sisters left Namur and sailed from Antwerp for the US intending to learn English on the journey. At that time, Ohio was a frontier state, and when the sisters went it was one of the most western settled points of North America34. They continued their mission as they had been trained in Namur but in ways appropriate to their new situation. By the mid 1840s the industrial conditions in Belgium led the then Mother General35 to respond by widening the congregation's educational work to include social work, vocational schools and classes for the mining children36. The economic condition in which the people were living called for a modification of the original curriculum. This was consonant with the original vision, that it was peoples' needs that were important.The quality of the SNDs work in Belgium became more widely known, and led to a request in 1843 from a Belgian priest for sisters to work in a Mission in Oregon.Six sisters volunteered and sailed for the West Coast of North America, via Cape Horn. Though communication with Namur was difficult, seven more sisters soon joined them. No matter where the sisters went, or the difficulties of communication, it was always important for those dispersed from the Generalate to be continually in touch with the sisters in the Mother House. Five years after they arrived in Oregon, gold was discovered in California and the population moved south. The sisters followed.A further request in 1845 sent six sisters to Britain. They went with the same wealth of experience from their time in Namur. Although they first responded to a specific request to teach on the coast of rural Cornwall, they soon moved to the more industrial heartlands, especially to London and the Northwest.By the time a another request came (1849), from a priest in Boston (USA), it was to establish a school for young girls in his poor parish because 'no one speaks for girls'. It was becoming clear to others that this was the speciality of SNDs 37: education of poor girls.A further sign of early orientation came with implementation of one of the original goals of Julie, with the establishment of two teacher-training colleges in Belgium (French and Flemish). The training of teachers was important to ensure the quality of the work of the sisters. By extending the training outside the congregation, implementation of the vision of Julie widened. Nine years later, in 1859, at the request of the Catholic Poor School Committee in England, Notre Dame accepted responsibility for a teacher training college. This was the first Teacher Training College for Catholic women in Britain38.By the 1850s the congregation was extending geographically. From Cincinnati, some sisters went to Boston and others to Philadelphia. (In the light of our concern with the diversities of globalisation, this latter 'foundation' is fascinating, in being composed of five sisters: Belgian, French, Irish, Dutch, and American39). The sisters on the US West Coast were asked for an establishment in Guatemala City. Seven sisters went and remained for fifteen years, after which fortytwo returned to California40. Some time later, the congregation in England extended to Scotland.

Women at work together globally33 Françoise probably wondered whether God's providence was at work.34 Linscott, Quiet Revolution, p. 60.35 Mère Constantine.36 Linscott, Quiet Revolution, p. 58.37 www.sndden.org Ohio.38 Linscott, Quiet Revolution, p.110.39 De Chantal, p. 210.40 De Chantal, p. 220.

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With this increasing number of 'outposts', the Mother General in 187541 encouraged help from successful foundations in one country to learners in another42. The global reach of the congregation was held together by these exchanges and by written communications, no matter how difficult the ‘post’. In addition, the shared Constitutions and common training received at Namur provided a unifying forceBy the end of the eighties, European countries were spreading their influence across colonies round the world. In 1894, Belgian SNDs travelled to start ministry in what was then the Belgian Congo. In 1860, Rhodes formed the British South African Company, and concluded a treaty with Lobengula. Thirty nine years later, British SNDs trekked to Empandeni (in what is now Zimbabwe) and, despite the Boer war and severance of communication set up a school for coloured girls on land given by Lobengula to Jesuits on mission there43. For the sisters, their mission was to respond to the needs of the people to whom they were sent. It is true, however, that by so doing; they became complicit in the exploitative colonising project of the European imperial powers.Europeans were still moving en masse to North America and the SNDs in eastern USA provided free education for thousands of poor immigrant children. The tradition of establishing academies and boarding schools also thrived. The culmination of these successes was the establishment of Trinity College in Washington, DC in 1897 44. A few years later, at the invitation of Cardinal Gibbon, this was affiliated to the Catholic University of Washington so that Catholic women from anywhere in the USA would have a place to go where they could study for a degree45. In 1900 at the invitation of the Mother General in Namur, two sisters were sent from the USA to Belgium and England to study educational methods and prepare themselves to form the nucleus of the faculty in Trinity46.In a talk47 given to the British SND province, in 1994, Susan O'Brien suggested that in this period, along with other similar congregations,

The sisters operated in the 'public sphere (which was normally seen as a male prerogative), but they did so without political consciousness

At the beginning of the twentieth century, 1906, Julie was beatified in the Roman Catholic Church. More than an honour for Julie, this serves to indicate that the universal church sees Julie as an inspiration/example for the entire people of God.By 1907, the then Mother General48 made the first visit from Namur to the foundations in America, returning via Britain. Her successor49 continued this work of ensuring the unity of the congregation by visits, from and to Namur, and by a quarterly report shared among all the schools in Britain and America. (One wonders how she managed this at the time of the First World War). While supporting the sisters in different parts of the world, these visits will have ensured that the sisters knew themselves as belonging to a congregation with a more global reach than their daily experience might suggest. The revision of Canon Law in 1918 reinforced this global awareness, by opening the door to General Chapters. By 1922, the Chapter included representatives from the different Provinces 41 Mère Aloysie.42 Linscott, Quiet Revolution, p. 63.43 De Chantal, p. 242.44 www.sndden.org Ohio.45 De Chantal, p. 213.46 De Chantal, p. 214.47

O'Brien, Susan, Women religious: Historical Past - future Perspective, An unpublished paper given to the British Province Assembly of the Sisters of Notre Dame, August 1994. 'First phase: 1800 - 1914, women religious operated in the 'public sphere(which was normally seen as a male prerogative), but they did so without political consciousness and without taking a public or political position.'48 Mère Marie Aloyse (1907-1912).49 Mère Maria Julienne (1912 - 1834).

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where the sisters were living and ministering. The 'Provinces' were local groups of sisters living and working in similar situations who organised themselves for their mission in that locality.The Chapters thus brought together women with a shared vision from different nations. Their formation too was something they had in common. Despite the fact that all the formation was no longer totally centred in Namur, the process was the same wherever the sisters were formed. In their work too, although what they actually did might differ in its practice, they knew they were engaged in the same task. The Chapters were more than international meetings of women; they were meetings of women from different places on the globe, who knew themselves as sisters.The work of teachers training also continued to expand with the inauguration of Emmanuel College in Boston (USA)50 and the mission from Waltham Mass. to Japan, in 1924, where SNDs eventually worked in Sophia University. The mission to China from California in 1929 was not as successful, and the SNDs, with some Chinese sisters, had to return to the USA after the revolution there. Some American sisters also managed to return to the USA from Japan, during the Second World War. Others were interned in Japan, while the Japanese sisters kept the schools open. By 1950, the school in Hiroshima was rebuilt, after the destruction by the Hydrogen Bomb. Sisters from Hiroshima, like other people from that devastated city, are eager to share their experience in the hope that never again will nuclear weapons be used anywhere in the world.It took till 1930 for the sisters to establish a foundation in Rome, and, only in 1951, the eve of the Vatican II Council did it become the Generalate51. This was to locate the leadership of the congregation in a more international location than Namur. Not only was the location international, the composition of the community was explicitly international, with women from round the world living, working and praying together.Alongside the move to Rome foundations were made in Nigeria, from Britain, and in Brazil, from provinces in the USA

Impact of Church renewalThe Second Vatican Council (1963-65) (VAT II) made an immense difference to the congregation. The first non-Belgian Mother General elected52 from USA tried to

move (it, the congregation) to greater international awareness. Hold a balance between necessary centralisation and local initiative: (have) consultations of congregation as a whole as a democratic procedure, more frequent exchanges of personnel, periodic meetings of higher superiors.53

The ‘international experience’ was supplemented with their specific way of coming together.At the end of the Council, a group of SNDs from the US went to Kenya. Not long later, British SNDs went to Peru on mission and an international (British and American) group went temporarily to Nicaragua during the revolution to be alongside the people and learn from them.VAT II mandated all religious congregations to return to their origins and renew their response to their founding charism. For the SNDs this led to experimentation in different ways of responding to the needs of the people among whom they were on mission. Some sisters moved out of schools into different forms of education both formal and informal. Others continued the 1840 move to social work and basic health care. The move to informal development education was particularly significant and perduring. One of the American sisters who went to Kenya was involved at the beginning of the Development Education Programme54 (DEP) there. With its integration of liberation theology (especially social analysis), Paolo Freire's approach (through literacy), human relations and organisational training, 50 1919, see Linscott, Quiet Revolution, p. 176.51 The Leadership centre of the congregation. The 'home' community, the Mother House, remains Namur.52 Loretta Julia.53 Linscott, Quiet Revolution, p.72.

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together with the Christian concept of transformation, it was successful enough for its initial phase to be shut down by political and church authorities. Its continuing success and global spread drew in other SNDs particularly in Nigeria where they worked with an indigenised form of the programme. SNDs in other countries also drew on ideas from the DEP, like a UK SND promoting the use of social analysis in the training of pastoral leaders in Scotland The methodology and inspiration of these programmes has implicitly spread through the congregation.Part of the experimentation was the appointment of a sister to work for Justice and Peace at international level for the congregation, which has continued in various forms to the present. This opened the door to sisters working in organisations with a global reach, for aims that were global, and overtly political55. One instance is the presence of an SND on the International Council of Pax Christi for some years (I wonder how much the congregation's experience in Hiroshima was important there?). It also led, more directly, to the presence of members of the leadership of the congregation in groups with other religious congregations who wanted to work for more justice globally. This resulted in organisations formed to lobby governments and international bodies. Individual SNDs then worked for the organisations and started to lobby for change in policy of the US and the EU. More recently, it has resulted in the presence of the congregation as an accredited NGO to the UN. This is a long way from Julie's original idea of sisters in twos going round Picardy teaching the children. The evolution comes from the changing response to a changing world. It is to this changing world that I now turn.

54 See: Hope, Anne, and Timmel, Sally, Training for Transformation, (Gweru, Mambo Press, 1986) Crowley, Jerry, Go to the People, (London, CAFOD, 1988).55 This was a massive change from the situation in the 19th century described by Susan O'Brien.

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III. OUR WORLD AND GLOBALISATION Julie lived in a world of upheaval because of the French Revolution and Napoleon with his wars. Her sisters today also find themselves in a confusing period of transition. The world is moving from a post-colonial, post-industrialist one to one becoming characterised as 'globalised' or 'globalising'. It is the dimensions of this characterisation that will be examined here. But first I will attempt a description of our world. It is also as well to point out that the 'actors' in the world have changed from the kings and merchants of Julie's time who were concerned with territory to (fairly) democratic nation states and transnational corporations in the frame of the economy and market56 and the International Organisations. More recently, the 'actors' have come to include Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)

1. Our worldIn describing the present world, one could look at economic trends or the state of the organic or material environment or the increasing prevalence of violent conflict and terrorism. While all these are important, I want to consider first what is happening to ordinary people and then look at the 'globalisation' description.

Good news Among the many statistics trying to describe the state of the world now, the HDI57 (Human Development Index) from the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) provides the most 'person' centred picture. The Index itself is a composite measure of life expectancy, education and income per person58; it is a summary measure of three dimensions of human development - 'living a long and healthy life, being educated and having a decent standard of living'59.In the HDI Report 2003 it is noted that countries from all six continents have registered major gains since 199060. Over the past thirty years life expectancy in the developing world increased by eight years61; illiteracy was cut nearly in half to 25% and the number of hungry people fell by nearly 20 million in the 1990s62. In addition over the past forty years, the number of children who died before reaching their fifth birthday has been halved63 and over the past twenty years the number of those who go to primary school has gone from eight out of ten to nine out of ten64. Since 1975 the number of people with access to basic sanitation has doubled65.When one assesses economically, one can see similar improvements. In East Asia the number of people surviving on less than $1 a day was almost halved in the 199066. Even though the world's population has risen by two billion in just thirty years and many hundreds of millions, particularly in Africa, remain poor, their numbers are falling67. During the 1990s the share of people suffering from extreme income poverty fell from 30% to 23%68.

56 Linden, Ian, A New Map of the World, (London, Darton, Longman and Todd, 2003) p. (x).57 2003 Human Development Index Reveals Development Crisis http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/pdf/presskit/HDR03_PR4E.pdf58 HDI 2003.59 HDI 2003 .60 HDI 2003. 61 HDI 2003. 62 HDI 2003. ( excluding China, the number of hungry people increased)63 Wroe, Martin and Doney, Malcolm, The Rough Guide to a Better World, (London, DIFD and Rough Guides, 2003)and at: http://www.roughguide-betterworld.com/index.htm64 Wroe and Doney.65 Wroe and Doney.66 Overview of Human Development Report (HDR) 2003 at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/pdf/hdr03_overview.pdf67 Wroe and Doney.68 Overview, HDR 2003.

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Bad news Looking at the 'rosy' picture, the possibilities69 are obvious and apparently possible. But even with the improvements noted above, in twentyone countries there has been a decline in the HDI70 and the number of extremely poor people has actually increased by 28 million71. The problem is realising the possibilities. Making this explicit is the action of the UN at the turn of the Millennium72 in agreeing the MDG (Millennium Development Goals, see Appendix B) for accomplishment by 2015. The pledges show where the hopes for people in our world are clearly not realised. See table in appendixEven with such promises, the concerted action that is necessary is not forthcoming, and, in some areas, things are getting worse. In Africa, for example, there is deterioration in relation to HIV/AIDS and poverty73 and, at present trends, it will take 150 years more than that 'pledged' to reduce child mortality by two-thirds74.

Increasing inequityDisconcertingly, the non-rosy picture of the world is not static. The movement is of the rich getting richer and the poor poorer75. It is in no way equitable. The richer seem able to capture more of the resources oriented to achieving some of the MDGs76. When there is movement toward these goals

Women, rural inhabitants, ethnic minorities and other poor people are typically progressing slower than national averages - or showing no progress - even where countries as a whole are moving towards the Goals77.

It looks as if it is mainly white men who benefit.The problems are exacerbated, if not caused by the way trade is organised between nations and blocs. It is not only white men who reap the most benefit, cows do well too. Because of permitted subsidies in the EU, European cows get more a day ($2.5) than the 3 billion people who live on less than two dollars a day. Even with the improvements to life over the past 40 years, there is still a difference between those in the rich north and those people in the south of the globe. While in Britain, men can expect to live to 75 and women to 79, in the poorer countries the average is 64 years for life expectancy (a rise of 18 years since 1950, but still not 'catching up')78. There is clearly inequity in the world. It resides also within the richer countries, with the HDI demonstrating that even within middle or high income countries, inequity persists79.

69 Overview, HDR 2003.00 'Today ’s world has greater resources and know-how than ever before to tackle the challenges of infectious disease, low productivity, lack of clean energy and transport and lack of basic services such as clean water, sanitation, schools and health care. The issue is how best to apply these resources and know-how to benefit the poorest people.'70 Overview, HDR 2003. 'The Report’s annual Human Development Index (HDI) (The Index is a composite measure of life-expectancy, education and income per-person. ?) , measuring the progress of nations on key social and economic indicators, shows that 21 countries experienced declines in the 1990s. In the 1980s, only four countries tracked by UNDP showed similar decade-long declines.' 71 Overview, HDR 2003.72 Overview, HDR 2003.73 Overview, HDR 2003.74 Overview, HDR 200375 Linden, A New Map of the World, P 87-88, 'The problem, indeed a defining feature of the global economy, is this gross inequality between the top and bottom percentiles of world society. The gap is growing …during the recent wave of globalisation the more egalitarian 'middle' had not held; the 'middle' is being eroded as more people move into the poorest or richest 20% of society.'76 Overview, HDR 2003. 'In most poor countries the provision of basic education is highly inequitable, with the poorest 20%of people receiving much less than 20% of public spending —while the richest 20% capture much more.'77 Overview, HDR 2003.78 Wroe and Doney.79 HDI 200 p.3.

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In addition to these more obviously disconcerting images of the world now, there is the increasing awareness of humanities effect on the environment, and its implications for the future80. A major threat to food for humanity is climate change and the loss of biodiversity, and the consequent fear of new diseases. A prominent contributor to this threat is the extensive use of oil. Such heavy dependence on oil can result in conflicts and human rights violations as well as the contribution use of oil makes to climate change.With such change in climate, the range of diseases is widening into areas where there is no natural immunity and new diseases are irrupting. In the forefront is that of HIV/AIDs, which has become a major killer of sexually active young people (an estimated 34 to 46 million people are infected)This is of serious concern if we look to the future. Even without HIV, the future is problematic for young people when more than 200 million of them world-wide are either jobless or do not earn enough to support a family81.

2. GlobalisationSome of the above would have been familiar to Julie: the prevalence of disease, lack of food, conflict. Similarities are there, but today we are in a different state of affairs, often described as a state of globalisation. I will look later at various ways of defining this state, but initially, I suggest globalisation as being a different way of imagining the world, if not a different set of imaginary images82. I cannot think Julie would have been able to imagine the world as we can, the image of our whole world, from space. The beauty is astounding, as is its unity. That unity becomes real for us in the connections we have around the world. Each person is, or could, be connected with every other person in the world today83. The connection may be through personal encounter, through media, by exchange of goods, or in shared enterprise. There is no isolated locality. Such connections may be mutually beneficial, or they may be exploitative. The connections go wider than individuals, linking countries and companies, communities and groups and for all engendering a process of mutual modification84. (Connections like this have not been unfamiliar to the SNDs, at least within their own congregation.)The relationships engendered through these connections mean that the present situation is one of transition as modifications arise from relationships between widespread localities, and from the interaction of the local with the global. The world could be considered to be in an horizon zone between the industrial age and that of an information/economy network85. 80 State of the World 2005, - Press Release, Worldwatch Institute News,January 12, 2005 at http://www.worldwatch.org/press/news/2005/01/12/81 Worldwatch.82 Burbules, and Torres, (eds.) p. 222: 'There has been a shift in recent decades, building upon technological changes over the past century or so, in which imagination has become a collective social fact. This development, in turn, is the basis of the plurality of imagined worlds.'83 Wroe and Doney: 'There is something else that is changing too – the size of the planet. Each one of us, every day, is connected to people we will never meet, who live in places we will never visit. With each trip to the supermarket or bank, each sip of coffee or tea, a connection is made.'84 Mohan, John Razu, I., The Symbiosis Between Poverty and Globalization: A Need for a Critique from Political Ethics at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1108'Globalization is a process of rearrangement of the production, labor, capital and the world’s resources between people and countries. Globalization has also integrated the scattered and dispensed activities. In this process there are beneficiaries as well as victims. Some countries as a whole would benefit and the others lose. In the ultimate analysis some may be integrated and others be marginalised. They include countries, communities, groups and individuals. Therefore, Globalization can thus be defined as worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. This is a dialectical process because such local happenings may move in an obverse direction from the very distanciated relations that shape them. Local transformation is as much a part of globalization as the lateral extension of social connections across time and space.'85 Linden, A New Map of the World p. (x): 'the world we live in is in transition between two epochs: a dying age of industrial production and a new age of the information economy and network society.'

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From another perspective there is a trend to homogenisation of human ways of living86, which would imply a consequent lack of the riches of the diversity; a diversity which can be appreciated in the increasing width and depth of exchange between those who are different87. Even considered purely as economic phenomenon, we are part of a long historical process88, which is not yet finished89. Imaging globalisation as an unfinished network of relationships leaves open the future. It allows the possibility of a transfiguration90 of exploitative connections and of deadening homogeneity. It could allow for globalisation in the interests of the population of the world91.

Economic For many the unity perceived as 'globalisation' is an economic one. Globalisation is then seen as the extension of free trade throughout the world together with a global market for money, and, increasingly other non-tangibles such as intellectual 'property' and 'services'92.The connections I indicate above, as part of an image of globalisation, include that of exchange of goods across the world. This is potentially beneficial to humanity though problematic for the environment with the pollution produced by transport of goods. In the negative description of the world given above, there is the suggestion that trade is one of the problems.The main actors are the nation-states, and, increasingly regional blocs of states and TNCs (TransNational Corporations). The trouble is that free trade is not fair because of both the history of state formation (from colonial times) and because of the power of the TNCs, (themselves a symptom of globalisation) in promoting trade rules for their own benefit. If free trade were fair, it might benefit people. For example,

If Africa could increase its share of world trade by just one percent it would generate five times more income than the continent currently receives in aid and debt relief93.

