As Daughters of the Heart of Mary immersed in a rapidly globalizing world, our charism summons and dares us to lean into and fully engage life’s constantly shifting circumstances with dispositions of mercy, courage, openness, and creativity. Journeying with Mary we listen with her for the Holy Spirit’s lead in discerning the signs of the times, seeking to embody and mother Christ’s values of inclusivity, non-violence, justice, and compassion. With readiness we long to participate with others in the ushering in of a newness on the earth where these values are embraced and lived, ‘begetting a new creation that is reconciled to God. The attitude of cordiality to which we are drawn leads to respect for life in all forms, allowing an ecological mysticism to take root.’ This inclusive and unitive, rather than dualistic and polarizing way of seeing and relating fosters right relationships, and recognizes that all of creation is interconnected as one sacred community - Christ’s Body - ‘through whom all things came into being’ (John 1:3). All beings shift then into new focus for us as neighbor – the neighbor through whom, as part of ourselves, we are charged to love Christ (Mk 12:31).
[1] The Society of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, A Charism of Interiority in the World and For the World, 2013, p. 25.
