A fledgling religious order of Sisters in New South Wales is urging Western Australian young people across the Nullabor to attend their sixth annual mission school in Lewisham in the New Year.
The January 1-14 mission school is for young people aged 16-35 and is billed as an opportunity to discover the “beauty of the Catholic faith through great speakers” and “the joy of new friendships and community life”.
The Record featured the vocation stories of three professed Immaculata Sisters in our August 1 vocations edition.
One of the Immaculata Mission School’s previous participants, 23-year-old Lynell, currently studying primary education at Australian Catholic University, provided this account of her experience at the 2010 school:
“I grew up with very religious parents who used to be very committed members of a certain religious community. As a child, I found this community very controlling. They appeared to impose a lot of rules that seemed like bars locking me up from having fun. They seemed to strongly encourage us to cut ourselves totally from the world.
“Apart from this, I barely saw my parents due to their commitments towards this community. These, added together, made me loathe the rules of the Catholic Church. It made me think, ‘Why do they make up all these rules when we can just be nice to one another? Isn’t practising Christian values enough?’
“I saw the Catholic Church as a joy-sucking leech that judged others. This was how horrible my perception was of the Catholic Church. Of course, I went to Mass every Sunday to avoid God’s punishment, but that was all. I secretly despised youth groups and saw them only as a means of socialisation.
“When my parents stopped their service to their community, the family rules started to get more lenient. However, that hatred towards rules was still there. I was sick of being told that happiness only comes from God. So, I strove so hard to be ‘perfect’ to show my parents I could be successful and happy even without God. I believed that as long as I respected others and was nice to them, I was doing well.
“My image of perfection then was about having a good social life, going to parties every week, doing well academically, being updated with the latest fashion and being financially stable. I thought that I was doing a good job in achieving this image of perfection in my head. I had plans for what to do with my life … but I felt that something was missing.
“When my mum heard about the 2010 Mission School, she knew that I needed it. She had never forced me to attend youth groups before because she knew I would never be persuaded. However, she bribed me with something and told me that I could stay for three days and leave if I didn’t like it. It sounded like a good deal, so I went.
“I struggled at first and found it very uncomfortable, but on the third day, I miraculously wanted to stay. I had a feeling I was going to receive something special. The retreat gradually went from bad to ‘the best’. It changed my life, my perception about the Catholic Church and my image of God. I learnt a lot of things about the Church’s teachings and how they were all made out of God’s love for us.
“No one at Mission School condemned my way of life … They accepted me for who I was. Through this, I learned to picture the Heavenly Father as the perfect gentleman, One who constantly and patiently waits for you; a Father who loves everything about you, including your weaknesses. In other words, Immaculata Mission School led me towards the path of perfection – our Heavenly Father.
I can’t say that I’ve totally changed, but I know that I have changed a lot. It was God’s patience and gentleness that granted me the joy that I have always been longing for. I am so thankful for the Immaculata Sisters because they have shown the true path towards pure love and pure happiness.
More information on the Immaculata Mission School is available at: www.sistersoftheimmaculata.org.