The reality is that the global trading system is not fair94. The system works against poorer countries by allowing richer countries to subsidise their own production, sell cheaply on the

86 Burbules and Torres, (eds.) p. 13 : (Dichotomies) 'Globalization viewed as a trend toward homogenization around western (or… American) norms and cultures, and globalization viewed as an era of increased contact between diverse culture.'87 A common prayer from Julie is in what ever way God comes to us, God is forever welcome.'88 Mohan: 'if we take into account the components of globalization and the way in which it manifests itself especially the origin, growth and development of TNCs, is undoubtedly a long-term process with a recent acceleration rather than a sudden and qualitative shift. This development is traced through several phases by Dunning (1993, 96-136): Mercantile capitalism and colonialism (1500-1800): exploitation of natural resources and agriculture in colonized regions by State-sponsored chartered companies (e.g., Dutch East India, Hudson’s Bay ...) Entrepreneurial and financial capitalism (1800-75): Embryonic development of control of supplier and consumer markets by acquisition; infrastructural investment by finance houses in transportation and construction. International capitalism (1875-1945): rapid expansion of resource-based and market-seeking investments; growth of American-based international cartels. Multinational capitalism (1945-60): American domination of FDI; expanded economic imperialism; expansion in scale of individual MNEs. Globalising capitalism (1960-90): Shift from resource-based and market-seeking investment to spatial optimization of production and profit opportunities.'89 From the position described by Mohan there is now shift away from material products to non-material services (e.g. water delivery), as the 'stuff' of capitalism.90 I use this word 'transfigured' rather than 'transformed' in the hope of moving from the idea of humanity and the rest of 'creation' needing to be completely changed. I prefer the conception of becoming more completely what they are being created to be (as Jesus obviously became who he really is at his transfiguration, see Mt 17,1-8).91 See Robert E. Sullivan, Chomsky blasts Forum from Brazil, © Earth Times News Service, Posted January 31, 2002, Porto Allegre, Brazil : 'Every progressive movement, every popular movement has had this goal: to create an international solidarity and an interaction. And that is globalization, but in the interest of the population of the world.'92 Linden, 56 'world trade in services quadrupled between 1980 and 1999.'93 Wroe and Doney.94 Wroe and Doney: 'global trading system worth $10 million a minute, the poorest countries represent the tiniest fraction of world trade – a share that has rapidly diminished over the last twenty years. According to the UN, poor countries are $700 billion a year worse off because the global trading system works against them.'

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world market and control importation of goods (through tariffs). Were this to be redressed, 300 million people would be lifted out of poverty by 201595.Attempts to control this global trade come to a pinnacle in the WTO (World Trade Organisation)96, George Soros has described the WTO, ; as in many ways the most advanced and fully developed of our international institutions'97. In theory, the WTO is equitable in giving each Member State an equal vote. In practice, the different resources and capabilities of the members make it an instrument of the richer states, who, with the help of (under the direction of) TNCs, use it to benefit themselves.The UN (United Nation) has no power in this area but in relation to achievement of the MDG it

proposes98 that rich countries set targets to: … •Remove tariffs and quotas on agricultural products, textiles and clothing exported by developing countries. •Remove subsidies on agricultural exports from developing countries..

Since it is, ultimately, the States that control the WTO, then it will be the political will in those countries which will affect the global trade system99.Wider than the economic dimension is that of trade rules for patenting. Pharmaceutical companies insist they need massive profits to reinvest in their research and development and to justify innovation and production of drugs. But that has left millions of Aids patients round the world unable to afford the drugs they need. In less than ten years, the un-patent protected industry in India has forced down the annual cost of Aids treatment from $15,000 (£7,900) a patient to a little more than $200. But, in order to comply with the World Trade Organisation's intellectual property regime. Indian MPs have now banned the copying of patented products. The rich will get richer while the poor sicken further and die100.The 'media' which fosters connection is that of the television, radio, printed written word, and the computer/internet network. All of these contribute in some way to the vision of globalisation as economic, not least in terms of production, but it is the latter which is most important. Finance is bought and sold round the world, not moving but being traded through computer networks, untaxed and unaccountable for its effect on countries economic situation. Ian Linden suggests that this is a defining characteristic of the present economic globalisation101. He also notes that, if this is a major element in globalisation, then much of the world is excluded102.

95 Wroe and Doney: 'World trade has the potential to enable governments in developing countries to improve living standards, health care and education and begin to tick all the other boxes that add up to creating a decent living environment. The World Bank estimates that eliminating all barriers to trade in goods would generate between $250 billion and $620 billion in extra global income, up to half of which would go to developing countries. In terms of poverty reduction this could lift 300 million people out of poverty by 2015.'96 Created the beginning of 1995, at the end of the Uruguay Round of the GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs).97 Linden, P 65: the 'formation of the WTO from the GATT on 1 January 1995, created a new world body, some half a century after it had first been envisioned by Bretton Words. It had authority to exercise an international judicial function through the recommendations of its dispute settlement and appellate boards and was capable of enforcing the compliance of offending states by authorising retaliatory economic action. In addition it offered some machinery for the developing world to get its views formally heard. George Soros has described the WTO as 'in many ways the most advanced and fully developed of our international institutions.'98 Overview, HDR 2003.99 Wroe and Doney: 'It is a mistake to imagine that the international trading system is some force of nature which we can’t adapt or improve. If ordinary people feel that the system is working for the minority instead of the majority then it is the voices of ordinary people which will change the systems. The rules of bodies like the World Trade Organization or the International Monetary Fund are only those created by politicians over time – and politicians are elected by voters, and should, over time, listen to and reflect their concerns.'100 see Randeep Ramesh 'Cheap Aids drugs under threat in New Delhi', 2005, The Guardian, Wednesday March 23,101 Linden, P 56: ' …the characteristic that distinguishes it from previous phases of international economic change, thus lies chiefly in a rapid growth of footloose capital and prodigious financial flows.'102 Linden, P 57: 'If the touchstone of recent globalisation is taken to be the… wave of financial flows, then it would be true to say that today's globalisation is still not global. Most of Africa, …, receives no investment. Africa is thus not integrated into

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The report (HDR) from the UN on the progress of the MDG suggests that this free movement of finance is having a negative effect on progress towards the Goals, focussing especially on the debts of the poorer countries103.

Information Perhaps the high point of this form of connectedness through the medium of the computer/internet, is in the Echelon system104, through which five of the richer countries can monitor all communications globally. Though concerned more with information than finance, this is like a tip of the iceberg of the massive organised crime contingent on a globalisation considered economically105.Since Echelon is government run, the niceties of criminality are rather shaded, if not irrelevant. The same is true of the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights). Looking again at the HDR, it considers that TRIPS

does not adequately protect the rights of indigenous communities to traditional knowledge sometimes patented by outsiders106.

Knowledge, like much of the rest of the global commons is being re-defined as a commodity that can be traded and so come under rules agreed at the WTO.The freedom of finance to move round the world opens the door for the TNCs to shift their production and services from country to country following the ability to increase their profitability. At the same time, people do not have this freedom of movement. Hence, the increasing acerbities of political discourse about immigration in the richer countries as people try to follow work and money.Economic globalisation could be a positive force in the world, but even an outgoing Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the international financial institutions to move in the direction of ’humanising globalisation’107, obviously one of its protagonists appreciates its lacks. But the 'humanisation' needs to be gender disaggregated because women are still suffering negative discrimination108.

Beyond the economic

the 'global economy' in any meaningful sense. Nor is it likely to be in the foreseeable future… calls in question the realism of any theory of economic development that seeks the 'insertion' of the developing world in the global economy.'103 Overview, HDR 2003: 'This Report (HDR) proposes that rich countries set targets to: … Agree and finance, for HIPCs, a compensatory financing facility for external shocks — including collapses in commodity prices. Agree and finance deeper debt reduction for HIPCs having reached their completion points, to ensure sustainability.'104 This first came to the public notice in a European Parliament report in 1997, instigated by European companies fearing that others would have access to their internal commercially sensitive communications.See also http://www.aclu.org : 'Several credible reports suggest that this global electronic communications surveillance system presents an extreme threat to the privacy of people all over the world. According to these reports, ECHELON attempts to capture staggering volumes of satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic traffic, including communications to and from North America. This vast quantity of voice and data communications are then processed through sophisticated filtering technologies. This massive surveillance system apparently operates with little oversight. Moreover, the agencies that purportedly run ECHELON have provided few details as to the legal guidelines for the project. Because of this, there is no way of knowing if ECHELON is being used illegally to spy on private citizens.'105 Linden, P 40: 'the degree to which nascent global economy has provided and unprecedented stimulus to organised crime and corruption is often neglected.'106 Overview, HDR 2003.107 Mohan: Mr. Michael Camdessus, at the tenth session of UNCTAD in Bangkok.108 HDI 2003: 'The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) which shows women’s participation in the political and economic arenas. Data from this year’s GEM shows discrimination against women persists despite high national ranking on the Human Development Index. Many poor countries outperform far richer countries.'

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Looking beyond the economic, the concept of globalisation is far from easy to grasp109. At least one person considers it as a war against humanity110. Others differ about whether it is a new phenomenon, only included in dictionaries from the 1990s111, or something that has been in process since 'the dawn of history'112.Actually, the image of the earth globe is the best place to start, with the impression of everything hanging together. The 'hanging together can be through the means suggested above, the connections we have through media, trade and travel. These would be the way globalisation is constructed. That is also how it forms us, especially changes in cultures and what might be different in the human person when the world is perceived as a whole113.We also 'hang together' in the biosphere, which is rapidly being distorted because of humanity's activities. The chaotic weather consequent on climate change provides the most visceral experience of this cohesion and the disappearance of species114 convinces that it is more than just humans 'hanging together', all living creation must do so, for all, or even any, to survive. It seems to me that globalisation has to do with, yes economic linkages, but also, and more so, with the growing interdependence of the human community together with the non-human community and the consequent results on the earth's environment and human culture and well being.That this is a growing interdependence is confirmed in Robertson's quote from Polybius who wrote in the second century BC about the Roman Empire:-

Formerly the things which happened in the world had no connection among themselves … But, since then all events are united in a common bundle115.

Since that time, the connections have come and gone, but today they are denser than ever, and becoming institutionalised, witness the Universal Postal Union and the International Telecommunications Union116. Such interdependence calls on a response to the suffering of one part, as was seen with the response to the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It also increases the vulnerability of the parts117, as with change of US interest rates impacting countries with debt in US$This increase in vulnerability is itself a part of globalisation, the negative side where the environment is being degraded, new diseases are appearing and quickly spreading, poverty is not

109 David Held and Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton, Global Transformations, (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999) intro: 'there is no cogent theory of globalisation nor even a systematic analysis of it primary features.'110 Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop of Cape Town, 'New Humanity for a New Age', given at public lecture in Glasgow November 9 20000, in Scottish J&P NewsletterQuoting Salvadore Marcus 'A new world war has begun, but it is against humanity as a whole, in the name of 'globalisation'. This modern war assassinates and forgets … As in all world wars what is at stake is a new division of the world. This new division of the world consists of increasing the power of the powerful and the misery of the miserable.'111 Roland Robertson, Globalization: Social theory and Global Culture, London, Sage Publications: 1996 P 8: 'Use of the noun 'globalisation' has developed quite recently… not recognised as a significant concept … until the early, or even middle, 1980s.A new word in the Oxford Dictionary of New Words (1991:133).112 Mohan: 'that globalization has been in process since the dawn of history, that it has increased in its efforts that time, but that there has been a sudden and recent acceleration; that globalization is contemporal with modernization and the development of capitalism, and that there has been a recent acceleration'.113 Robertson, P 8: 'Globalisation as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole.'114 Robertson, P 66: 'the thematisation of the economy - particularly in the Western world from approximately the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century - was accompanied by quasi-religious (as well as straightforwardly religious) attempts to give it meaning. Many of the particular themes of modernity - fragmentation of life-worlds, structural differentiation, cognitive and moral relativity, widening of experiential scope, ephemerality - have been exacerbated in the process of globalisation, while the threat of species death has been significantly added to them.'115 Robertson, P 54.116 Linden, P 122.117 Wolfgang Sachs (ed.), The Development Dictionary, (London, Zed Books, 1992) P 9: '… the very interconnectedness of global societies… constitute their vulnerability'

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conquered and competition increases over scarce resources such as oil. According to World Watch118, this leads to a global instability, which can result in acts of terror. Perhaps this is why Bush's US is absenting itself from the interdependent global community to look after the US alone. But to withdraw is an impossibility, the linkages are there, and there is massive dependence on them. It is hard to dispense with globalisation.The isolationist stance of the USA does give rise to concern, with its contribution to the concept of globalisation of a militarised globe. Under Bush, they are moving to a globalised weapon system119, which can listen to and launch weapons against disaffection anywhere.In the course of writing this paper I am becoming aware that it is not yet clear what difference the sudden awareness of Chinese successful expansion is going to make to current thinking on globalisation120.

OpportunitiesHowever, globalisation does offer opportunities. There is much greater awareness of what Julie knew, the importance for everyone, of education of girls. It is not only an investment for the future of any country121, it contributes directly to the health of the present and future generation122.More practically, and making use of the technology of globalisation, there is an initiative within the congregation to run a virtual school on the Internet, for students, and with input from, across the globe. With the same new technology, congregational communication has moved on from Julie finding someone to carry a letter to Françoise, through the continual utilisation of travelling sisters, to the present congregational Intranet and the moves afoot to ensure electricity from sunlight to run computers connected to each other via satellite. (In those areas where there is no adequate infrastructure.)

Globalisation from belowAs suggested above, in addition to the state, and company actors in globalisation, there are also the groups linking people globally which are not governmental, the NGOs123 whose concern is wider than the national. These tend to be charitable groups ameliorating the negative effects of globalisation and lobbying groups trying to humanise globalisation. Sometimes, as in the development agencies, these types come together.Those in such groups remain members of their own nation and opt for a wider solidarity than merely the national. The church, and faith groups in general, share some of the characteristics of NGOs, and it seems to be the only way other protagonists can see them. When members of a Faith group are dispersed

118 Worldwatch: The global war on terror is diverting the world's attention from the central causes of instability, reports the Worldwatch Institute in its annual State of the World 2005. Acts of terror and the dangerous reactions they provoke are symptomatic of underlying sources of global insecurity, including the perilous interplay among poverty, infectious disease, environmental degradation, and rising competition over oil and other resources. January 12, 2005'119

MISSILE DEFENCE: A Public Discussion Paper, MOD, 9 December 2002  p. 43:'The US sees an active ballistic missile defence system having three key elements: • sensors – radars and satellites; • interceptors – ground or sea based missiles or airborne laser; • battle management, command, control and communication16. Proliferation of missile technology can be driven by commercial and economic considerations and also by a desire to exert regional or even global influence.'120 China spreads its tentacles into Africa, GW Feb 10-16 2006, p.17: 'In 2002 -03 trade between China and Africa increased by 50%, rising by a further 60% the next year. A few years ago the US and Britain were leading foreign suppliers in central and western Africa, bettered only by France. In 2003 China overtook the Americans and British.'121 Department for International Development, Girls' education: towards a better future for all, 2005: 'Women are at the heart of most societies, and mothers are very influential in their children's lives. Educating girls is one of the most important investments any country can make in its own future.'122 Overview, HDR 2003: 'Women are the primary caregivers in al- most all societies. Thus their education con- tributes more to the health and education of the next generation than does that of men —even more so when women also have a strong say in family decisions. More than 500,000 women a year die in pregnancy and childbirth, with such deaths 100 times more likely in Sub-Saharan Africa than in high-income OECD countries.'123 Nongovernmental Organisation

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globally, they know themselves as part of a global community, not just the national one. Institutionally they have a wider and deeper reach than any other global body124.The Roman Catholic Church is a good example of this, and the congregation founded by Julie is recognised as an ecclesial community within that church. On a very small scale, the congregation too has a global reach, and the sisters know themselves as part of a global group, as well as their own nation. No doubt, the internationality of their Generalate community in recent years has contributed to this, as has the number of women who move to other provinces to work for a time, or for life.That the congregation can be considered one of the actors in the global forum is witnessed by the presence of a sister representing them among the NGOs at the UN.

Sisters in relation to globalisationAs well as sisters working specifically for the congregation in the face of globalisation (in the examples above), other women following Julie have found themselves in similar involvements, at least since the second Vatican Council. In the complex times of Julie, she opted for education of girls as a response to what was happening around her and her sisters followed her. Julie made no analysis of her own reality and I have not attempted to do so for her, however it is important to look more closely at our globalising world. While ‘education’ remains key to the activity of the SNDs it is now in the context of this ‘globalisation’. Involvement in the DEP programme mentioned above, and its many offshoots, has provided a particular impetus for sisters to attempt analysis of globalisation while moving to engagement with its negativities. In the description of what is happening in the world at present, especially in the light of present shortfall in movement to the MDGs, something is obviously going wrong. One could pessimistically question whether humanity (or the biosphere itself) will have a future. Action is needed so there is a need to gain some understanding of globalisation.

3. Understanding GlobalisationTo understand globalisation one can look at various theories about the present state of affairs. Among theoreticians, it is suggested there are three schools of thought125. There are the ‘hyperglobalisers', who consider we are in a new era where an economic logic holds prime sway over people and nations. The global market is a new structure which favours some (individuals, peoples and nations) over others. Countering this view are the ‘sceptics’ who see regional blocs in a divided world; a situation concealed by the myth of globalisation and the notion of an integrated global market. For sceptics, this latter concept is a delusion concealing the increasing fragmentation of the world into blocs of civilisations and cultures. An alternative view is that of the 'transformationalists' who are convinced that we are in a wholly new situation where

contemporary patterns of global economic, military, technological, ecological, migratory, political and cultural flows are historically unprecedented126.

The networks being established by protagonists from these areas are taking over political power from the traditional nation state.Even the quoted authors give only a limited view of the plethora of conclusions of systems analysts investigating ‘globalisation’, and suggest it is not possible to give an overall synopsis of them127. But it is important to look at such an analysis of the analyses because, as Sachs suggests

124 Sachs, p.12: 'The world faiths are a global phenomena whose reach is broader and in some respects deeper than the nation-state.'125 Held and McGrew, p.10.126 Held and McGrew, p. 7.127 Held and McGrew, intro 'there is no cogent theory of globalisation nor even a systematic analysis of it primary features.'

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systems analysts of different hues are taking on the task of controlling globalisation for their own purposes128.

and 'the life chances of individuals or communities' are increasingly being compromised by the implications of globalisation and what is done will depend on what is seen.Moving away from the ‘purposes’ of the ‘systems analysists’, others are more concerned about what is happening to people in the world. The latter take on the task of influencing globalisation in various ways - from the side of those suffering its consequences. The analysis they use modifies their response. If they are ‘hyperglobalisers’, they will try to modify the systems that control the economy of the globe. ‘Sceptics’ will work more locally and emphasise social and cultural differences. 'Transformationalists’ will seek a new way of being and organising in the global sphere, yes to counter the negative effects of the post-nation-state networks (economic, militaristic, ecological) and more, to image and construct a person and environment friendly model for the future.Others who consider globalisation as the cause of the suffering of people and planet look not to reform/transfiguration, but to collapse. Some try to help this by non-violent confrontation, where consideration of their targets; TNCs, WTO, IMF129 etc indicate that they share the assumption of the first two schools above, that globalisation is founded on economic liberalism, an assumption that can be questioned (see below). When such confrontation becomes violent, in the extreme, we are faced with the global terrorism which, more than a collapse, can be characterised as part of a struggle between civilisations or cultures.Of course none of these perspectives is exclusive, but they do help to conceptualise what is happening.

