Submitted by Sr Lynne fcJ
The Living Joyfully project is in its fifth year. The project, taking place close to Vocations Sunday, aims to introduce school students to the idea of religious life, as will as finding out more about the wide variety of religious congregations present in the UK.
Organised by Sr Lynne fcJ in collaboration with Fr Joseph from the National Office for Vocation in the UK, the two day event sees Religious brothers, sisters and priests “Zooming in” to classrooms to meet with students, to share something of their vocation and congregational charism, and to answer their questions. Each class spoke to a team of 3 or 4 religious from diverse religious communities.
This year more than 50 religious participated; contemplative, monastic, apostolic, missionary. We spoke to students from 15 schools with more than 2200 students and staff joining the event.
Many FCJ Sisters joined the project: A big thank you to Alicia, Catherine, Clare, Elvie, Lynne, Marguerite, MaryAnne, Mei… and we were delighted to speak to students from a number of our FCJ Schools.
The photo shows some of the religious who participated – we had a brief get together at lunchtime to say hello to each other and to give thanks for the joy of working collaboratively on this project.
Some feedback we received from the schools:
“The pupils were very excited after the call and didn’t want to attend their next lesson. They wanted to talk about everything that was said, ask me questions and I am sure they could have spent even longer listening to these fantastic speakers.”
“They enjoyed it immensely & commented that the speakers were very down to earth & had an engaging manner.”
“The variety of Sisters from different types of orders and from diverse backgrounds. UK based Sisters gave the pupils an understanding that they could relate to. The explanations were detailed but also delivered at the appropriate level.”
And from the Religious:
“Meeting the other Religious and sharing our experiences. A positive regard was placed on ‘Vocation Promotion’ we were enthusiastic to make progress in our way of doing things and to try new initiatives.”
“I enjoyed Everything! Wonderful engagement from pupils. Very good conversations generally; it’s particularly helpful when I know another religious in the room because we can more knowing build on one another’s input. The questions were excellent. Some of the schools had put together questions that were used by all classes which was helpful. There was a great balance of men and women, young and old and from all over the globe.”
The project was filled with joy and developed a great sense of collaboration and enthusiasm amongst the religious who participated. We are already looking forward to next year!
