1. WOMEN OF INTERIOR FREEDOM
The Just Soul is a manifesto for life.
It is our way to God,
Something I desire and try to aim for with God’s grace.
“Mary Ward’s concept of freedom has a three-fold dimension: Freedom from attachment
to earthly values and things; Freedom for any kind of good works; and freedom to
refer all to God. Mary Ward saw freedom first, as a gift of God; Second, as so integral
to human beings that real freedom is A return of oneself and one’s choices to God;
and third, as both a disposition and a way of life.”
Jeanne Cover IBVM
2. WOMEN OF INTEGRITY
No room to hide.
This vocation joyfully ask all of me as I am,
yet with the constant
Striving for ever greater integrity.
“The vow of religious obedience can ultimately only be addressed to God. For this
very reason, The truly obedient are also truly free and are therefore a threat to
the powerful. They are fully aware that they are unconditionally committed to the
ultimate authority, and consequently they are free from all kinds of servility.
Even if their own lives are at risk, they have the courage to brave any penultimate
authority: they are liberated to see clearly and to walk upright in the footsteps
of Jesus.”
Martha Zechmeister CJ
3. WOMEN IN RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS
Having or seeking to have right relations with God,
others and our universe.
The JUST SOUL is not at the heart of our vocation, it is the beating heart
of it- it is what gives life and meaning to “this course of ours”, whether in
the 17th century or the 21st.
4. AUTHENTIC WOMEN
“The Just Soul is, from the outset, an understanding of holiness rooted in the ordinary
stuff of human experience. There are no ecstasies here, or grand abstractions from
the everyday but, if anything, a deeper entry into all that makes people most fully
human. One of its fruits is transparency and an ability to show to the outside world
what we are within, free from defensiveness or artifice of any kind. Mary Ward’s
words in the Just Soul…. Describe a harmony between the divine creative purpose
and the graced human capacity for its fulfillment, based on a union with God that
finds its truest expression in the carrying out of that purpose.”
Gemma Simmonds CJ
5. WOMEN OF JOYFUL SERVICE
One foot in the air enables us to take flight.
One on the ground roots us in God’s flame of love.
“It is not a question of external good works, but of doing what is good…… More is
required than simply avoiding evil and doing good performing a narrowly defined
list of good works. A heightened level of awareness is needed to detect the movements
of the good spirit. Reflection and self- knowledge are required to take personal
responsibility for one’s own omissions…. The precondition for doing good is that
the person be good: something which is impossible left to one’s own devices. God,
rather, is the one who gives many and excellent means to be good.”
Ursula Dirmeier CJ