CritiqueThe problem in working for amelioration of the processes of Globalisation is that it is the wealthy who are dictating the terms of (economic) globalisation, and to do so, they have to inculcate their own value system130. This does not hold much hope for those who are not wealthy, in fact they lose out. In fact, the process itself can be characterised as a war against humanity131. This is reiterated by the Social Forum meeting in Porto Alegre, 2002, who consider the present war against terrorism as the explicit face of the war that is globalisation132.A further problem is whether the globalisation process itself is tenable. Considering the monetary foundation of capitalism itself, the whole project is based simply on the creation of money for states to finance their military ventures133. It could lead to total destruction of humanity and the entire life system of the earth. Even apart from the possibility of humanity pro-actively destroying the ecosystem through its tools of war, there is also the assumption, by the protagonists of

128 Sachs, p.108.129 International Monetary Fund.130 Njongonkulu, Archbishop of Cape Town: 'The powerful/wealthy are establishing the character, priorities and values of the emerging world order… terms of inclusion are dictated by and are in favour of the wealthy… international markets increasingly favour the economics of scale and collective capacity.'131 Njongonkulu, Archbishop of Cape Town: 'A new world war has begun, but it is against humanity as a whole, in the name of 'globalisation'. This modern war assassinates and forgets … As in all world wars what is at stake is a new division of the world. This new division of the world consists of increasing the power of the powerful and the misery of the miserable…'132 The Final Statement from the Second World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, 2002. (On their web-site www.forumsocial mundial.or.br/eng): 'Call of social movements: Resistance to neoliberalism, war and militarism: for peace and social justice: 4. '. In the name of the 'war against terrorism' civil and political rights are being attacked all over the world…. There is the beginning of a permanent global war to cement the domination of the US government and its allies. This was reveals another face of neoliberalism.' 133 Hikkla Pietilä, Readers on economy: Production and Economic Well-Being (WIDE, Women in Development in Europe,?1998) p.7: 'Marilyn Waring explains why it became necessary for states to develop national income accounts: 'Originally they were started in order to justify paying for wars, to prove that the country could afford to start a war. Therefore it was necessary to take into account only cash generating activities, thereby ensuring that countries could determine balance of payments and loan requirements.'

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globalisation that continued growth is possible. It is not. Since at least, the first UN Conference on the Environment in 1972134, it has been shown, but not recognised, that this is an unsubstantiated assumption. Even with the more limited horizon of the ‘economic’, the ‘growth’ factor provides one of the main rationales for neo-liberal globalisation, but a recent study135 puts severe strain on this assumption.

For the last two decades (1980-2000) … economic growth has slowed dramatically, especially in the less developed countries, as compared with the previous two decades (1960 - 1980)136

Even within the internal operation of this global capitalism there are contradictions137. For the main actors, the aim is for each one to get more money than the other. To do this, they have to have rules which manage the system. They must, at the same time compete and cooperate with each other. The very accumulation means they need to raise prices while at the same time cutting costs (lowering the price of labour). The accumulation itself takes money out of circulation and makes it increasingly difficult to amass more. (The massive increase in activity in the financial markets, making money out of money is probably a consequence of this).138

JudgementThose suffering under globalisation offer a judgement on globalisation at least in the areas of: politics; law and governance; military; cultural; migrations; economics; environment139, and power distribution. It was described, in preparation for the Social Summit in 1995, as 'chasm in human history' 140 and further refined in the self description of the recent Social Forum141 who describe themselves as

an alliance against a system (globalisation) which privileges the interests of capital and patriarchy over the needs and aspirations of people.

That they include patriarchal alongside capitalist interests as one of the motors of the system suggests that they see globalisation as an ideological scheme as well as an economic one. I would agree with that and wonder (with Subcomandante Marcos) 'not why the global economy is inevitable, but why almost everyone agrees it is'142. Globalisation is usurping the place of religion for people143. The human person is being manipulated into pursuing profit as the sole good, pursuing what has in other times been named as God. The human yearning for the infinite,

134 Ward, Barbara, and René, Dubois, Only One Earth, (England, Penguin Books, 1972) p.62: 'Once the risks of future shortage begin to appear, the insufficiency of market mechanisms to deal fully with them becomes equally obvious The market has only one answer to scarcity - to put up the price. … If costs and prices rise, something has to give, either private standards or public spending - or the planet's integrity.'135 Mark Weibrot, Robert Naiman and Joyce Kim, The Emperor Has No Growth, (Washington, Centre for Economic Policy Research, May 2001) Executive Summary.136 Weibrot et al.137 Wallerstein, Immanuel Geopolitics and Geoculture: Essays in the changing world-system, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991) p.108/9.138 A rough guide to globalisation, CAFOD 2001, leaflet: 'The capital crossing the world's borders in three days exceeds a whole year's global trade.'139 Held and McGrew, P.27.140 The Copenhagen Alternative Declaration, NGO Development Caucus, Social Summit preparatory meetings, March 1995: 'The existing system has opened a the most dangerous chasm in human history between an affluent, overconsuming minority and an impoverished majority of humankind.'141 World Social Forum 2002: (The Social Forum is) 'an alliance against a system which privileges the interests of capital and patriarchy over the needs and aspirations of people.'142 Subcomandante Marcos 'Do not forget ideas are also weapons', in Le Monde Diplomatique, Oct 2000: ' The problem is not why the global economy is inevitable, but why almost everyone agrees it is.'143 Robertson, p.66: '… the thematisation of the economy - particularly in the Western world from approximately the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century - was accompanied by quasi-religious (as well as straightforwardly religious) attempts to give it meaning.'

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for that which is beyond them, is being redirected into a yearning for infinite profit. Where, before, humanity looked to their god for salvation, now salvation is sought in the economic arena144. The practice of this 'religion', for many people, is most clearly manifest in their adherence to consumerism. A recent article by Dr Mark Corner145 makes this very clear as he reports advertising agencies declaring that 'brands are the new religion', and a car advertisement proclaiming 'everyone needs something to believe in'. Society is sick, and the (economic) medicines being proposed will make it sicker146. Even the view of the human person by the neo-liberal protagonists of economic globalisation denigrates humanity. They argue that the present global economy is inevitable because of the very nature of the human person147. What we have at present is the best possible situation given the selfish, self-interested, isolated nature of the human person. The very value of the human person is confined to their capacity to produce and consume, and this message is promoted across the world through economic globalisation148.

OptionsGiven that this is what is happening in our world today there are options allied to the analysis. Hyperglobalisers will accept the process and try to move positively into the future. The option would be for trying to control the process by working with the institutions which drive it and pressure them to make globalisation work for the poor. But any such attempt to get the competitive free market model 'user-friendly' will be, as I suggest above, flawed in its internal logic149.

More generally, there can be efforts to change the system by proposing principles150 according to which the process should be modified. … oriented to reform, not revolution. This will not satisfy

144 Wallerstein, P.198: '… the nineteenth- century double faith in the economic and political arenas as the loci of social progress and therefore of individual salvation.'145 Corner, Mark, Religion and the rise of advertising, The Guardian, March 2, 2002.146 Walsh, Roger, (Professor in Dept of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, University of California, Irvine) 'The sensitised mind' in Christopher Titmuss, Spirit for change, (Green Print): 'Consumerism and the insatiable demand for ever more stimulation and gratification through money, power, drugs, sex, food and possessions can actually be substitute gratifications for higher needs. What is little known in our culture is that when the desire for truth, realisation and transcendence is not acknowledged within oneself, it results in types of pathology - like cynicism, alienation, meaninglessness or addiction.'147 Chikane, Frank, The Bretton Woods Institutions and the Struggle for Economic Justice, paper at the 12th Annual Meeting of the AFJN (Africa Faith and Justice), Washington, Oct 1995:' Neo-classical economists usually argue that any attempt to reverse this order of things is doomed to fail, because it negates the very nature of humanity and of human instincts and behaviours. The problem with this perception of the 'nature of humanity' is that it is the 'fallen nature' of humanity. It is the nature which worships the self and the unlimited accumulation of wealth, irrespective of the costs to humanity and to God's creation.'148 Latin American Provincials of the Society of Jesus A letter on neo-liberalism in Latin America, Nov. 1996: '10. Underlying the 'neo-liberal' economic logic there is a conception of the human person which limits the greatness of man and woman to their capacity to generate monetary income. … 12. Through economic globalisation, this manner of comprehending man and woman penetrates our countries with highly seductive message and symbols.'149 Bill Ryan, 'Spiritualities', in The Courier, no 164, July-Aug 1997: 'silent about the central, internal logical flaw in the theory of the invisible hand, and focus(es) all our efforts on remedial work. Only in abstract theory are individuals equal and relationless. Human solidarity is not an afterthought, we are social and unequal from the very beginning of life…. It is not enough to have 'friendly' economic markets and 'socially concerned' business leaders. The dominant economic theory is severely flawed in its logic and so can contribute little to shaping a just and sustainable global society.'150 Korten, David, When Corporations Rule the World, Kumarian Press, 1999 p. 272 : 'Guiding principles : Environmental sustainability; Economic justice; Diversity; Subsidiarity; Intrinsic responsibility ; common heritage'. and Gorringe, Timothy, Fair Shares: Ethics and the Global Economy, Thames and Hudson, 1999, p. 96 : 'Need not profit driven; Turn from corrosive individualism ; Sufficiency not excess; Common good as criterion for production.'

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the sceptics, the more positive of whom value diversity and want to preserve it, rather than support a universal answer151.There are also attempts to move in a different direction, an attempt to change the 'contemporary patterns' assumed by the transformationists (which I find more cogent), as with the advice of Schumacher152: 'Keep it small; Keep it simple; Keep it non-violent'. This implies a more authentic way of seeing and being in the world. We are presently living in a virtual world whose contours are defined in a way which provides an setting for the present neo-liberal globalisation. We have to 'uncover the virtual which is being substituted for the real'153 because the virtual is taking on a reality in the way human living conforms to it. Underlying this is the need to break open the very way humanity thinks. In his assessment of existing anti-systemic movements Wallerstein considers that which is based on scientific knowledge and concludes:

We may have to let back in that part of the Aristotelian tradition constituted by the search for final causes. We may even have to admit that there is knowledge154 other than and prior to scientific knowledge155.

Rather than the objective knowledge postulated by the sciences and assumed by the economists, the place to start is the knowledge of human persons caught up in globalisation. There is also the need to counter the limiting assumptions made by the economists about the nature of the human person.Looking wider than the economic person to their environment, Richard Tarnas says that

we cannot continue to live according to the same assumptions with which we have lived blithely for the past several hundred years156.

He continues, 'when it comes down to it, there is a spiritual crisis that pervades our world'157(my emphasis). I agree and think this is why Julie's reflections may be apposite. First, though, it is necessary to situate her as a member of the Christian community.

Christian responseIn Christian terms, the call to each person is to 'have life and live it to the full' (Jn. 10:10) - out of their redeemed nature. (see Appendix for the recent option taken by some SNDs). This call to life comes in other major faith traditions158. Further voices can be heard from those at the sharp

151 The Copenhagen Alternative Declaration, NGO Development Caucus, Social Summit preparatory meetings, March, 1995: 'In rejecting the prevailing global economic model, we do not suggest the imposition of another universal model. Rather, it is a question of innovating and devising local answers to community need, promoting the skills and energy of women in full equality with men, and benefiting from valuable traditions as well as new technologies.'152 Kumar, Satish, 'Reduction of needs', in Titmuss, Christopher, Spirit for change, (London, Green Print, 1989).153 Kobia, Sam, Globalisation: The Role of the Churches, paper presented at the Conference on the Churches in the Face of Globalisation, Brussels, Oct 1998.154 This is probably the kind of knowledge Julie had.155 Wallerstein, P.119.156 'Understanding Our Moment in History': An Interview with Richard Tarnas at, http://www.scottlondon.com/insight/scripts/tarnas.html'People are becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that the ecological situation is critical and that we cannot continue to live according to the same assumptions with which we have lived blithely for the past several hundred years. There are also social, economic, and political dimensions to the crisis. There is the unprecedented plurality of perspectives and worldviews and religious and philosophical and political perspectives that are in the air.'157 Tarnas, 'Understanding Our Moment in History'

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point of globalisation in a consultation across 188 countries conducted in 1997 by Bill Ryan159, not monetary value, but 'harmonious human relationships' is the key to full life. There is something more here than the autonomous, isolated individuals postulated by the free market theorists. For the Archbishop of Cape Town, 'I am because we belong together'160, and for the Zapatistas, 'behind us we are you'161. What we have here is the real consequence of life in community, relationships resulting in solidarity162. Such considerations move us away from the over zealous guarding of individual rights to an attitude that works for the common good. It is in this context that I want to look a little of what the SND community is doing in engaging with globalisation. There has been no definitive research into this area, so what follows are merely personal memories163 of what has been going on in the congregation.

SND actionThe most recent congregational event in the area was that of the first international Justice and Peace (J&P) meeting, Nov 2004, with sisters from 5 continents looking together at the realities they face and the differences and commonalities in the face of globalisation (see report in Appendix C). In the context of the above, it is interesting that the main theme that emerged was the protection of life. The means of promoting this among sisters not present at the meeting was to be through ‘circles of life’ on the global internal SND Intranet. The topics of these circles give some indication of the concerns of the participants and the areas in which they are presently engaged: Militarization of Space; Economy; Debt; Trade; Environment; Migration. Remembering Bill Ryan writing of 'harmonious relationships being the key to full life', it is interesting that, a previous meeting of the three international workers for J&P decided, under the advice of the Japanese sister, Kioko, that promotion of ‘harmony'164 should be the direction to take in the congregation when working for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation. The fact that the SNDs are a congregation of ‘religious’ rather than ‘missionaries’ means that sisters normally stay within their own societies and work within the culture from which they come or to which they have moved. In this way, while educating about globalisation, they can support the ‘differences’ that need to be valued and implicitly counter the homogenisation of current globalisation. In no way will this be a blinkered approach to promoting full life. In this context I think of Dorothy Stang165 who, after becoming a citizen of Brazil, was murdered for her work in Amazonia166 (see Appendix D).158 Amaladoss, Michel, 'The Utopia of the Human Family: Among the Religions' in Jon and Wilfred, Felix (eds.) Globalisation and its victims, (London, SCM., Concilium , 2001/5) p. 82-4.159

Ryan, Bill: 'I interviewed 188 knowledgeable people in 28 countries …I found broad agreement that the free-market paradigm is not viable ecologically in the long term, and not adequate in the short-term to meet the basic need of peoples for human development. Many see harmony in human relationships as perhaps the single most important condition for human development in poor countries. … my research in the world of the poor found people everywhere claiming that harmonious human relationships, and not the free market , are today the most important defining value for future global development.'160 Njongonkulu Ndungane, New Humanity for a New Age. 161 Gutiérrez, Germán, 'Latina America: Economics, Ethics and Alternatives in Globalisation and its victims' in Jon Sobrino and Felix Wilfred (eds.) 162 Riley OP, Maria, 'Solidarity: A spirituality for our time: a Feminist theological reflection', Center Focus, (Center Of Concern, Issue 123, Nov 1994): 'A spirituality of solidarity grounds us in the sense of relationship, mutuality and wholeness - with God, with each other and with the earth -- that is equal to the globalisation of the world that characterises our era. It gives energy for the massive task of envisioning and developing alternative structures and relationships that liberate both the oppressed and the oppressive.'163 The personal recollections of someone who has been a member of the congregation for 13 years, who was a member of the UK SND Province J&P group (when it existed), who worked Internationally for J&P in the congregation with a Japanese sister and one from the USA, and who has visited Units in Europe and Africa and some in the USA) and was present at two International Chapters of the Congregation.164 Harmony can be seen as coming from engagement in the Spirit's creative task165 I have trouble writing anything about her that could be worthy of her.166 See Appendix D.

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More overtly working in the face of globalisation are those trying to modify the systems that control the economy of the globe. That is what I felt I was doing when working for a religious network organising to lobby the EU, I was comforted to know another SND was doing similar work in lobbying the US Congress in Washington DC. The International Leadership of the SNDs were founder members of both these networks. For other SNDs, involvement in national and international campaigns has been an ongoing effort in this area. The most visible, as for others, were the meetings at the Jubilee Debt Campaign event in Birmingham 2000, and, even more so, the coming together in Edinburgh prior to the G8 Meeting in Gleneagles. For the latter, the decision by the UK SND Unit leadership to respond to devastation of the Asian Tsunami by offering to fund parish and school transport to this lobbying event was a demonstration of how important this means of engaging with globalisation is becoming to the sisters.As demonstrated above (by Kioko in her insistence on harmony) the Japanese members of SND have implicitly encouraged the need for at least a modification of how we see the world and how it operates. Their experience in Hiroshima, when the first atomic bomb was used against people, illumines the work sisters have done in the peace movement. As well as facing prison for activity at Faslane, sisters working with others to protest have taken on board the need for an alternative to the conflictual/competitive model that underpins the working of the world. For me this was manifest most powerfully at the first international SND meeting that I attended. At a moment of tense difference, not to say conflict, Mary Evelyn (from the Ohio Province) came in using and handing out apparatus to fill the air with soap bubbles - that diffused the atmosphere, created a peace from which we could move on creatively. Many sisters would have techniques like that for use in classes and groups. Mary Evelyn was on the International Council of Pax Christi. From that route, came a new way of building harmonious relations, from the experience of the international peace movement as it faces the horror of globalised militarization.Structurally at present, such support for a new way of being and organising in the global sphere and attempts to image and construct a person and environment friendly model for the future is seen in the presence of the SNDs as an accredited NGO at the UN. The present sister working for this in New York is there on behalf of people who are in, and linked with, different forms of global structure than those formally members of the UN. She does focus on the Economic and Social Committee as she tries to give a voice to those suffering the negative effects of neo-liberal globalisation and those seeking to change the project and mitigate its negative effects.I doubt Julie and Françoise would have anticipated their sisters ending up in such positions. So now I want to see what there might be in the experience and teaching of Julie and the community she started that can challenge present globalisation and what leads women in that community today to engage with the forces of globalisation.

IV. HARMONISING JULIE'S INSIGHTS WITH GLOBALISATION

As we have seen, after Julie's death, the sisters of Notre Dame de Namur spread to various countries and continents. The Constitutions are an important means of holding the various

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communities together. As suggested above, and like other founders of womens' religious Institutes at the time, Julie found it was indispensable to have a Superior General chosen from among the women involved. Such a leader would not only hold together the various houses where there were sisters, she would also ensure the formation needed for those joining the Institute. This is what Julie did. The Gospel is basic for the sisters and there is devotion to various saints but we also have original documents written by Julie - her letters together with documents written by Mère St Joseph and others as a report of Julie's words - the Book of Instructions of Mère Julie167. It is from these that I will look at Julie's vision. It should be possible to see if this says anything useful in the present context of globalisation.

1. ThemesOver the years of its existence, there are themes which have become common currency within the Institute. Prime among these is the way Julie was aware of the goodness of God, so much so that 'Ah, qu'il est bonne le bonne Dieu' has become the distinctive sign of a member of the Institute168. This is not to speak of the number of times it is part of hymns specific to the sisters and their establishments. In the identifying sign the sisters wear, it is incorporated in a further favoured theme, that of the cross. Another common image is that of the sunflower, to remind of the simplicity encouraged by Julie. More nebulous, because assumed, is the vital necessity of what Julie calls the 'supernatural life', the life of prayer, and a particular modality of this, what she calls 'rapture of action'169. (as I hope will become clear, this is totally different from the 'rapture' being expected by fundamentalist Christians at the end of time).These latter expressions give some indication of a problem in reading Julie's own language - the difficulty of uncovering a currently comprehensible meaning behind the dated conventions of expression. My own re-reading of the letters and themes awakened me to this as both a problem and an opportunity. After several years of taking in the critiques of feminist theologians about the language we use for God, I am now struck by Julie's apparently minimal use of patriarchal language for and about God. In the original texts170 she does refer to God, and even the Holy Spirit as 'He' and sometimes, though rarely names God as 'Father'. More often she speaks of God, or Jesus or the Holy Spirit and will often say that they are 'like' a good father, or even, mother. Apart from these sensibilities with regard to gender, one does need to be aware of the dualistic freight of much of the language used by Julie, perhaps, but not certainly, reflecting her own understanding. The practical spirit of Julie's letters certainly does not paint her as a little pious woman unconnected with the real world, but a as woman totally immersed in her world, and acting always for the glory of God. This seems to be something of what she means by the 'interior spirit', the rapture of action she considers necessary.With these provisos, I will look more closely at what we can read of Julie's inspiration in the documents mentioned. Doing this in the context of Liberation Theology, it is clear that Julie was not explicitly engaging in a liberation theology 'reflection', when she gave instruction, or wrote

167 Many of the quotations are from Letters of Julie, or the Book of the Instructions/Conferences of Blessed Mère Julie and the book of Themes, written by other sisters from Julie's words and corrected by Julie or Françoise. The latter are available in translation and typescript at the SND British Province Archives. Accurate attribution is thus impossible and is not attempted. The 'Letters' are numbered which does allow attribution.168 Constitutions of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 1989, no 39 : 'The distinctive and recognisable sign by which we identify ourselves is the Notre Dame cross engraved with the words which inspired St. Julie 'Ah, qu'il est bon le bon Dieu'.'169 I am grateful to Sr. Mary Linscott for her book 'The fourth essential' for illuminating this for me, see also present international leader of the SNDs, Sr. Camilla Burns, Rapture Of Action: An Invitation To Wider Fields, Address at Symposium July 8-11, 2004 Springfield, MA.170 I have only managed to read some of the Letters in the original French, so this observation is about the English translations of the Letters and the British Province archive copy of the 'Instructions' in English.

