This week, pupils at Loreto Convent School have been learning about and remembering Mary Ward.
Mary Ward’s founding vision was to respond to God’s call for active engagement in the Church and the world. She was a woman of prayer, perseverance, courage and hope. Mary Ward’s birth date is 23rd January: Loreto Schools and IBVM Sisters celebrate Mary Ward week every year from 23rd (Birthday) to the day of her death – 30th January.
Our greatest example of someone with a vibrant sense of ‘hope at the heart of the Church’, is probably our own Mary Ward. She suffered much at the hands of the Church leaders of her time; she was imprisoned in 1631, and ultimately would have been seen as a ‘failure’ to many at the time of her death. And yet, she came to be recognised favourably by a later Pontiff, John Paul II, and was named by him as “A Prophet of Hope”.
Can we not surely say in this year of 2017, that Mary Ward’s words….. Women in time to come will do much… have certainly come to pass?
What is God saying to me through today’s reflection? How can I foster/nurture hope in my own life? As a woman, inspired by Mary Ward’s dream and vision for the Church, what are the hopes that I have for today’s Church?
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