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her letters. However, if Liberation Theology does properly begin with praxis171, Julie's orientation to action, on how to actually engage in mission, provides a good starting point. I found Denis Turner's ruminations about 'uttering performance'172 useful as a way to think about what Julie did and instructed to be done. Julie did not outline a coherent theology for her sisters. What she did do was to continue reflecting throughout her journeying in forming the institute and implementing its mission and, as Turner suggests, this is precisely what Liberation Theology is about173. What is missing in her reflection is a conscious analysis of the societal situation in which she finds herself. Even more than providing formation for the work of the Institute, Julie concentrated on formation of the kind of women who would engage in the action. It is here we get some idea of the content of her reflection, a reflection conducted during her activities. Julie's experience of having to stand up to the authorities in the church to preserve her freedom to act, from the spirit within her, provides a context for her insistence on practical liberty of spirit. This is one example of what is presently called 'contextual theology'. It is also an example of a phase in the hermeneutical spiral of liberation theologies: an unclosed cycle of praxis-reflection-praxis. It seems that in her conferences and letters, Julie was 'doing theology' as do Liberation Theologians. The content of such 'theology' cannot be distilled as an ideal for application elsewhere174. It can provide pointers to those engaged in theologising in their own contexts, specifically now in the face of globalisation. This is why it is worth looking at some of the themes of Julie's reflections and seeing how they relate to the concerns of the current project of globalisation.

God Is GoodJulie's own writings make absolutely clear her awareness of the goodness of God. Rather than an appeal of last resort, when things are going badly, it is more a confidence that fills her with joy. When we think of the life of Julie, filled with illness, political revolution and church antagonism, it is extraordinary that she is so aware of God as good. It has to be something different from experiencing good things coming from God. Somehow it is allied with her rapture of action. The God she knows, from whom she acts, is the 'one who delights to be with the children of men' (sic) and whose delight she can share. For Julie, it is explicitly 'the Lord' who is taking the delight, and in the scriptures she knew and quotes175, this is Wisdom (Sophia). Later in the same passage we find her reported as saying 'He (God) is like a kind mother'. I am not sure how far the translation of her words leaves a confusion about who God is for her. It seems more likely that the God she knows is somehow beyond the normal linguistic short-cuts available to her. It is not just that Julie does not use much patriarchal language about God, it is more that she seems liberated from some of the patriarchal mindset with regard to the Divine. When she says 'how good is the good God', it is this God she knows who is defining the 'goodness' and so engenders delight and joy. In God's view, the definition of the 'good' is what is seen in the process of creation176. This allows for a different concept to that assumed by the protagonists of economic globalisation. Here we have echoes of the Divine Creator surveying what is being created and finding it good.

171 See Linden p.153, on praxis as the core ethical message of liberation theology making the only 'road map' for the Christian community.172 Turner, Denis, Liberation Theology in Britain today in Political Theology Issue 3 November 2000,Sheffield Academic Press p.72.173 see Turner, p.68: (the) 'materiality of the theological project is not just a starting point for a theology that thereafter proceeds unselfcritically along smooth deductive paths, but structures the movement of reflection at every point as its organizing principle.'174 See Turner, p. 70-71.175 Prov. 8:31.176 cf. Gen. Ch 1.

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Then the obvious shortfall of the good in creation under globalisation provides an urgent imperative to action as well as an implicit judgement on the motor of economic globalisation that relies on the assumption that 'growth' is the prime good.It is noticeable that when Julie refers to scripture, it is often to Wisdom literature. So I would suggest that her fixation on the goodness of God could share some of the shift in the concept of the power of God suggested by Rosemary Ruether177. Rather than a power imposing itself from without, Wisdom images an empowering of loving relationship. This is how Wisdom is the image of God's goodness If this is so, then the symbol, the cross, that the sisters use to identify themselves, incorporating the affirmation 'Ah qu’il est bon le bon Dieu; can also identify them as opting for an alternative model of power to that which is the norm in global and national structures.

The Cross It is in the letter written at the opening of the first foundation in Belgium that we see something of the meaning the cross has for Julie, it is essential178.Initially her experience of the cross was received gratefully as allowing assimilation to the experience of Jesus. It moved on understanding that 'It is the cross that makes us advance.' Though Julie does not for herself, it is important to explicitly name what is being described as a 'cross', and the faith that God in Jesus shares the suffering can be liberating. But Julie does not attempt to uncover the reasons behind any such suffering and certainly engages in no analysis so there is little structured planning for change. She does, however, encourage an awareness that change will not come without the cross. In this she is allowing for an analysis which sees the cross as the reality of the use of a different form of power for change, the power which is at its best in weakness.Myra Poole SND, in her book on Julie179, struggles with the present unacceptability of the traditional idea of the cross as a central Christian symbol and directs us to 'a reproclamation of the Mary Magdalene tradition of the resurrection' where Jesus is gone before and the future opened up.'It is the cross that makes us advance' says Julie, but there is no clear description of that to which we are advancing. The important thing is keeping ones eyes on a future which is not defined.More important than the cross is its intrinsic continuation to the resurrection: a transfiguration of a suffering reality into a future existence in our reality and beyond it and beyond our dreams180. It is a hope in a future that even though it is undefined, yet we are called to be involved in creating. So the call is to live in hope, without formulating clear expectations.

Simplicity

177 Ruether, Rosemary Radford, 'The Image of God's Goodness'. Sojourners Magazine, January-February 1996 (Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 30-31). Source: http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9601&article=960121) : 'We have tended to use particular power models for God that image divine power as like that of a monarchical ruler, … (rather) We need to think of divine power as the kind of power that we find healing, nurturing, and transforming us - bringing us into loving mutual relationship. The biblical imagery for God as Wisdom is very much an understanding of God as that kind of loving, healing, and transforming power…. In the words of the ancient psalmist: 'She (Wisdom) is...the image of God's goodness. She is one, but can do all things. Herself unchanging, she makes all things new. Age after age she enters into holy souls and makes them God's friends and prophets' (Wisdom 7:26-27).178 Letter 45: '' If with all this there were no cross, I should not hope for any good to come out of it179 Poole, Myra, Prayer, Protest, Power, the spirituality of Julie Billiart today Canterbury press, Norwich, 2001 Ch 7 esp. p.160'.180Deane-Drummond, Celia E., Creation Through Wisdom; Theology and the new Biology, (Edinburgh, T&T Clark, 2000) p.243: 'If eschatology simply emerges from the present world, then what hope is there for a new creation?…. challenge any arrogant assumptions that we can read the 'signs of the future' entirely in the 'signs of the times'…. Eschatology is needed that expresses a sense of integration as well as difference between the present and the future… an anticipation of blessedness in spite of the traumas of the present.'

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One way of imaging this blind hope comes with Julie's image of the sunflower which follows all the movements of the sun and ever turns towards it,

'Even so, the mind and heart of a religious who possesses the virtue of simplicity are always turned towards God alone'.

Even writing this brings a smile to my face, and this is what Julie expects. Certainly it is simplicity that gives the courage to advance and for autonomy described below, but Julie also knows the joy it gives. It is a joy which she says comes from the movement of God's Spirit. This surely provides some explanation of the attraction of Julie in her own time. Even now, her picture can cause comment, because of her smile.Such joy one could see as residing in the simple heart, but Julie also wants simplicity of mind. Not foolishness, but the sort of simplicity of mind Mère St Joseph described when she wrote, 'It was not Julie's way to spend a great deal of time in complicated plans and reflections …' What is seen as directing action is, then, a light which is given from within, or through, since another of Julie's images is that a 'simple soul (is) like a clear crystal into which the rays of the Sun of Justice penetrate…'What there is in Julie's reflections explicitly about 'justice', falls within this theme. (Seemingly when pushed to by her own experience181) she writes 'Surely justice comes before any other consideration….' Possibly Julie shares the vision of Liberation Theologians regarding the evangelical mission: that work for justice is not just one among many tasks, but is the medium for all; the light that guides them.When Julie wrote, or spoke about simplicity, it was to encourage a fixed gaze on God, a continual following of God’s designs. Encouragement as to this has been a continuing tradition in the congregation, as has a link with living simply - without extravagance. More recently, picking up on the injunction to ‘live simply that others may simply live’182, this now includes the idea of global equity. It has also begun to include something of the ecological feeling of the 'small is beautiful' concept183.Simplicity is becoming a useful value in facing the drive of economic globalisation to continuing unfettered growth irrespective of the environment. It is, of course, more than a strategy for countering the augmenting thrust of globalisation. Within simplicity is a shift of view from accumulation as the point of life, to a vision of God as the one thing necessary. Because of this, the option for a ‘simple life’ is, at root, the choice of something more than globalisation can offer, as well as being an implicit critique of globalisation's main assumptions.

The Glory Of God And The Salvation Of SoulsFrom Julie's own words, it is clear what she considered she and her sisters are to be about - 'Our principle end must be the glory of god and the salvation of souls', or repeated in other words,

The principal end of our Institute is to spread God's kingdom on earth and to contribute to His glory.

Initially this sounds rather other-worldly, but talk of 'salvation' in Julie's time can open our discourse now to that of liberation 184. Though Julie was thinking of making people Christian to

181 The letter was written about the material possessions of the community that some of the church authorities in Amiens were attempting to claim for themselves.182 Constitutions, 1989, 68: 'Our poverty is related to mission and calls us: … - to choose to live with less until all have enough,'183 Constitution 1989, 62: 'In living our vow of poverty we commit ourselves to simplicity and restraint in the use of material things.'184 Gorringe, Tim 'The Shape of the Human Home: cities, global capital and Ecclesia' in Political Theology Issue 3 Sheffield 'Academic Press November 2000, p80: 'liberation theology' represents a gloss on an older theology of salvation. Human being, the church always said, need to be saved from 'sin'. Where that had been understood individually and moralistically, liberation theology understood it socially and politically, specifying the structures that constituted 'sin'.'

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deliver them from sin, she also engages in education of the whole person as a saving act. She is working to enable people to become whole, and while this can be thought of as salvation from personal sin, it is also salvation from the oppression of the effects of individual and social sin. That the 'salvation of souls' quickly becomes the 'spread of the kingdom of God on earth' does, quite literally, bring her concern down to earth. A further report of her words on 'salvation' indicate the width of her vision, including everyone185. Julie has a continual refrain, found especially in her letters, 'all for the glory of God'186. What her actions suggest she means by these words is that the glory of God is the human person fully alive

Option For The PoorNot only this nuanced reading of her option for salvation allies Julie with modern liberation theologians, so does her option for the poor. Mère St Joseph reporting on Julie's words writes that the 'Principle end of the Institute is education of the poor'.That this is not just a pragmatic decision to go for those whom no one else is educating, is attested in the report of Julie's teaching on charity,

If there is room for any preference at all in the heart of a SND, it ought to be for the most destitute of the gifts of nature and grace.

This is not a coldly intellectual decision to be on the side of the poor, but a preferential choice of the heart for them.From the very beginning, when Julie and Françoise responded to a 'call' to devote themselves to the education of poor girls, through to current self-presentations on the internet: 'Our ministries reflect Julie's preference for the poor' 187, the orientation of the congregation has been consistently to serve those who are poor. The meaning of this word, poor, can be ambiguous188 and even oppressive189 or denigratory190 for the sisters it is taken as meaning those in the most deprived areas. Initially there would have been no doubt who they were. The sisters worked in fairly circumscribed localities, and would have had little doubt who was poor (as described locally). Implicit in their work of education was the expectation that they were helping the young women they taught to move out of poverty. At first there was little attempt to change that which pushed people into poverty, but the continuing involvement with poor girls around the world ensures that sisters are alongside some of those who are suffering the negative effects of world systems. Since, at least, the Vatican Council this has led individual sisters and the community to begin to identify, and counter where possible, what in the global systems, and in local situations, is driving people into destitution, denying them what they need for life. There is now, within the community, an ongoing, though informal/individual, analysis of what is pushing people into poverty and consequent active engagement for change. In other words, sisters are presently becoming increasing aware of the negative effects of (economic) globalisation together with its complex dimensions and are taking action in the face of them.

185 In Themes of Julie: 'There can be no rest for us here until we are certain the whole human race is saved' (my emphasis).186 Murray, Sr. Josephine SND, The foundation and early years of the Institute of Notre Dame: to what extent is Jesuit - or rather Ignatian - influence discernible?, unpublished paper, 1974. This reminds one of the Jesuits starting their writings with AMDG (Ad Majorem Gloria Dei). But Julie had no personal contact with Jesuits who were suppressed in France in 1762 and in the world in 1773, with restoration only in 1814. However many of her friends, who were Fathers of the Faith, did become Jesuits and she herself chose the religious name of Sr. St. Ignace, though she was usually called Mère Julie.187 www.sndden.org Boston.188 Majid Rahnema, 'Poverty' in Wolfgang Sachs, The Development Dictionary Zed Books, London, 1992 p.158: 'There may be as many poor and as many perceptions of poverty as there are human beings.'189 Majid Rahnema, Poverty in Sachs, (ed.) p. 161: 'Global poverty is an entirely new and modern construct. The basic materials which have gone into the construct are essentially the economisation of life and the forceful integration of vernacular societies into the world economy.'190 Personally I have memories of an African Delegation to the EU protesting at being named as coming from poor countries: 'Don't call us poor' they said.

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The sisters all make a vow of poverty which they see as putting themselves into a 'spirit of grateful dependence on God and interdependence with one another' and say 'we hold all things in common'191. This latter could put them counter to the competitive, individual ownership paradigm of the globalising world. Because all can be seen as coming from God, there can be a grateful dependence, a gratitude which could preclude the competitive acquisition culture nurtured in globalisation. Encouraged is a reverent attitude to the whole of God’s Creation.

Gratefully aware of the goodness of God's creation, we reverence the resources of the earth. We are careful to use them in a spirit of stewardship to foster the life of all people192.

The expression here betrays the date of the writing and the then current assumption of creation being solely for humanity, and under the control of humanity. Now they:

recognize that it was in the wheat fields of Cuvilly that Julie’s spirituality developed, deepened and prepared her for her life’s prophetic mission (and they) commit to deepen our own understanding of our relationships with God, one another, the poor and with the whole of creation193.

With this recognition, they affirm their awareness of the multiple relationships in which they have their being with God and with the whole of creation. But there is a reality in their commitment. Not only personal attitudes, also the changing of politico-economic structures is part of their self understanding as women vowed to poverty:

Our poverty is related to mission and calls us: … - to contribute, in whatever ways we are able, to the building of an economically just world in which all persons can live in dignity194.

In this context, the ‘relationships with one another’ include freely sharing round the world both resources, personelle and individual’s various talents. Experience of this results in a disharmony when faced with commodification of goods, people and expertise in the globalising world.

CommunityThere is also disharmony when sisters encounter racism or nationalism (especially within their own ranks). They know themselves as belonging to a community of various nationalities and races, so they can expect that wherever (in the world) they go to a community house, they find themselves ‘at home’. This extensive ‘community’, where women have ‘sisters’ round the world, effectively educates the women in a different way of being in the world. There is an ease in communicating (irrespective of the language) which immediately nurtures values and virtues which can be a gift to the globalising world195 together with a unity in diversity. In this the community is implicitly challenging globalisation in way the WCC196 suggests, by attempting to live an alternative way of unity in diversity. It could also be seen as embodying a solidarity197., giving energy for action in today’s world 191 Constitutions, 1989, 62.192 Constitutions, 1989, 65.193 15th General Chapter Acts 2002 Amiens, France July 10 - August 10.194 Constitutions, 1989, 68.195see Lori, Guen, 'Toward an ecofeminist moral epistemology' in Warren, Karen J. (ed.), Ecological Feminism, (London, Routledge, 1994) p. 129: (Alison) 'Jagger argues that the practice of feminist dialogue is more than just a way of reaching knowledge, it is also an important moral experience in itself, in that it cultivates 'not only the values of mutual equality and respect but also virtues which as courage, caring, trust, sensitivity, self-discipline, and so on.'196 A life Centred Ethics on the WCC web site under justice, peace and creation concerns, ecumenical earth (www.wcc-coe.org/what/jpc/index) Recommendation from the WCC's Eight Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe (December 1998): 'It is our deep conviction that the challenge of globalisation should become a central emphasis of the work of the WCC, building upon many significant efforts... We should not subject ourselves to the vision behind [globalisation], but strengthen our alternative ways towards visible unity in diversity, towards an oikoumene of faith and solidarity.'

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JoyRunning through all to do with SNDs there is a joy that Julie suggests comes with simplicity, but which also comes from the shared living in the community, from the enjoyment the sisters experience in being with each other. Pictures of international meetings, even business ones, show a group of smiling women who are glad to be together, working together filled with joy, a joy that Julie says comes from the movement of God's Spirit, that God may be glorified. One wonders what difference it might make to our world if international meetings of politicians or business people engendered a similar joy.

Autonomous WomenThat this community is a community of women can be vital in confronting globalisation. The work of the sisters is directly contributing to one of the MDGs198. More, the formation of the women themselves is oriented to forming large hearted and free199 'women afraid of nothing'. In the global organisation of the community, as well as in the personal encounters within it, is a new model for global organisation - by and for women and for those they encounter. This is also a challenge to one of the ideological motors of globalisation suggested above200.It is fascinating to see how contemporary Julie is in her hopes/desires for women in the Institute and those being educated by them. She wants women who are large hearted and free, afraid of nothing. She wants women who are, in current terms, assertive. Timidity is out201. Julie speaks out of her own experience of having to stand up to church authorities202 and learn to speak freely, both about the God she knows and about what she is doing203. Even before the liberation theologians, Julie was engaged in what Marcella Maria Althaus-Reid considers the main task of liberation theologians,

'to remove Christian passivity and attitudes of resignation which were precisely brought to our people's life by centuries of Christian theology'204.

Julie and Françoise are very practical about what this means for the young women they are educating. What they are concerned about includes (what we would call today) management skills205 and economic literacy206.

197 Maria Riley OP, Solidarity: A spirituality for our time: a Feminist theological reflection, Center Focus, Center Of Concern, Issue 123, Nov 1994: 'A spirituality of solidarity grounds us in the sense of relationship, mutuality and wholeness - with God, with each other and with the earth -- that is equal to the globalisation of the world that characterises our era. It gives energy for the massive task of envisioning and developing alternative structures and relationships that liberate both the oppressed and the oppressive.'198

MDG : B. Achieve universal primary education, Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling. C. Promote gender equality and empower women, Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education.199 The Memoirs of Mother Frances Blin de Bourdon, (Washington, Maryland, USA Trinity College, Christian Classic, 1975) p. 60: 'We teach what is useful. No little pious women, if you please, but great magnanimity and liberty of spirit.'200 See quote about patriarchy from Social Forum, note 141.201 The Memoirs of Mother Frances Blin de Bourdon p. 80-81: 'One thing she tried hardest to help sisters overcome was the timidity that finds obstacles everywhere.'202 Letter 96: 'Even though he were to shout so loudly that I could hear him from here, that good priest would not frighten me. He ought to be face to face with the bishop of Namur, who would show him that where one is free one can go to the ends of the earth for the greater glory of the good Master.'203 Letter 109: 'I have remembered what I have always been reproached with: that I allow myself to be judged and condemned by anybody who wants to do so, without making anything known. As it is here a case of making things known with all possible sincerity, I shall do so, afterwards leaving the good God to dispose it all according to his good pleasure…. …You know that it has always been my failing to be silent when I ought to have spoken. Here I shall speak, not for my own justification, but for the greater glory of the good God and for the purpose of the work to which the good God has called me.'204 Althaus-Reid, Marcella Maria, 'Bién Sonados? The Future of Mystical Connections in Liberation Theology' in Political Theology Issue 3 November 2000, Sheffield Academic Press p. 59.205 The Memoirs of Mother Frances Blin de Bourdon, 'our end is to train good Catholic women who know how to manage a household and bring up their family.'206 The Memoirs of Mother Frances Blin de Bourdon, Women who understand business, who can read, write and keep accounts, who speak like educated people and are not ashamed to work'.

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Underpinning all of this is Julie's appreciation of God. The liberty she and Françoise engender is that of the children of God. Rules are important too, and should not be followed if they do not foster the greater good207.

ObedienceAs the previous section suggests, this orientation to autonomy by Julie for her sisters modifies the congregation's understanding of the obedience they vow as members of an ecclesial community. Certainly Julie took obedience as vital for members of her Institute and she may have learned from her priest friends something of the Jesuit ideal of obedience. If she did then she moved on from a rigorous traditional idea of obedience, to relying more on her own understanding than on the interpretation of her spirit by the church authorities. In Julie's understanding what is of prime importance is obedience to the promptings of the spirit within. She also takes on the understanding of the religious of the time, insisting on obedience to superiors. But from her own spirit, she goes much further, considering sisters in community, who must 'Respect one another and yield mutually by obeying one another'.The sort of community she is here advocating is based much more on mutual respect than on lines of hierarchical obedience. Here we have the beginning of an alternative to patriarchal organisation for people living together and an imaging of the relationship and mutuality Maria Riley speaks of in solidarity208.This is deepened in what she says about charity which must unite the SNDs 'as members of one family'. It must not be confined to others in the community, she continues:

Our charity must not be limited by the love we have for one another, it must make our hearts as wide as the universe

It sounds as though the whole universe is to be considered as family making us include the whole world in the relationship of mutuality Following the example of Jesus, she also advocates what we would today call non-violent tactics

We should go half-way to meet those who wish us ill and thus disarm their purpose by charity (after the example of Jesus).

EucharistWhen Julie speaks about God delighting to be with humanity (see above under the goodness of God) she is talking specifically about Jesus being present in the Eucharist. From her childhood, when she was allowed to make her first communion early, through the vicissitudes of the revolutionary years when it was difficult to celebrate Eucharist, to the times she was travelling to various houses and searching out celebrations of Eucharist on her arrival. Celebration of the Eucharist was a vital part of Julie's life of faith, and she expected the same of the women who joined her. One of her reflections roots the devotion in the reality of normal life and reiterates the insight of her reflection on 'rapture of action':

We must ask God for the grace of understanding in a practical way the life we ought to live, seeing that God has made Himself our food, and lives and acts in us

If, with Julie, we do seek the grace of understanding, then we enter the arena of liberation theology today. Such understanding will affirm community with all humanity and creation and contribute to its formation in the mystery of Jesus Christ209.207 Murphy, SND, Roseanne, Julie Billiart: woman of courage Belmount USA, 1995 p.182 quoting Julie , 'I do not adhere slavishly to a regulation when I see a greater good to be done, …'208 See note 162.209 Turner, Denis 'Liberation Theology in Britain today' in Political Theology Issue Sheffield Academic Press, 3 November 2000, p. 77/8: 'Everyday millions, and once a week hundreds of millions, in small local groups eat bread and drink wine together fancying that in doing so they form a community in the significance of the whole of creation, all time, all history, all sin and all liberation…

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Liberative ValuesAs with Liberation Theologians, Julie had no template for how the future would be, but, unlike them, neither did she have any overt critique of the social order in which she found the poor. While the Liberation Theologians elucidate the need for the values of the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity, Julie incorporated these in the way she organised the women who gathered round her. Without the explicit critique, this organisation of Julie does provide an implicit critique of the social order of her time She refused to have choir and lay sisters in the communities: all were to be equal. Looked at from our perspective she also, as suggested above, provides an implicit criticism of neo-liberalism. This is illustrated most forcibly by her friend Françoise (Mère St Joseph) who relinquished her fortune to the use of the institute. Julie's insistence on the provision of free education for poor children also flies in the face of present moves to make education into a purchasable commodity. The struggle for a superior general meant that the women who gathered round her were encouraged to know they belonged to each other. They joined a community where resources were shared across houses (and national frontiers), where communication was encouraged to foster the awareness of 'unity': the knowledge that they belonged together and that they were engaged in a shared enterprise. Even in these early days, there was already recognition of the difficulties of living in diverse communities. When pointing to Jesus' words about loving each other, Julie urges charity, as what holds the community together , even when it is composed of different nationalities. Here she does move into theology saying 'we are all one nation in Jesus Christ' and 'it is the good God who is present to us in the person of our neighbour'. While she here seems to be referring to other sisters in the community, she also resonates with present day liberation theologians who see Jesus Christ in the person of the poor neighbour.

2. Rapture of Action (See Appendix E )From this consideration of some of the 'themes' collected from Julie's reflections, I suggest she is, like liberation theologians but before their time, more concerned with orthopraxis than with orthodoxy.This is even more pronounced in what she considers essential, what she calls

a sort of perpetual ecstasy a long-continued rapture of action and operation. It is this sort of rapture that we are called, … we must aspire to it if we want to become perfect Sisters of Notre Dame.

Or, what she takes as equivalent, Le seul moyen d'être de bonnes Sœurs de Notre-Dame, c'est de se remplir de l'esprit du bon Dieu

Now it is sisters across the world who see this as essential:thinking on the fourth essential itself, on the theme of the rapture of action and on the charism of St Julie owes much to regional meetings in Dowanhill, Mouth Pleasant and Southwark, in Okayama and Coroata, in Thika and Kroonstadt, Berchem, Charleroi and Namur…210

And as they retell that significance they believe that they enact it: they say that they 'effect' what they 'signify' by their eating, …… Jesus cut into the politics of his day at an altogether more radical level than that at which the regime possesses its power, with the altogether different weapon of his sheer, naked, humanity, that is to say, with the power of an unqualified love which relied upon nothing but itself.'210 Linscott, Sr. Mary SND, The Fourth Essential, internal, 1971, p.7.

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As with Julie herself, Camilla, the present international leader of the sisters, sees this as something distinctive when she speaks of

Julie's realisation that this path of holiness combining contemplation and action was something new, something different so she used the language of “above and beyond.”211 (also, see below, 'the most difficult')

As suggested above, the language used here is difficult for us today. Even the title of the chapter dealing with this in the Book of Instructions, 'on the supernatural life', together with her admonition to 'put nature to death' have too many echoes of a dualistic view of the world to sit comfortably with us.I think Julie is actually trying to describe a way, her way, of integrating a life of prayer and a life of action. She says

Our Institute is one of the most difficult because it combines an interior life with exterior occupations.

From her own experience she is trying to bring together mysticism (which she may have learned from the Carmelite tradition) and a 'mission' orientation (maybe from the Fathers of the Faith). The thought of Ignatius described by Ganss SJ212, that '…contemplation also impelled him to engage in the works of active life' may have initiated the thinking of Julie, but it does serve to highlight the specificity of her concept of rapture in action. Rather than a sequential contemplation then action, Julie somehow wants the two to be integrated in an ongoing (though perhaps not experienced) ecstasy.She starts with the Holy Spirit who can fill us, but who only comes in prayer and only when there is space left by, as she says putting to death the old Adam213 within us. This seems to be the rationale for her emphasis on self-abnegation, not so much what we understand by killing nature; more a creating space in the creation which is ourselves, for a more, that is the Spirit of God. In describing this 'interior life' she goes on

The interior life puts us into direct and intimate communication with God. It renders us docile214 to the least inspirations of the Holy Spirit215.

Elsewhere she is reported as saying The life of faith means … to feel oneself guided, as it were, by that Divine Hand which arranges everything for our greatest good

So this 'rapture of action' includes a confidence coming from knowing the presence of God in oneself and in everything. It entails a continual discernment; a waiting on God216, and a docility to the Spirit. From her early letters to Françoise, Julie is clear about how to behave:

My dear child, much wisdom and Christian prudence are needed in the way you must behave just now. But for that you must possess your soul in peace, in order not to rush anything or do anything at the wrong time. … Listen, my daughter, I must pass on to you a bit of advice the good God gave me today especially for you. When you foresee occasions

211 Camilla Burns SND, Rapture Of Action: An Invitation To Wider Fields, Address at Symposium 2004 SPRINGFIELD,

MA, See also Linscott, Sr. Mary SND, The Fourth Essential, p. 39: 'Her language is that of her own day but the truth that she is putting forward about union with God in the apostolic life is possibly an insight unique among religious foundresses …'212 Quoted in The foundation and early years of the Institute of Notre Dame: to what extent is Jesuit - or rather Ignatian - influence discernible? An unpublished paper by Sr. Josephine Murray SND, 1974, p.18.213 If the Second World Social Forum 2002 is right, and I think it is, in regarding one of the defects of the thinking behind the globalisation project to be its over attachment to a patriarchal vision, I find Julie urging in the original French 'déclarons une guerre à mort au vieil homme', (my emphasis) to be particularly apposite. See note 163.214 Where 'docile = teachable, see shorter OECD.215 See Appendix Ef: c'est la vie intérieure qui nous met en communication directe et intime avec Dieu, c'est la vie intérieure qui nous rend dociles aux moindres impulsions de l'Esprit-Saint.216 A waiting on God, like the three weeks she spent waiting in France to see whether sisters would come with her to Namur.

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on which you will have to speak, you should withdraw alone with the good God for some minutes, as a way of learning from him what you ought to say217.

While struggling with these ideas of Julie, I am reminded of the Asian feminist theologians for whom, like for Julie,

God is a very deep, authentic, liberating and life-giving experience rather than the unreachable other up above. God is not up above but deep down. God is within: within me, within humanity, its aspirations, struggles, strivings and history and we need to touch this life-giving Spirit to find liberation218.

Julie is clear when speaking about the Holy Spirit, she is also completely evangelically based, and describes the same experience with Jesus, 'this interior life consists in union with Our Lord'. So

when we have attained this mystical life, each one of us can say with St. Paul: 'I live now, not I, but Christ liveth in me.'(Gal 11. 20).

Furthermore, no ecstasy is recognised as genuine unless it results in 'this rapture of action and operation'. She goes further when she speaks of conversing

'one to One' with God in order to grow into His likeness, just as we come to resemble those with whom we frequently converse

Here she is describing knowing God as friend, who we become like. With this shift of power and authority from without to within, the timidity that Julie dislikes will not survive.That this is a rapture of action as part of Julie's being, is witnessed by Mère St Joseph's description of how Julie decided when to take action and what to do:

It was not Julie's way to spend a great deal of time in complicated plans and reflections… her practice was to pray; almost always at the moment of need, keeping her mind and heart united to God, she found herself directed by a light indicating what she should do. Thus her mind was disengaged and ready to respond because she was free from preoccupation219.

3. A response to globalisationFrom her commitment to such 'rapture in action', Julie in her own time undertook action which can, in retrospect be seen as Liberative. The education of poor girls is, even still, seen as one of the necessary goals formulated by the international community in its MDGs220. She came to this action as described by Mère St Joseph (Françoise). Though she did not formulate it clearly herself I suggest that, in addition to the process of reflection/action/reflection in which Julie lived and recommends (to at least her sisters), the theology underpinning her reflection can be seen as a liberation theology in the face of globalisation and will provide a harmony between my experiences outlined above. It is to some elements of this that I now turn.

When we look in the ‘face’ of globalisation, there are so many 'complicated plans and reflections'. Searching for the crucial point of leverage can lead to immobility. There is too much to do. There is definitely a problem, seen through the effects of globalisation, that demands change, but the dilemma is deeper than this. I have already referred to Wallerstein221 who considers that in our knowledge we may have to let back in 'the search for final causes', which must in addition let in the search for the final end. I

217 Letter 31: to Françoise Blin de Bourdon, (March, 1797).218 Marlene Perera, a Catholic sister from Sri Lanka quoted in Kwok Pui-lan, Introducing Asian Feminist Theology, Sheffield Academic Press, 2000, p. 76.219 The Memoirs of Mother Frances Blin de Bourdon, p. 80-81.220 See MDG C.221 Wallerstein, p.119.

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also agree with Tarnas222 that 'when it comes down to it, there is a spiritual crisis that pervades our world'.223

The theorists of Globalisation have little to offer here. What is needed is a different way of seeing and engaging with the world, with how it works and where it is going. Even the WCC suggest something different is needed

We should not subject ourselves to the vision behind [globalisation], but strengthen our alternative ways …224

I will now look at whether there is anything in or behind what Julie is saying that might help toward an alternative vision.

An Alternative VisionWhat I have found particularly helpful are the reflections of Constance Fitzgerald, O.C.D225 about the present situation of 'societal impasse'. The preceding attempt to understand globalisation gives a critique questioning whether the process itself is environmentally or economically tenable. When concluding the description of globalisation above I am driven to the question of whether a future is possible for humanity and the biosphere. With both the description and assessment of globalisation I think we are led to an impasse. An impasse that implies that there is no forward movement possible from one’s accumulated experience and existing knowledge. One is reminded of Julie, paralysed and in hiding from the revolutionaries. Rather than resignation Constance affirms that:

The psychologists and the theologians, the poets and the Mystics, assure us that impasse can be the condition for creative growth and transformation if the experience of impasse is fully appropriated226.

The alternative vision is not one we can manufacture ourselves, it is one in which creation can be opened to the transfiguring activity of God by appropriation of the impasse in heart, body and soul, and in prayer.This means sharing in the dying of the world, as Constance says

Death is involved here - a dying in order to see how to be and to act on behalf of God in the world

Or as Tarnas questions:There is no question that if we look around at the world today, we cannot avoid the fact that something big is dying…. Can we recognize the great spiritual, archetypal dimension to that death and go through it at that level? 227

222 Director of the Graduate Program in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies.223 Understanding Our Moment in History: An Interview with Richard Tarnas. http://www.scottlondon.com/insight/scripts/tarnas.html224

Recommendation from the WCC's Eight Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe (December 1998).225 FitzGerald O.C.D., Constance, Impasse and Dark Night in Living with Apocalypse, Spiritual Resources for Social

Compassion, (San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1984) at www.geocities.com/baltimorecarmel/johncross/impasse.html226 FitzGerald, O.C.D., Impasse and Dark Night.227 Tarnas, Understanding Our Moment in History: 'There is no question that if we look around at the world today, we cannot avoid the fact that something big is dying. We are watching it and we are experiencing it. But the great challenge that all of us face as individuals is also being faced by our civilization. That is, can we go through that death at an inner level? Can we recognize the great spiritual, archetypal dimension to that death and go through it at that level? Or, will we be unconscious, blind to that deeper reality and act out self-destructively by making our world ecologically unliveable or killing each other in nationalistic competition, or whatever? Those are the choices.

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What this suggests is not a spiritual answer/response that springs from past experience but rather a radical hope in which to move on 'to a new vision, a new experience' 228. This is a hope that facilitates the journey towards the undefined future, very like the 'blind hope' written about above, coming from Julie's reflections on the cross. I think that, from her own experiences, Julie knew what is was to face ‘impasse', In her reflections, especially about how to move into action, Julie shared with us a way of appropriating such impasse and moving from it into the transfiguring action of the creating God. Initially this may seem rather ‘otherworldly’, which is difficult today when we are aware of the negative effects on our society and environment of an ‘otherworldly’ view of reality. But that is not how Julie saw such ‘rapture of action’. Mary Linscott explains:

(Julie) is attaching to words like 'mystic', 'ecstasy' and 'rapture' the original broad sense which they had before they were give a more specific meaning by the Spanish saints of the counter-reformation…. We see the terms to connote a transient, extra-ordinary, accidental manifestation which may sometimes accompany union with God. Julie uses them to connote the union (with God) itself. For her, 'ecstasy' and 'rapture' are the going forth from oneself and the being carried out of oneself that are a necessary part of the kenosis of divine union229.

Although Julie sees this ‘rapture of action’ as something given by God230, still one has to work in accepting it231. Julie describes the work mainly in terms of putting nature to death232 but now we see that it is really nature, the whole of it that needs to be redeemed and given new life. Here again, Constance Fitzgerald is helpful. When facing the impasse of our world today she suggests:

one’s habitual way of feeling and experiencing love has to go so that one can experience the transforming touches of divine love233.

It seems to me is that what Julie is saying, is to put to death all old ways of understanding and doing things and be open to the newness of the vision of God for creation and society, and ourselves.

228 FitzGerald, O.C.D. Impasse and Dark Night: 'It (dark night/impasse) is a sign to move on in hope to a new vision, a new experience.'229 Linscott, The Fourth Essential, p. 41: (Julie) 'is attaching to words like 'mystic', 'ecstasy' and 'rapture' the original broad sense which they had before they were give a more specific meaning by the Spanish saints of the counter-reformation…. We see the terms to connote a transient, extra-ordinary, accidental manifestation which may sometimes accompany union with God. Julie uses them to connote the union itself. For her, 'ecstasy' and 'rapture' are the going forth from oneself and the being carried out of oneself that are a necessary part of the kenosis of divine union.' See also Burns SND, Camilla, Rapture Of Action: An Invitation To Wider Fields, Address at Symposium 2004 Springfield, MA: 'Like the description of Julie’s intense religious experience, rapture and ecstasy conjure up notions of out of body experiences and we don’t identify with it or perhaps think it is even appropriate to imagine it for ourselves. We are not being invited to a paranormal experience. The primary meaning of ecstasy is infused union with God. What she is describing is a union with God that lifts us out of ourselves – a self-emptying, a kenosis that requires a total absorption of the God-quest, a focus of white-heat intensity.'230 'Dieu fasse la grâce à toutes les personnes de notre saint lnstitut de devenir des personnes extatiques en cette manière!' See Appendix E.231 'n'est pas possible sans le travail sérieux de la vie intérieure.' See Appendix E.232 'Les personnes qui, dès le début, ne donnent pas de bons coups de mort à la vie naturelle, ne seront jamais propres à notre saint institut'. See Appendix E.233 FitzGerald ODC, Constance. 'Transformation in Wisdom: the subversive character and educative power of Sophia in contemplation', in Carmel and Contemplation: transforming human consciousness (Washington DC, Carmelite Studies : 8 , ICS Publications, 2000): 'If one keeps a death grip on one’s affective life and fulfilment as it has been experienced in the past and clings tenaciously to one’s previous experience of life and perception of Christ/God, one is unable to completely ‘hold’ the contradictory presence of Crucified Sophia. One’s habitual way of understanding, long in use and characteristic of conventional wisdom has to go…. Likewise, one’s habitual way of feeling and experiencing love has to go so that one can experience the transforming touches of divine love.'

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For Julie, this was directed particularly at those women who joined her on her way. It has remained an inspiration for those who have followed her. So, in 1971, Mary Linscott SND writes

The apostolic religious has to pray always but for her this cannot mean constant occupation in formal prayer… much of her prayer will consist of entering into the mystery of God's transforming action in the world, being united with him and collaborating with him in whatever concrete circumstances may obtain for the moment234.

Presently Elisabeth Johnson suggests something similar for everyone (who seeks God)Since the world is…going forward to a fullness of life that is not a replacement of this world but is precisely this world transformed, then … radical hope … propels all who seek God into co-creative and co-redeeming partnership with the Creator Spirit to ensure that the promised well-being begins to arrive even here, even now, despite antagonistic powers that seek to mar and destroy. … this hope breeds a certain defiant toughness far different from either optimism or pessimism, for it nourishes passion to see blessing come about precisely because the world in its own integrity has a future in God235.

Though written many years after the her death, that ‘toughness’ suggested, coming from the ‘radical hope arising from the co-creative and co-redeeming partnership with the creator Spirit’, calls Julie to mind. It also means that Julie's reflections on 'rapture in action' could be of use beyond the congregation she startedTuning into the vision of God calls for hope allying us with the Spirit. The importance of the Spirit in Julie's suggests we need to know who she knows as the Spirit of God, for this Min236 and Rayan237 are helpful.If Min is right that the Spirit becomes part of creation by a radical kenosis which enables transcendence and underpins the power of resurrection238. Then Julie’s insistence on 'l'anéantissement239 de tout soi-même' is not oriented to the destruction of self, but to a radical kenosis. It is a way of being open to the transfiguring Spirit240, and gives an indication of how closely Julie is united with, has become 'like' this Spirit of God, to empower full lifeMin’s description241 of the Spirit and pneumatology could be Julie's with its awareness of the 'living union of all creation in and with God… '242 and its emphasis on Christ as 'the primordial model of the creature created in the image of God'243.

234 Linscott, , The Fourth Essential, p. 7.235 Johnson, Elizabeth A., Friends of God and Prophets, (London, SCM, 1998) p. 216.236 Anselm Min, The Solidarity of Others in a Divided World, (New York, T&T Clark, 2004). 237 See Kirsteen Kim, Mission in the Spirit - The Holy Spirit in Indian Christian Theologies, (Delhi, SPCK, 2003)

Samuel Rayan, Ch. 4.238 Anselm Min, quoting Jürgen Moltmann, God in creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God 1985, P 203: 'it is the same Spirit "indwelling" her (God’s) creation by a sort of kenòsis of self-limitation, self-humiliation, and self-surrender who creates by giving life; empowers both nature and history to transcend themselves toward the final kingdom, suffering and sighing for the liberation in both: and brings about the eschatological renewal of all things as the power of the resurrection.'239 Robert, Paul, Microrobert, Dictionnaire du Français Primordial, (Paris, S.N.L., 1971) : 'l’anéantissement: destruction complète.'240 The making way, in oneself, for the Spirit of God., Julie expresses as a self abnegation in the context of the crucified Jesus. She understands this a part of the kenosis entailed in following Jesus through the cross, hopefully to the resurrection.241 Anselm Min, p.126: '… the Holy Spirit is the divine energy that creates, redeems and re-creates all reality. She is a cosmological power - the divine breath, wind, power, and force - that creates natures, liberates it from futility and transience, prepares it for human solidarity, and transforms it for its ultimate, eschatological re-creation.'242 Anselm Min, p 100: 'The biblical images of the Spirit…. is … the doctrine of how God "sublates" the very 'dividing wall of hostility"(Eph. 2:14) between transcendence and immanence, Creator and creature, as perpetrated by fallen creation, into the living union of all creation in and with God….'243 Anselm Min, p. 149: 'The Holy Spirit creates, redeems, and re-creates all things precisely by bringing things together in Christ as the primordial model of the creature created in the image of God.'

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In her ‘conferences’ Julie moves between Spirit, Christ and the good God in an irenical way that is reminiscent of Min:

We are sanctified in the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ. The function of the Spirit is to be understood only in relation to Jesus as Christ, as the function of Jesus Christ is to be understood only in relation to God the Father244.

No more than Min does Julie confuse the Three, but somehow experiences the Spirit as drawing her into the Trinitarian relationship, as Min suggests:

the Spirit unites and introduces us into the communion of the Son with the Father, accomplishing the 'mystery' of God's salvific will. In this sense the Spirit is 'the principle of the communion of the saints', 'the animating power of the economy', and 'the universal contact point between God and history'245.

It is here we begin to see how important Julie’s ‘rapture of action’ is for SNDs and others. It could open globalisation to the transfiguring activity of God in history.What Julie seems to be saying246, without the theology to substantiate her knowledge, is also like the theologising of Rayan as reported by Kirstin Kim247:

‘Spirituality is life in the Spirit, living by the Breath of God’… understanding ‘the Spirit’ as the Hebrew ruach, Rayan defines spiritual life as ‘human life, the whole of human life inspired and led by the Spirit, the energizing presence and activity of God’248.

He almost echoes Julie when he looks at contemplation (?rapture) and actionSpirituality is a combination of contemplation and action, which … should not be de-linked but should ‘interpenetrate’ each other. 249

As with Julie, this is in the context of the spiritual life, and with Ryan it comes in his understanding of the Spirit who impels the struggle for liberation 250. Such theologising can put further content into Julie’s ‘rapture of action’ for today with the Spirit of God impelling for unimaginable liberation. The Spirit as the Breath of God is the creating power in and directing history to an end beyond human imagination. As the Spirit of Jesus, and in Christians 'it is responsible for the desire for a more human life'. 251

This is the impulse of the Spirit to which SNDs (and, I suggest, all Christians) are called to be docile. To foster this ‘docility’ Julie talks at length about the interior life, as does Rayan, and certainly Julie seems to agree with him that

this interiority, far from removing us from worldly concerns, leads to ‘greater, deeper involvement in our earthly task of liberating252.

244 Anselm Min, p. 96.245 Anselm Min, p. 121: 'By liberating us from the law, sin, and death, and empowering us to transcend ourselves in solidarity with those who are different, the Spirit unites and introduces us into the communion of the Son with the Father, accomplishing the "mystery” of God's salvific will. In this sense the Spirit is "the principle of the communion of the saints.” the animating power of the economy", and "the universal contact point between God and history.'246 See Appendix E.247 Kim, Ch. 4. 248 Kim, p. 162.249 Kim, p. 166.250 Kim, p. 139: 'His (Rayan’s) distinctive contribution has been to create a pneumatology and spirituality of mission in which the Spirit impels the struggle for liberation.'251 Kim, p. 142.252 Kim, p. 169

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In fact she goes further telling us, that even in a class of agitated little children, if one is living united interiorly with God, then one can see 'caché sous cette enveloppe l’image du bon Dieu'253.

God can be found in the whole of creation., and it is the joy of Julie that signals the Spirit, In the ferment of every creative and liberative movement, Rayan finds ‘there is the Joy of the Holy Spirit… welling up into life’, which results in all kinds of creative exuberance254.

With Julie’s smile, this affirms her project as ‘creative and liberative’.It might seem extraordinary to point to the joy of Julie when she comes to her knowledge of God from her experience of suffering, of the cross. In one strand of current thinking Julie's positive appreciation of this way of knowing God calls simply for rejection - who wants a God who comes through suffering? What is interesting is the way women do discover an affinity with a God who joins them in their suffering

The person on the Cross, who was rendered a no-body illuminates the tragedy of human existence and speaks to countless women in Asia. Women see Jesus as the God who takes human form and suffers and weeps with us255. (I would suggest that this is wider than merely for women in Asia)

The experiences of the young and middle-aged Julie are of a suffering in which Julie got to know God so well. The God who is known alongside in suffering is known in an sympathetic256 solidarity of loving presence. In a move away from a perception of an all powerful, impassive, transcendent God, a God discovered/encountered alongside in suffering shows a God so much in love with humanity that humanity is left totally free, and the sufferings engendered within that freedom are utterly shared by God. God is not the One who takes suffering away. God is the One who is engaged intimately with humanity, suffering with them. Simply the presence of God within suffering provides salvation through it.This is emphasised by Jesus, God incarnate, who suffered on the cross. The manner in which Jesus was/is raised from the dead (very bodily) evinces the fact that this is not an escapism into an idealistic heaven but rather the affirmation (blind hope) of the possibility of a transfigured future, the way to which is opened by Jesus.The tradition of an impassible God might be a problem. It may be the lack of systematisation of her thought that allowed Julie to avoid an irruption of denial of the possibility of God actually sharing suffering. More positively it is the fact that she keeps her eyes on Jesus (in whom God became human) and so the problem does not arise. Even more positive I suggest, is how she talks of being the home of the Spirit of God through all of life257. In this way she moves into a knowing of God as being in herself and in the whole of creation258, not limited by creation, but sharing its suffering259 and sharing its delight.

253 'hidden in this envelope the image of the good God.' 254 Kim, p. 170.255 Kwok Pui Lan, 'Feminist theology : "Passion from the womb".' In newsletter Info on Human Development, Asian Partnership for Human Development.256 See the meaning of OED: 'a real affinity between certain things, by virtue of which they are similarly affected by the same influence.'257 From Julie, Appendix E: 'il ne suffit pas de se remplir de l'esprit du bon Dieu pendant la sainte oraison, il faut conserver en soi cet esprit divin ; et Il établira en nous sa demeure si nous vivons d'une vie surnaturelle, d 'une vie de mort continuelle à tout ce qu'exige la vie des sens, l'esprit de la volante propres ; la vie surnaturelle transforme notre vie en une oraison interrompue.'258 Min, p. 100: 'The biblical image of the Spirit…. is … the doctrine of how God "sublates" the very 'dividing wall of hostility"(pH. 2:14) between transcendence and immanence, Creator and creature, as perpetrated by fallen creation, into the living union of all creation in and with God.'259 See Stations of the forest, which include the forest and creation in the story of Christ's passion.

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The proposal that God shares in the suffering of creation and humanity because of a relationship of love gives grounds for the hope of an encompassing resurrection. It also opens the door to a motivation for engagement in action related to globalisation. The shortfall in the achievement of the MDG, for example, obviously results in suffering for people and for creation260, and this is shared by God. While we can have blind261 hope in God to provide resurrection, still love will impel to action in mitigation if not arrestation of that which is causing suffering, not just for our companions and the earth but for God who shares all of creation's suffering.That God shares in the suffering does not in itself absolve God from responsibility for it. Such a responsibility could arise from God's role as creator, if we think of a static already completed creation. But if we move to the idea of a more dynamic continual creation from chaos under the power of the Spirit, then a move through suffering becomes part of the dynamic of creation itself. Thus Julie's insistence on being always filled with this Spirit can be seen as our own involvement in the continual creative activity of God. This is where Julie's knowing of God as good urges response in the face of globalisation. As I have suggested above, Julie's 'Ah qu'il est bon, le bon Dieu' is looking at good as God sees it and to which we are all called. If the first biblical story of creation262 is read as a report of an event concluded in the past, then the exclamation 'and God saw that it was good' has to be untrue, so much of what is does not correspond with the little we know of goodness. If the story is an indication of what is happening now - creation under the impulsion of the Holy Spirit and with collaboration of humanity, then the task is to make that exclamation true. We need to see the shortfall in goodness and do something about it. It will be our docility to the Holy Spirit263 that will enable our collaboration in God's creating so that we and all creation will reach the goodness to which God calls us. The joy and confidence of Julie, which we might share can come from the same understanding as that of St Paul who writes in his letter to the Romans (Ch 8, 28) that

We know that by turning everything to their good God co-operates with all those who love him, all those he has called according to his purpose264.

If we accept a role for humanity in the continuing creation impelled by the Spirit, then concomitant to Julie's exclamation about the goodness of God has to be an engagement with the creating action of God in bringing all things to good.In addition to this share in creating the good, Julie’s awareness of the goodness of God can also encourage an awareness of the giftedness of humanities being. If the goodness we know comes through the creative activity of God then the appropriate attitude in the face of creation, other humans and God is a reverent gratitude/thankfulness.Julie speaks of this vision of God and how she expects people, not just acquire it at the level of thought, but how to ensure that we become a real home for the Holy Spirit, for the God who Julie knows. Then the 'rapture of action' is a real collaboration in the creative activity of the Spirit, through the cross toward goodness. This means that Julie does not give us, and nor can we expect from her, any specific strategy in the face of globalisation. She does not provide an ideology for tackling globalisation there is no template for action. Instead Julie encourages a liberty of spirit with any activity coming from the spirit within and true liberty coming in a collaboration with the indwelling Holy Spirit265.

260 See MDG G. Ensure environmental sustainability.261 As distinct from an expectation where we know what we want God to do or that God should do.262 Gen. 1:1-31.263 According to Julie, see Appendix E.264 Jerusalem Bible, Romans 8.28.265

Incidentally, with this stance comes the basic Christian critique of the anthropology underpinning liberal economic globalisation. As a home for the Holy Spirit of God, there can be no question of persons or any part of them, being considered as a commodity, nor is 'consumer' an adequate characterisation of a human person.

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The practical results of Julie's liberty of spirit as she acted and reflected in her own time could provide some guides for life now in the face of globalisation, for example her insistence on free education for poor girls and common property among her sisters. Her legacy of a global community led by a woman, won through a struggle to be free to follow the spirit,. might be a useful model in the face of globalisation266.In the exploration of globalisation above there is the question of whether it is possible to see a future for our world. It is difficult to see where that might lie, in fact I think it is impossible. Maybe the best thing to be done at such an impasse is to move into contemplation. Julie is an inspiration affirming this with action integrated. Not contemplation then action, not just contemplation instead of action but a continual rapture of action and operation: a contemplation in action. The harmony I am seeking can come only in the rapture Julie experiences in her action.

V. CONCLUSIONThis paper opened with two of my own experiences: in a religious pilgrimage; and in political/economic lobbying. I suggested that what harmonises them might be found in Julie's vision of God. This harmony does not come in a socio-political strategy. Nor does it come in a well worked out theology. It comes, as liberation theologians suggest it should, in liberative praxis. A praxis in the face of globalisation, which is engaged in with the life-giving, creating Spirit of God, bringing all things to good.

Words 20 065

266 See Boseley, Sarah, 'Only greater rights for women can end poverty, warns UN.': Governments must tackle inequality, says report. Education identified as key to social, The Guardian, Thursday October 13, 2005.

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GLOSSARYGENERAL

CSO Civil Society Organisation

Economic Directorate of the European Union

Used of what is now the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission

EU European Union

GATT General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs

IMF International Monetary Fund

IO International Organisations

MAI Multilateral Agreement on Investment

MDG Millennium Development Goals

NGO Non-Governmental Organisations

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

TNCs TransNational Corporations

TRIPS Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights

UN United Nations Organisation

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

HDI Human Development Index

VAT II Second Vatican Council

WCC World Council of Churches

WTO World Trade Organisation

SPECIFIC TO COMMUNITYCongregation/Institute

(technically, in Roman Catholic Church) a group of people publically professing the evangelical counsels and recognised by ecclesiastical authority.Here, the group of women started by Julie

Constitutions These are at once a statement of charism and spirituality, and a concrete provision for life and mission in harmony with Church law.

Foundress (female) The one who establishes an instituteJ&P Justice and Peace

A generic term given, in the RC church, to groups working for justice in the world, probably originating in the name of the ‘Pontifical Commission ‘Justitia et Pax’’

orthodoxy right thoughtorthopraxis right actionReligious A member of a ‘congregation’ as aboveSND/SNDeN Sister of Notre Dame /de NamurSuperior General The person elected by members of an Institute(as above) and confirmed by

ecclesiastic authority to govern the entire Institute

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Websiteshttp://catholique-beauvais.cef.fr/histoire/temoins/Ste-julie-billiart/ste-julie-billiart.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Systemhttp://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Julie+Billiart http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/pdf/hdr03_overview.pdfhttp://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/pdf/presskit/HDR03_PR4E.pdfhttp://www.aclu.orghttp://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj69.htm http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/BILLIART.htm http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0813372.htmlhttp://www.globescan.com/sose_highlights/sose04-2_highlights.pdfhttp://www.globescan.com/sose_highlights/sose04-2_highlights.pdfhttp://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08559a.htmhttp://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13009a.htm http://www.roughguide-betterworld.com/index.htmhttp://www.snd1.org/Julie.html http://www.snd1.org/past_to_present.html http://www.sndden.orghttp://www.tiberiade.be/fr/enspdf/saints/bililard.pdfhttp://www.undp.org/mdg/http://www.worldwatch.org/press/news/2005/01/12/http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/lowcountries/belgnap.html

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APPENDICES

A Julie's story/experience

B Millennium Development Goals

C Report of the Notre Dame International Justice and Peace Meeting

D From Reuters re: Dorothy Stang. SND

Ee (English)On the Supernatural Life

Ef (French)De la Vie Surnaturelle.

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Julie's story/experience

Early yearsJulie's parents lived in Cuvilly, a small village about 12mls to the north-west of Compiègne, in Picardy. It is near the high road from Paris to Flanders. The sixth child, one of only three surviving, Julie was born in 1751. She was baptised in the village church, St Eloi, and attended the village school, run by her uncle. Her father had a small piece of land and a small draper's shop, so the family could, at first, make a good living. From an early age, Julie was an ardent member of the church. When she was 7 years old the parish priest died to be replaced by Abbé Dangicourt. The latter was a highly educated and spiritul priest and allowed Julie to take communion early at the age of 9yrs while encouraging and supporting her frequent prayer267. The Cardinal bishop of Beauvais confirmed her in 1764, when she received a relic of the true cross from a Knight of Malta. The following year she made a vow of chastity. During these years, she had begun giving instruction to adults and children from the village. This continued when she started working in the fields to support her father whose business had began to decline. In addition, thieves stole stock from their shop and Julie's father sold almost all his land to meet his debts. Following this, Julie travelled long distances in attempts to sell their produce more profitably.

Then came a violent attack on her father, while they were together at home. This was when her nervous disease began268, depriving her of mobility and then of speech. Eight years latter, in an attempt to ameliorate her illness, aggressive treatment, by bleeding, so mutilated one of her feet that it became impossible for her to walk and her niece Felicité started looking after her. At the same time, she continued giving lessons and welcoming the more aristocratic ladies of the neighbourhood to her bedside, for prayer and conversation269.

First impact of the French RevolutionIt was when she was nearly forty that the Revolution in France impacted directly on her life. In 1790, the National Assembly passed the Act of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy that demanded an oath, of submission to civil authority, from all clergy. Julie's parish priest, Abbé Dangicourt refused the oath and was replaced. Julie refused to have any relations with the new parish priest, who had taken the oath. Even more, she did what she could to influence the people of Cuvilly to have nothing to do with the new man. This brought the revolutionaries after her and she accepted refugee with Madame Ponte L 'Abbé in her Château of Gournay-sur-Aronde. Madame soon had to flee overseas herself and Julie was left with Felicité in the Château. The revolutionaries followed her there. To escape them, she had to be concealed in a hay cart and transported away in it, to Compiègne. It was during this time that Julie's father died.

Still paralysed, unable to walk or talk, Julie had to change lodging five times in the three years she was in Compiègne. (It was during this time, tradition says Julie had a vision of the Institute she would found, and of the women who would join her in it.) Eventually, in 1794, through the offices of one of her friends from Cuvilly days, Mme Baudoin (whose husband was guillotined), Julie eventually found refugee in Amiens, in the house of Viscount Blin de Bourdon.

Julie's friend, Françoise Blin de BourdonThe Blin de Bourdons were aristocrats with estates at Gézaincourt and Bourdon. At the time Julie was hiding in Compiègne, the Bourdon family had been imprisoned and was awaiting the guillotine, from which the execution of Robspierre (July 28-9, 1794) saved them. When they were released, they moved to their house in Amiens. It was here Julie found relative safety and her aristocratic friends could start

267NOTES? In her youth Julie was engaged in contemplation for up to 8hrs a day, though this became difficult to sustain as she grew older (information from the SND UK Province archivist).268 For which there is medical explanation.269 In To Heaven on Foot, P 8, Sr. Mary Linscott suggests that even at the age of 15yrs 'It was partly her goodness, partly her urgency, partly her vivacity and her shear joy in telling a story that captivated her listeners, but her charm was irresistible'.

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visiting again. The daughter of the Blin de Bourdons, Françoise, who had been imprisoned in the Carmel (1794), joined them. Eventually she looked to Julie for spiritual direction and they became friends.

Also in Amiens was Abbé Thomas who eventually became a Father of the Faith. He brought communion to Julie and acted as her confessor. He had been a Doctor of the Sorbonne and had escaped execution but had to remain hidden. In addition to Françoise, other younger women joined the circle round Julie. This was not the start of the Institute, but a sort of prefiguring of it. The next year, 1795, Julie's mother died and Françoise went to Gézaincourt to wind up her grandmother's affairs. She then ceded to her brother the title and property of Gézaincourt, which had been settled on her by her grandparents. Following this, Françoise joined her father in Bourdon, as he faced his death.

On her return to Amiens after her father's death, Françoise joined Julie and they soon (1799) moved, with Père Thomas, to Bettencourt to escape the increasing harassments after the coup of 1797. When in Bettencourt, while Père Thomas instructed the men, Julie and Françoise taught the women and children. It was here, in Bettencourt, that Julie first met Père Varin who visited to negotiate the transfer of a school to the Fathers of the Faith (these were formed to keep alive the Jesuits when the latter were proscribed and Varin was at this time their superior)Salvation prepared for all nations 270 When they returned to Amiens in 1803, they continued their work of teaching and, in the light of Bishop Villaret's interest in the revival of religious teaching, P. Varin instructed Julie to found a religious teaching Institute. The initial idea was to serve the villages of northern France. On Feb 2nd 1803, Julie, Françoise and Catherine Duchâtel (who later returned to the Ladies of the Sacred Heart) renewed their vows and added a further dedication to the Christian education of girls and the training of teachers. For Julie and Françoise, it would always be poor girls and they refused to allow payment for schooling271. Tradition in the Institute says that, on this day, Julie had an inspiration from God that 'her daughters should one day carry the message of the Gospel to the nations sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death'272.

Julie was still incapacitated by her illness, but in 1804, they accepted 8 orphan girls into their house in the Rue Neuve and Julie went to assist the Fathers of the Faith in a mission they were running. In the course of that mission, she was cured of her illness, recovering her speech and the ability to walk. In the same year, they welcomed a new bishop to Amiens, Bishop Demandolx, who, in 1805 approved their first Constitution and Julie became the first Superior General. By 1806, their numbers had risen to 18 sisters and they received provisional recognition by the State, which was confirmed by Napoleon in 1807.

Consolidating to NamurAlso in 1806, Julie met the bishop of Ghent, Mgr de Broglie, and at his invitation, took her first step outside the diocese of Amiens, to found a convent in the diocese of Ghent, only stipulating that, before starting, she must have Flemish postulants. This dispersion from Amiens was confirmed and expanded the following year, 1807, when Julie responded positively to the request of Bishop Pisani de la Gaude for a convent and school in his diocese of Namur.

Meanwhile, in Amiens, prior to moving on (This was the year that Napoleon decreed the dispersal of the FF and the dissolution of their colleges), P. Varin had appointed Abbé de Sambucy, a young intellectual priest who was friendly with the bishop, as the sisters' confessor. This young man wanted to form the institute in the model of older monastic enclosed ones. Julie was quite clear that was not her model: For Julie the sisters would not be confined to one place, but could be sent where they were needed; nor would

270 Lk. 2:32 Jerusalem Bible, from Gospel for Feast of Feb 2nd.271 It is fascinating that, even with her friendship with the aristocrats, Julie still opted for the poor, one wonders whether this came from her rootedness in scripture..272 De Chantal, F, Julie Billiart and her Institute, Longmans, Green and Co Ltd., London, 1938, p. 40.

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the Institute be confined to one diocese, they could respond to need throughout the world. For this, the superior general would have to have control of the government of the institute.

The struggle with this young man began early and is important for the future direction of Julie's institute. Though he had no authority over the women, he had the ear of the bishop, who did. Just before those named by Julie were to leave Amiens for Namur, Sambucy came with an order from the bishop for a change - that Françoise should be superior there, not the sister named by Julie. They acceded. He also laid hands on the finance being held by Julie and Françoise. Julie had money for the purchase of a larger house, (from Françoise and Mme. de Franssu) this Sambucy demanded, as a loan, for the Ladies of the Sacred Heart (another institute of women in the Amiens diocese). Julie did get a receipt, nothing more. Françoise's income, he took control of for the house in Amiens.

Then, while Julie was away from Amiens, Sambucy persuaded the bishop to make him the ecclesiastical superior of the convent. His first step was to replace Julie as superior of the house with his own appointee, Victoire. The secular government confirmed this change. So, when the bishop eventually reinstated Julie and demoted Victoire, they still had to work conjointly. Sambucy also blackened Julie's name with many of her erstwhile friends. (The bishop of Ghent (a student of Sambucy) told the superior of St Nicholas "Votre mère est une coureuse"273. Apart from the suffering this caused for Julie, it also, for a time, had her banned from Amiens by the bishop, Demandolx.

For Julie, the main problem with Sambucy's attempted changes was the suppression of her rights as superior general. From now, 1807, until the end of her life, Julie needed to travel to consolidate new foundations. Sambucy's ideas did not allow of this, and he persuaded others of the rightness of his vision. Julie's freedom of movement was curtailed. She did, however, when possible, visit the secondary houses. While at Namur, (1808) she and Françoise were urged by Pisani, the bishop of Namur, to return to Amiens to 'watch over' their financial settlement.

Since the start of the Institute Julie and Françoise had seen themselves as in a period of experimentation and had been in discussion between themselves and with others (e.g. Varin) about a constitution for the new institute. In 1808, the bishop, Demandolx, was persuaded to impose a rule suppressing the office of superior general and the possibility of visitation of secondary houses. At Christmas 1808, this new 'rule' was presented to them. They asked time to reflect, and were refused. On January 11th the next year, 1809, the bishop demanded that Françoise settle her entire income on the Amiens convent. This would have meant the abandonment of all the other houses. After taking time, with Julie, to reflect, Françoise wrote to the bishop refusing. Then, on January 12th, the bishop told Julie to leave and that he intended to take back the house with all the property it contained. Julie pointed out that the property belonged to the institute. She also refused to force young sisters, who she had told would be free to make their own decision, to remain in Amiens at the demand of the bishop. After Julie had left Amiens, various attempts were made (by Sambucy and the Vicar General) to convince the young sisters that they should stay in Amiens. Some priests refused absolution to Françoise unless she supported those attempts. Only a few remained.

Julie left Amiens and arrived in Namur on January 21, In March,1809, she was joined by Françoise. On April 26 came a sort of confirmation of the stand of Julie and Françoise when the bishop of Ghent wrote "Mère Julie, it is your vocation to go anywhere in the world: you are not made to stay in one diocese."

When they moved to Namur, Julie and Françoise left in Amiens the money they had gathered to secure the future of the institute. Julie had to travel to Amiens to retrieve this money. When she did so, Sambucy would only allow her to take the money that belonged to Françoise. She had to return the

273 (The SND UK Province archivist says) in the context of the bishop's perception of female religious life (as monastic and therefore virtually enclosed) this can be translated as a 'gadabout' or the equivalent. Mary Ward had the same problem for the same reason - need to go (and be accepted) where the problems were. Her bishop described her as 'a galloping girl'.1996 Larousse. elle est très coureuse: she's a real man-eater.

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following year to get the balance. Both times, she was given the money in coin that she had to carry by basket in public conveyances.

By 1812, the bishop of Amiens wanted Julie to be superior general to the sisters left in the diocese. Julie travelled again to Amiens and found the house in debt, the pupil numbers falling and the rent crippling. The convent was suppressed in 1813. Finally, the bishop wrote a formal vindication of Julie, recognising her as the superior general of the Sisters of Notre Dame.

Last years and expansionIn the final four years of her life, Julie continued visiting houses of the congregation and founding new ones. By her death in April 1816 Julie, with her friend Françoise, had started convents and schools for poor girls in Amiens, St Nicholas, Montdidier, Chartron, Bordeaux, Namur, Jumet, Rubrempré, Ghent, St Hubert, Gembloux, Fleurus, Andenne, Bresles, Ambleville, Hénecourt, Ghent, Bordeaux, Namur, Chartron, Montdidier, Rubembré, Jumet, St Hubert, Zèle, Andenne, Gembloux, and Fleurus.274 A few of these are still within the environs of Amiens, most, at the end of Julie's life, were in a different country, which became Belgium. Without her insistence on freedom for the superior general, they would not have existed.

After her death, Françoise became Superior General of the Institute, but it was with her successor, Mère Ignace, that Julie's vision of the world-wide nature of her mission started to be realised. In 1840, eight sisters sailed from Antwerp to found a convent and educate girls in the (then) Frontier State of Ohio in North America. As with the dispersal from Amiens, in France, to towns in (what became) Belgium, so the dispersal from Belgium eventually extended across the continents.

What we have here is the bare bones of Julie's life during the latter part of which she was an avid correspondent. From those letters, we get indications of the way her mind was working at the time. What we get little of, is the socio-political-economic situation in which she was living. It is to that we now turn. (Of great help here is an unpublished paper275 by one of the historians in the institute today)

CONTEXT OF JULIE'S LIFE, the French Revolution

Most of Julie's active years were lived during the French Revolution and the subsequent regime of Napoleon. For our purposes, it is perhaps just as important that her early years were spent at home, where her father was a small landowner and a draper.

Socio-economicJulie was rooted in the land and spent time working on it, with local people, in Picardy. Here the land is rich and, in good years, there is/was a high level of agricultural productivity. But, in Julie's time, there was discontent among the rural population in Picardy, not least because of the prevalent sharecropping system. Even with the good soil, there were frequent famines exacerbated by heavy taxes and refusal of the nobility to agree to changes in the distribution of tax liability. In the year Julie's mother died, 1797, there was a year of famine throughout France276 and about a third of Amiens population were made indigent.

The era in which Julie lived, as well as being that of the French revolution, was also that of the industrial revolution. This was scarcely beginning in France, but (like today) a major step was that of the expansion of the textile industry, with major centres in Beauvais and Amiens. With this Julie must have been familiar, both from her journeys to sell her fathers goods, and from her conversations in the fields with

274 Linscott, Sr. Mary SND, Quiet Revolution, Burns, Glasgow, 1966, p.43.275 Hayes, Mary, The Life And Times Of Saint Julie Billiart, unpublished paper in the Archives of the British Province of ND, 1987.276 Jones, Derek and Gardiner, Juliet (eds.) The French Revolution, Channel 4 TV, London, 1984.

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rural workers who were likely involved in piece work for the textile manufacturers. Once she moved to Amiens and worked with the women and children there, she would surely have know the deleterious effect on them of their involvement in the local woollen industry277.

She would have found something similar in Ghent where the mechanisation of cloth production began in Belgium when the spinning jenny was introduced there in 1801278. At this time, Belgium was occupied by France and so came under Napoleon's Continental System banning trade with England. In the textile industry, there would have been positive and negative consequences for those with whom the fledgling Institute was working279. In Namur too, they would have been aware of this trade regime as the Walloon steel and machinery industry had to compensate for lack of imports from England280. For the poor with whom Julie was concerned, the lack of legislation in this economic sphere281 could only have exacerbated their plight.

Revolution and churchWith more direct effect on Julie's life were political steps taken by the revolutionaries in relation to the church. The consequences of the Act of the Civil Constitution of the clergy were felt locally, across France and as far as Rome. Mary Hayes writes, "Regardless of their interpretative frame of reference, virtually all historians of the Revolution agree that the action of the National Assembly to require the oath was a turning point in the course of the Revolution". 282 The Civil Constitution established the church as part of the State and in February 1791, the first bishops of constitutional church were elected and religious orders and monastic vows were suppressed 283. In April the same year, the Papal Bull Cavitas condemned the Constitution284, and in November, by a Decree of the Assembly,285 clergy were required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Constitution The response was different across the country. Where Julie lived, in the diocese of Beauvais, the majority of the clergy took the oath. So, her support of Abbé Dangicourt, who refused the oath and her stand against his replacement, made her a target for the revolutionaries. Hence, she had to flee. This first major displacement of Julie was a direct consequence of her refusal to comply with legislation promulgated by the Assembly. She escaped the revolutionaries by fleeing to Compiègne, a relatively safer location, though she still needed to change her accommodation five times. She remained there for the most intense period286 of the dechristianisation campaign, when the entire community of Carmelites at Compiègne was executed.

While the Civil Constitution wanted to integrate the church into the State, the subsequent dechristianisation campaign, starting in 1797, aimed at eradicating Catholicism287 with 'draconian persecution of the clergy'288. By this time, Julie was in Amiens where the municipal authorities were

277 It is interesting that, in Britain the sisters were initially concentrated in the area of textile mills in north west UK Both countries were at the beginning of the industrial revolution and provide an example of why for tariffs need to be removed from textiles in today's trade talks, cf. Bangladesh and China.278 see http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/lowcountries/belgnap.html279 see http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/lowcountries/belgnap.html 'The Continental System then protected the Belgian textile industry against English imports. It also interrupted the import of overseas raw materials such as American cotton, thus impacting the Flemish cotton industry.'280 http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/lowcountries/belgnap.html281 van Kalken, Frans, Histoire de Belgique, Office de Publicité, Bruxelles, 1956 p 504 (up to 1814) 'le Régime de la liberté économique illimitée prive le prolétariat industriel de tout protection légal. Par suite de l'abondance de la main d'œuvre, les salaire sont très bas. Femmes et enfants exécutent un travail exténuant dans les filatures et dans les mine…. Le droit de coalition est interdit aux ouvres; ils ne peuvent former de syndicats ne se mettre en grève.'282 Hayes, Mary, The Life And Times Of Saint Julie Billiart, unpublished paper in the Archives of the British Province of ND, 1987.283 Jones, Derek and Gardiner, Juliet (eds.) The French Revolution, Channel 4 TV, London, 1984.284 Derek and Gardiner.285 Derek and Gardiner.286 Tallet, Frank, Decristianizing France: The Year II and the Revolutionary Experience, in Tallet, Frank and Atkin, Nichols (ed.), Religion and politics in France since 1789, Hambledon Press, London, 1991, p.1.287 Tallet, p. 1.288 Tallet, p. 19.

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dismissed and churches closed. Again she had to move, to Bettencourt with Père Thomas and Françoise, and this is when her more formal ministry began, in catechetical education of the women and children.

Napoleon was crowned as emperor the year that Julie moved finally to Namur. The same year, he began working against the church289. In 1809, he annexed the Pontifical states and Interned Pope Pius VII at Fountainebleau290.

In subsequent years, bishops who expressed support of the rights of the church, including de Broglie of Ghent, were imprisoned in Vincennes291. The bishop of Namur, Pisani, was saved by a friend and suspected of unorthodoxy. As his friend, Julie came under the shadow of this suspicion, even with some of her Institute. None of this stopped her, when the opportunity arose, seeking a personal blessing for the institute from Pope Pius VII when he was held prisoner by Napoleon in Fontainebleau

Changing contextThe activities against the church in these years not only made a difference to Julie's life; they also made a difference to the church she knew. "The Revolution not only deprived it (the laity) of a priesthood, but also devalued the authority of the priests. "Confronted by the oath to the Civil Constitution, the clergy revealed itself to be divided and in disarray"292

Many of the priests who worked with Julie were part of the Fathers of the Faith. Père Varin was of particular help to her. In 1807, when Napoleon decreed the dispersal of the Fathers of the Faith, Varin had to leave. It was then that Julie entered her struggle for autonomy with Sambucy.

Though the clergy were in disarray in the face of the civil oath, there was resistance to it in rural France, especially from women.293 The resistance may have initially been a negative response to a shift of authority from church to State, but it developed into a marginal internal shift of authority within the church, from clerics to women/lay.

Mills reports that "On the eve of the French Revolution the male personnel of the church outnumbered the female by at least two to one, across the nineteenth century that sexual disparity in vocation was reversed"294. One sign of this is the number of women's religious congregations that were started after the revolution - 400 between 1800 and 1880295 with 250,000 women joining them. Julie was not alone in her venture.

Nor was Julie alone in envisioning a congregation of a different form, not monastic (see above note 26) without enclosure or stability296. With its orientation to education, directed to wide-ranging charity beyond the convent, Julie's institute was acceptable to Napoleon297, as well as the local bishop. In 1806, she and Françoise drew up 'Les Statuts des Soeurs de l'Association dite de Notre Dame' which was signed by Napoleon in June 1806. But even after such an official approbation, there was still concern that

289 Linscott, Mary SND, This Excellent Heritage: an introduction to the Constitutions of the Sisters of Notre Dame, 1989, internal, p. 9.290 Van Kalken, Frans, Histoire de Belgique. Office de Publicité Bruxelles, 1956'l'Empereur eut annexé les Êtats pontificaux et interné Pie VII à Fountainebleau.'291 van Kalken, p. 507.292 Tallet, p. 19.293 Mills, Hazel, 'Negotiating the Divide: Women, Philanthropy and the 'Public Sphere' in Nineteenth-Century France 'in Tallet, Frank and Atkin, Nichols (eds.), Religion and politics in France since 1789, Hambledon Press, London, 1991. p. 41 '(the)Revolution of 1789-99, which in its most radical phase pursued a policy of de Christianization… met enormous resistance in provincial France, it had been women above all, certainly from 1796 onwards who had queued outside boarded up churches… and run clandestine masses and religious ceremonies.'294 Mills, p. 44.295 Tallet, p. 23.296 Mills, p. 32.297 Mills, p. 45: 'There had arisen since the counter-Reformation an alternative type of female order more directed to wide-ranging charity beyond the convent. This newer model was favoured by the politics of the Revolution and Napoleon's empire.'

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Napoleon would move in and consolidate all the womens' congregations into two: one nursing and one teaching.It was not just women for whom space was cleared at the time of the revolution. With the dechristianisation campaign, the door of the church was opened to the laity, as the number of priests tumbled. 298 Though an ecclesial community the Sisters of Notre Dame are not cleric, but lay, and the revolution could be considered a facilitating factor299 in their creation.

EducationIt was not just in the church that the revolution provided space, in society it provided space for education. Effectively the only provider of education, the church, was destroyed, and after 1793, a whole band of children missed out300. There was room for a new approach to education, of which Julie and Françoise took advantage. In Belgium too, there was a gap: where there had been schools, there was nothing301. There was plenty of space for education by Julie, Françoise and their sisters when they moved there.

Even though Julie was, for some of her life, completely paralysed, still the fact that there was a revolution is an indication of the endemic turmoil of the society round her. From the time of her move to Compiègne, she was rarely out of the storm engulfing the society. At the end of her life, her last year in Namur was the year that Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo. First, the Prussians were forced to retreat via Namur and other towns where the sisters lived (Jumet, Gembloux, and Fleurus) then, on Napoleon's defeat; the French army retreated through the towns. But even so, Julie kept visiting her sisters, to assure herself of their safety,

Though it was in Belgium that the institute finally became established, it was only at the end of Julie's life that the country gained a measure of independent existence, due to the insistence of the British on denying the port of Antwerp to the French302. Prior to this, since Nov. 1792, Belgium had been occupied by the French army and under the Continental System. In 1814, it was united with Holland to become part of the United Netherlands, under William of Orange303. Even then, the protocol of London constrained national legislation to guarantee freedom of conscience. This was not to the liking of, at least, the Bishop of Ghent, whose opposition led to his deportation304.

Time of turmoil There was nothing stable about the time when Julie started the institute and there was a burgeoning awareness of the smallness of the global community (cf. the possibility of deportation, in the case of non-juring priests, to French Guiana.305)

298 Tallet, p. 15: ' The absence of a clerical hierarchy during the 1790s, and in particular the virtual elimination of a priesthood in the year II (1793-4) generated a need, and made room for, much greater lay activity in religious matter. Insofar as religious instruction of the young was carried on in 1793-4 and subsequently it was done in the home.'299 Tallet, p. 22: ' There is little doubt that a laicization of religion must be numbered as one of th?e enduring effects of the Revolution.'300 Tallet, p. 12.301 van Kalken, p. 508: ' l'enseignement primaire, il avait virtuellement disparu, à cause de l'anarchie générale. La loi du 1er mai 1802 réorganisa l'instruction publique, dans un sens étatiste et centralisateur … La liberté de l'enseignement fut entièrement annihilée?….En Belgique, les communes, négligentes et généralement sand ressources, laissèrent les écoles primaires à l'abandon.'302 Palmer, Alan, Encyclopaedia of Napoleon's Europe, Weindenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1984: 'Belgium1813-14 Peace negotiations : Napoleon insisted that Belgium would have to remain French, Castlereagh, for Britain, consistently rejected any peace terms which would have left Antwerp a French port.'303 Palmer.'Belgium: 1814, the June 21 protocol provided for the union of Belgium and Holland in a Kingdom of the United Netherlands.'304 van Kalken, P520-21: 'Le Loi fondamentale de 1815 … se conformant … en cela aux résolutions du protocole de Londres, avait garanti à ses sujets la liberté de conscience et des cultes… le 26 mai 1814, l'intolérant Maurice de Broglie (de Gand) avait entamé une violent campagne contre les susdites libertés … L'évêché de Gand lança un Jugement doctrinal défendant aux catholiques de prêter les serments prescrits par la Constitution … Maurice de Broglie fut condamné à la déportation et mourut en France en 1821.'305 Tallet, p. 10.

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Though Julie makes little reference to the major changes taking place round her, still one can sense awarenesses of those living in that epoch. These would have remained in the 'aquis' of the congregation as sisters followed her and were deliberately formed in her spirit. When we consider the globalisation of today, there will certainly be echoes of some of the themes here and it will be interesting to find is there any echo possible in present day responses - from the way Julie responded.

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Millennium Development Goals

SOURCES OF FACTS http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/pdf/hdr03_overview.pdfState of the World 2005 - Press Release Worldwatch Institute News, January 12, 2005The silent epidemic stalking women, World Health, Guradian Weekly, April 1-7 2005http://www.roughguide-betterworld.com/index.htm

Present situation Millennium Development Goals UN Nation State members have pledged to:

In 19 countries more than one person in four is going hungry, and the situation is failing to improve or getting worse. In 21 countries the hunger rate has increase..World-wide, nearly two billion people suffer from hunger and chronic nutrient deficiencies . (2005)

A. Eradicate extreme poverty and hungerReduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and those who suffer from hunger

some 115 million children do not attend primary school (Human Development Report 2003)

B. Achieve universal primary educationEnsure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

gaping gender gaps remain, three-fifths of the 115 million children out of school are girls, and two-thirds of the 876 million illiterate adults are women.Women produce much of the food in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia yet do not have secure access to land.

C. Promote gender equality and empower womenEliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education

10.6 million children under five die from preventable conditions each year.(April 2003)

D. Reduce child mortalityReduce by two-thirds the number of children who die before their fifth birthday

More than half a million women die from pregnancy related causes … each year.(April 2003)

E. Improve maternal healthReduce by three-quarters the number of women who die in childbirth

In sub-Saharan Africa, the devastation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is responsible for the declines in the 2003 Human Development Index. Life expectancy has fallen dramatically with HIV/AIDS incidence rates as high as one in five in some countries. ( 2005)

F Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseasesHalt and begin to reverse the spread of these killer diseases

World-wide, 434 million people currently face water scarcity. Insufficient access to water is a major cause of lost rural livelihoods, compelling farmers to abandon their fields and fuelling conflicts. The degradation of ecosystems is harming many of the world's poorest people and is sometimes the principal factor causing poverty - 1.8 million people die annually due to inadequate hygiene, sanitation or water supply. (2003)

G Ensure environmental sustainabilityMake sure the environment is protected, so that future generations can continue to benefit from itCut in half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking waterSignificantly improve life for 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

Today, for example, only 10% of global spending on medical research and development is directed at the diseases of the poorest 90%of the world’s people.

Twenty- six countries have benefited from debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries HIPC initiative, with eight of them having reached the completion point — much more needs to be done not only for more countries to benefit, but also to ensure that countries’ debt burdens are really sustainable.(HDR 2003)

H. Develop a global partnership for developmentThis includes developing an open but fair trading system, boosting freedom, justice and democracy, helping countries improve their exports, providing more debt relief aid and making vital drugs more easily available

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Issues of common importanceimmigrantsfreetradeelections : corruption and violence,

education of the electoratelandglobal warmingwomen's' position: in society, in work for change

militarisation and the use of Space for espionage and weapons

people to speak for themselves locally and internationally

anti-racismnon-violenceinternational debt

REPORT OF THE NOTRE DAME INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND PEACE MEETING7 - 10 November, 2004 Ipswich, MaFor the first time in ND, on the evening of November 9th 2004, a group of sisters from 14 Units, 5 continents, CLT, J&P, UN, CMO, met to explore our common commitment to justice and peace. With the help of a translator and a facilitator, we began forming relationships by praying together and then talking to and getting to know (a little) one other sister, before introducing her to the rest of the group. Each also spoke about issues of importance in her Unit.

After this some sisters spoke of their work for Notre Dame or about an area special of interest/concernSND J&P office: Maura Browne explained the Justice and Peace related intranet files, the Web Page and the CDs she has made for everyone..

SND presence at the UN: Joan Burke spoke about the United Nations and our part in the organisation as one of the 3500 recognised NGOs

Trade: Margaret Clark talked about the World Trade Organisation (WTO) making trade rules that are legally enforceable internationally. Such rules will include services like water, health care, education, etc. which are considered as commodities which can be 'freely' traded

Brazil: Joan Krimm gave the history and an update where Dot Stang has been working with the people in the Amazon region there to teach them sustainable farming. We have been asked to send letters to the Minister of Justice in Brasilia about the accusation of Dot being the leader of organised crime

Social Analysis: Mary Margaret Pignone explained social analysis using materials produced by Fredericka Jacob for a NDMV workshop. She suggested that we try to get the “Training for Transformation” manual.

OUR DREAM FOR A JUST WORLDThen we moved to dreaming of how, as SNDs, we might more effectively continue our contribution to a just and peaceful world. Our conversation acknowledged the blessings and responsibilities of our being sisters round the world, working hand in hand, exchanging information and acting together on some common agenda, but each in their own environment. Certainly difficulties in networking and exerting influence were seen and conversation started about addressing them. In geographical groups we tried to become more practical -talking about how to work together continentally. In different groups we prioritised three issues which included :

Fair Trade Displacement of peoples Trafficking Global warming

Control of womenInequality among peoples Male global industrial military complexRelationships : Conversion of heart ND a social movement ND potential power

A main theme emerged: protect the whole of lifeWe decided to state the theme as it is written in John 10/10 (Jerusalem bible)

“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”and suggest four issues for action, with sisters being point persons for each:

Migration/immigration (trafficking) - Sisters Kathy Gorman, Marie PrefontaineTrade (debt, economy, environment) - Sisters Margaret Clark, Barbara FickerMilitarisation of Space - Sister Mary Margaret Pignone

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Health - Sister Ani Whibey You are invited to join a group by contacting the named sister or through the icon on the Intranet.

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12 February 2005 20:45:49 SND News From: Paul Carr.Subject:From Reuters re: Dorothy Stang. SNDTo: SND NewsAmerican Nun Shot Dead in Brazil's Amazon  Saturday, February 12, 2005 6:33 p.m. ET By Leonardo Pedro

BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) - A 74-year-old American nun was shot to death early on Saturday in Brazil's Amazon rain forest, where she worked for decades to defend human rights and the environment despite constant death threats.

Two gunmen shot U.S. missionary Dorothy Stang in an isolated jungle settlement of landless peasants 30 miles from the town of Anapu in the state of Para, police and fellow religious workers said. "It was three shots at point-blank range," said Sister Betsy Flynn of Stang's order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. "She received so many threats; I just never thought it would happen."

"Two hired gunmen have now been identified and there are other people involved. There are witnesses that will be protected," Human Rights Minister Nilmario Miranda said in an interview on national television. He used the word "pistoleiro," used in Brazil to describe a contract killer.

Brazil's government compared the killing of the award-winning activist to that of legendary Amazon campaigner Chico Mendes, who was gunned down in 1988 and became a martyr in the fight to save the rain forest and protect its people.President Luiz Inacio Lula sent ministers and police teams to the area to carry out a manhunt and investigation.

His government expressed outrage that Stang should be slain just two weeks after it launched a national human rights program from the Belem state capital.

"This type of cruel, vile crime reveals complete lack of respect for the law and democracy," Brazilian Justice Minister Tomaz Bastos said in a statement. "It will not go without punishment."Only this month, Stang warned Miranda she and landless workers faced continual death threats.Stang was on a list of human rights workers who face possible assassination. The list was compiled by the Brazilian Order of Lawyers (OAB), a nationwide lawyers group.

The OAB said she accepted the threats as part of her work persuading hired gunmen not to attack peasant camps and reporting the human rights abuses of land speculators, illegal loggers and large ranchers, the OAB said.

Stang, who had lived in Brazil for more than three decades, recently won an OAB human rights award for her work in the areaof the Trans-Amazonian highway. The state of Para named her woman of the year."This death is just more encouragement to continue her work to confront the people who are destroying the forest," said Meire Cohen of the OAB. "She used to walk kilometers and kilometers in the middle of the forest teaching women how to take better care of their children and use the forest without destroying it."

The U.S. Embassy in Brazil said it was "concerned" by Stang's death. She was a native of Ohio."We trust there will be a full investigation by the police," said a spokesman.

In 2002, Stang told U.S. environmental magazine Outside about the daily risks of her work."The logging companies work with a threat logic. ... They elaborate a list of leaders, and then a second movement appears to eliminate those people," Stang told the magazine. "If I get a stray bullet ... we know exactly who did it."(Additional reporting by Andrew Hay in Brasilia) Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited.

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Book of the Instructions of Blessed Mère Julie, as preserved in the Mother-House of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Anonymous (SND) translator. Unpublished, from British Province archivesThème 6

ON THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE DEATH OF THE SENSES

The good God expects all Sisters of Notre Dame to be spiritually minded, since they are called by their vocation to work for the salvation of souls. Anyone who does not from the first put nature to death, by the hard blows she deals out to it is not fit for our Institute and never will be.

It is no small thing to be destined to work for souls. An apostle says goodbye to all that belongs to a merely natural life, to everything material. He bears best, hunger, thirst; he is stripped of all things; he glories only in Jesus and in Him Crucified. (1. Cor. 11. 2) So, too, our life requires souls untrammelled by the senses. The spirit of God cannot take possession of a soul given up to pleasures of sense, and without the spirit of God no sanctity is possible.

My dear Sisters, it needs saints to lead others to sanctity, enlightened souls to enlighten others perfect souls to help others to perfection. The only means of becoming good Sisters of Notre Dame is to let ourselves be filled with the Spirit of God. But this divine Spirit can only come upon us when we are in prayer. It is during meditation that He communicates Himself to the soul showers His gifts upon it, and inundates it with light. But it is not sufficient to be filled with the Spirit of GodDuring our time of prayer; we must keep the Divine Spirit in our hearts. He will willingly dwell with us if we live a supernatural life. This means continual death to all appeals to the senses to the imagination and to self-will. A life that is supernaturalised is one of uninterrupted prayer. Let us give ourselves up completely to this life of the spirit, and declare war unto death upon the old Adam within us, who is forever striving to get the upper hand.

2. THE NECESSITY OF INTERIOR RECOLLECTIONMy good Sisters without the interior life, it is impossible to be a Sister of Notre Dame.

No one is capable of responding fully to the obligations of an apostolic life, who is not supported powerfully by help from within. The interior life puts us into direct and intimate communication with God. It renders us docile to the least inspirations of the Holy Spirit, and enables us to correspond faithfully with grace. No Perfection is possible unless we labour seriously to attain the interior life. Its first principles are exterior and interior silence, and recollection. The latter is necessary in order that we may ever be attentive to God and watchful over ourselves, and because the Holy Ghost only makes known what His love requires to souls who are perfectly recollected. We also need also great docility to the lights vouchsafed to us by the Holy Spirit, and a constant and sincere abnegation of self.

The life of Jesus Christ can only be established within us after complete death to self', upon the ruins of all in us that is not God. The chief obstacles to the interior life are

1. Infidelity to grace and to the touch of the Holy Ghost upon our souls.

2. A heart full of distractions and trifles.

3. Indulgence of the senses,

4. Self-seeking and self-love.

Ah, my dear Sisters, let us be on our guard against self, let us go forward humbly, simply and with circumspection.

When some obstacle hinders us from advancing, let us raise our mind and heart. to the Holy Spirit: saying:

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"Oh, Spirit of Fortitude and of Light, triumph in me and for me. Establish the reign of Thy grace in my soul, remove thence anything which hinders Thy rule."

3. THE INTERIOR LIFE IS NECESSARY TO A SISTER OF NOTRE

A Sister of Notre Dame must lead a life of interior union with God, as if there were no one but God and herself in the world. She should enter as often as possible into the inner sanctuary of her soul to converse there 'one to One' with God in order to grow into His likeness, just as we come to resemble those with whom we frequently converse.

We can live 'one to One' with God even in the midst of a class of restless children. A religious who is full of the spirit of faith does not stop at creatures; hidden beneath them she sees the image of God, the souls for which Our Lord Jesus Christ gave up His life. Thus while she is teaching her children, her heart raises itself quite naturally to the Heart of Jesus, begging Him to protect in those little girls the image of His Divine Father, and the merits of His own Passion and death upon the Cross. By a practice such as this it is always possible to keep oneself united to God. A Sister of Notre Dame must want only what God wants She must have no attachment except to Him, and must submit herself in every circumstance to His adorable Will. The foundation of the interior life is complete self-abnegation and abasement, that is to say Humility. Without humility all the other virtues are like powder scattered to the wind. That is why Our Divine Saviour desired to preach by His acts as by word of mouth the grandeur of true humility and self-abasement, the prerogatives in store for the little ones of God.

4. A SISTER OF NOTRE DAME MUST BE A MYSTICMy dear Sisters, a Sister of Notre Dame is called to be, some ways, mystic. St Francis de Sales says

"that the commandments of God are conformable to reason, and that to live according t to the commandments does not, of itself, raise us above the life of nature". Hence, my dear Sisters, there are various vocations and inspirations for the execution of which God must necessarily raise us to something higher than a merely natural life. To love Holy Poverty, humiliation and suffering; to live in the world in a manner contrary to all its maxims, is something more than living as good Catholic and a good citizen. It implies something supernatural, a life at once spiritual and mystical, and because none can, of themselves, raise themselves this way above nature unless God Himself draws them out of a merely natural state it, follows that the mystical life is a sort of perpetual ecstasy a long-continued rapture of action and operation.

It is this sort of rapture that we are called, and to which we can aspire without fear. Indeed, we must aspire to it if we want to become perfect Sisters of Notre Dame. To all those called to our holy Institute God offers the grace necessary in order to become mystics in this way. Grace works a real transformation in our soul, for when we have attained this mystical life, each one of us can say with St. Paul: "I live now, not I, but Christ liveth in me."(Gal1 1. 20). Furthermore, no ecstasy is recognised as genuine unless it results in this rapture of action and operation.

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Book of the Instructions of Blessed Mère Julie, as preserved in the Mother-House of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Anonymous (SND) translator. Unpublished, from Namur archivesThème 6 French

DE LA VIE SURNATURELLE.

Le bon Dieu demande des Sœurs de Notre-Dame qu'elles soient des personnes bien Spirituelles, puisqu'elles sont appelées par leur vocation à travailler au salut des âmes. Les personnes qui, dès le début, ne donnent pas de bons coups de mort à la vie naturelle, ne seront jamais propres à notre saint institut.

Ce n'est pas une petite chose d'être préposée à l'œuvre du salut des âmes. L'apôtre ne sait plus ce que c'est la vie naturelle ; il supporte le froid, le chaud, la faim, la soif, la nudité ; il ne se glorifie que dans Jésus et dans Jésus crucifié Il nous faut des âmes dégagées de la vie des sens : l'esprit du bon Dieu ne s'empare pas d'une âme sensuelle, et sans l'esprit de Dieu pas de sainteté.

Ah ! mes bonnes filles, il faut être sainte pour sanctifier les autres, il faut être éclairée pour éclairer les autres, il faut être parfaite pour perfectionner les autres.

Le seul moyen d'être de bonnes Sœurs de Notre-Dame, c'est de se remplir de l'esprit du bon Dieu, et cet esprit divin ne surviendra en nous que dans la sainte oraison ; c'est là qu'il se communique aux âmes ; qu'il les accable de ses dons. Les inonde de ses lumières. Mais, il ne suffit pas de se remplir de l'esprit du bon Dieu pendant la sainte oraison, il faut conserver en soi cet esprit divin ; et Il établira en nous sa demeure si nous vivons d'une vie surnaturelle, d 'une vie de mort continuelle à tout ce qu'exige la vie des sens, l'esprit de la volante propres la vie surnaturelle transforme notre vie en une oraison interrompue. Oh ! livrons-nous à la vie spirituelle, et déclarons une guerre à mort au vieil homme qui cherche toujours à prendre le dessus en nous

Mes bonnes Sœurs, sans vie intérieure, pas de Sœur de Notre-Dame. Il est impossible de répondre aux responsabilités d'une vie apostolique, sans le puissant secours d'une vie intérieure : c'est la vie intérieure qui nous met en communication directe et intime avec Dieu, c'est la vie intérieure qui nous rend dociles aux moindres impulsions de l'Esprit-Saint, et nous fait ainsi correspondre fidèlement à la grâce. La perfection n'est pas possible sans le travail sérieux de la vie intérieure. Les principes de la vie intérieure sont :

Un grand silence intérieur et extérieur,La vie de recueillement, par ce que le recueillement nous rend attentive à Dieu et nous-mêmes, et

que le Saint-Esprit ne fait connaître ses douce exigences qu'à une âme parfaitement recueillie.Une grande docilité aux lumières du Saint-Esprit.Une constante véritable abnégation do soi-même

La vie de Jésus-Christ en nous ne s'établit que sur la mort à nous-mêmes, sur la ruine de tout, ce qui n'est pas Dieu en nous. Les obstacles à la vie intérieure sont :

L'infidélité à la grâce et aux touches du Saint-Esprit. La dissipation du cœur. Les satisfactions des sens et les recherches de l'amour-propre

Ah ! Mes chères Sœurs, défions-nous de nous-mêmes, marchons avec humilité, simplicité et conseil. Lorsqu'un obstacle nous arrête, élevons notre esprit et notre cœur vers l'Esprit Saint et disons-Lui : "O Esprit de force et de lumière, triomphez en moi et par moi, établissez votre règne intérieur dans mon âme, renversez tout ce qui y fait obstacle.

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Une Sœur de Notre-Dame doit vivre intérieurement unie au Bon Dieu, comme s'il n'y avait que Lui et elle dans le monde ; elle doit rentrer souvent dans le sanctuaire intérieur de l'âme, pour s'entretenir seule a seule avec le bon Dieu, afin de devenir semblable à Lui, comme en conversant avec les hommes, on de-vient semblable a eux. Nous pouvons vivre seul à seul avec Dieu, même au milieu d'une classe nombreuse et d'enfants remuantes, parce qu'une religieuse bien remplie de l 'esprit de foi ne s 'arrête pas à la créature, mais elle voit, cachée sous cette enveloppe l'image du bon Dieu, des âmes pour les quelles Notre-Seigneur a donne sa vie ; ainsi en s'entretenant avec ses enfants, son cœur s'élève naturellement vers le cœur de Jésus pour Le supplier de protéger dans ces petites filles l'image de son divin Père et les mérites de sa passion et de sa mort sur la croix ; de cette manière, on peut toujours s'entretenir avec le bon Dieu.

Une Sœur de Notre-Dame ne doit vouloir que ce que le bon Dieu veut, elle ne peut avoir d'attache à autre chose qu'à Lui, et en toute soumise à son adorable volonté. Le fondement de la vie intérieure, c'est l'anéantissement de tout soi-même, c'est-à-dire l'humilité, parce que sans l'humilité, les autres vertus sont comme de la poussière que l'on jette au vent : c'est pourquoi notre divin Sauveur a voulu nous prêcher par ses parles et par ses exemples, les grandeurs d l'humilité de l'abaissement, les prérogatives de la sainte petitesse

Mes chères filles, les Sœurs de Notre Dame sont toutes appelées à une sorte d'extase. Saint François de Sales dit : "Que les commandements de 'Dieu sont conformes à la raison et, que, vivant selon les commandements nous ne sommes pas pour cela hors de notre inclination naturelle." Mais, mes bonnes filles, il y a des vocations et des inspirations célestes pour l'exécution desquelles il faut que Dieu nous, tire au-dessus des inclinations de notre nature ; Ce n'est pas seulement une vie civile et chrétienne, mais une vie surhumaine, spirituelle et extatique. De manière qu'aimer la pauvreté, les humiliations et les souffrances, vivre dans le monde contre les maximes du monde, ce n'est plus vivre en nous ; et parce que personne ne peut sortir de cette façon au-dessus de soi même si Dieu ne le tire, il s'en suit que cette vie est un ravissement continuel et une extase continuelle, d'action et d'opération.

C'est à cette sorte de ravissement et d'extase que nous sommes toutes appelées et à laquelle nous pouvons aspirer sans crainte, à laquelle nous devons même aspirer pour devenir parfaites Sœurs de Notre Dame. Dieu fasse la grâce à toutes les personnes de notre saint lnstitut de devenir des personnes extatiques en cette manière ! C'est une vraie transformation, et dans cet état, on peut dire avec Saint Paul : "Ce n'est plus moi qui vie, mais c'est Jésus-Christ qui vit en moi." De plus, aucune extase ne peut être reconnue pour véritable, si ce ravissement d'action et d'opération n'en fait preuve.

(last two paragraphs 'extrait de: Thèmes résumants les instructions de notre bien heureuse Mère Julie, p21')

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