ࡱ > c bjbjZZ = 8b\8b\ ` ` ` ` ` t t t t \ t ! 0 T T T T T / / / ! ! ! ! ! ! ! $ " % P A! ` / / / / / A! ` ` T T V! / 2 ` T ` T ! / ! T :$ a V ! l! 0 ! % % % ` L / / / / / / / A! A! / / / ! / / / / % / / / / / / / / / > & : Educating from the heart: Interiority and everyday life Mariola Lopez RSCJ, Placeres October 2017 I would like to thank the network for the invitation to share this morning together with you, surrounded by these wonderful views that warm our hearts. We come from different places, different countries and with our different languages, different cultural origins but with something very powerful in common: we are educators within the family of the Sacred Heart. There is a stamp, an imprint that brings us closer and links us. I do not want to talk to you as principals (perhaps, what I am going to say wont help you much in your role) but as men and women in process, in a continuous learning process, making the journey of your lives, companions on this path, in which being educators is common to you all. I would like to start with a question that I also need to ask myself: Why do we live in such haste, why do we hurry so much? Is everything so very urgent? A French writer, Christian Bobin, tells that one day he met a very cultured person, a philosopher (which made him more surprised by his attitude). This man asked him very personal questions, deep questions. Bobin says, Then, I started to answer, and I suddenly saw that he had picked up his mobile to look for any new messages while I was answering. Is that possible? And, a little ill at ease he told me that he was afraid that he something very pressing and urgent was going on and he might need to answer etc., What do you do when something is urgent? he asked the philosopher. Bobin told him: For me, the most important thing is the person I am face to face with, not the electronic gadget. You are the one I consider important and it seems to me things should not be done that way. Nowadays, people try to be with you but they are always looking from time to time at their mobiles.we have to avoid this if at all possible.. I did not know that this haste had reached the people with soul too, people who love reading, people used to being alone. I do not know what to say to somebody who prefers gadgets to the people who are with them. I feel sorry about it and I believe that it does not make them happy. We are living in a digital era. We have screens everywhere, we are immersed in a permanent avalanche of information, and that over-connectivity, which is shown even in toddlers; the inability to be attentive to one another. We are immersed in a non-stop life. We are forced to be connected 24 hrs a day and 7 days a week and the consequences are felt in different ways: there is no time for calm, we are constantly busy and claimed by the outside world. This possibility of permanently interacting and being informed about what is happening in our world, does not bring a high level of sensitivity, in contrast, it brings, sometimes, a saturation point that makes us feel distraught and overwhelmed. You will be looking with Paloma at Laudato Si, where Pope Francis draws our attention in his encyclical to Speed rapidation?. In a technological society everything happens so fast, the virtual world is so immediate that processes are often interrupted; we go too fast to be able to relate to the slower rhythms of real life. Sophie stated in a letter to Mother Goezt in 1862: Even when we aim to do the right thing, we do it in a hurry, and all can be spoilt in this impulsive way of acting. We are becoming experts in technology but we are losing the keys to each others heart. We are crossing digital frontiers which open us to the world but the one that we urgently need to cross are the human frontiers, those never completely discovered, the ones in the heart of each person. We are going to divide this morning in three sections (I hope it is not too heavy for those who need the translation): The first section: The heart The second section: Interiority The third section: Everyday life. We already know that the three are closely interconnected in our educational mission. The first part will be a little bit longer, as in our heart we find all! First period : the Heart Seashell A teacher once told me: I was upset in school but none of my colleagues realized. We were so busy, the urgency of our own mattersWhen everything happens so quickly that the priority should be to be more aware of other; to be present with them is a priority that is a loving statement in itself. The priority to listen to what the other is saying is a way of showing them: You are a person of worth, you are important. And to be present to others, we need to be present to ourselves, return to our heart, that place where we find calm and stillness. One woman said to her friend: Where are you that you are not here? That is the first question from God to the human being in the Bible: Where are you? We all have so much to do with no time for the essentials and we lose the connection with the inside of our body, our life and this centre is the heartthere where the mystery of each person hides. Each one has his hurt and his treasure in the same place. Sophie used to say to her friends: Take care of your heart because in there lies the source of lifeBut we give ourselves so eagerly to everything else, we live out of ourselves and we do not listen to our own heart, its feelings, its intuitions, its wisdom to guide our lives. In the context of our proximity to the sea here in Placeres, we take a shell as a symbol. It is going to represent our heart, with a pearl and the wound inside. The way to the heart cannot be hurried, we pass life by when we go too quickly if we are too eager or too closed in, life flees or goes into reverse. We need to take time for ourselves, to stop, to quieten ourselves. We are going to begin a few minutes of quietness. To breathe and to make contact with our hearts, with this deep beating that keeps us alive have time us themselves us, to stop, to quieten ourselves. I invite you to close your eyes. We are simply we are going to become present to ourselves, to breathe to allow the movement of the breathing bring us home, to this place of quietude, of calmness, of the Presence that exists in us. We breathe slowly and deeply, enjoy this sensation of repose, of fullness, of luminosity, which the breathing and the silence open in us Let us make contact with our hearts, to be ready to a compassionate opening, this attitude to love ourselves and the people around us We breathe this mantra that calms and smooths the heart: RAMADASA Value and trust Did you know that the heart is the first organ formed when still we are an embryo inside the mothers womb? It is the most vital organ. The heart has a membrane, which is the pericardium, (peri: around and cardio: heart). This membrane wraps and protects it, holds it in place. It is also called the guardian of the heart" and is its protective shield, guards the emotional memory of our experiences. When we feel trust, confidence, pleasure, acceptance the pericardium expands and we feel expansion, open, we breathe easily On the contrary, in situations of dread, of judgment, all that makes us fearful, it shrinks and closes our pericardium we close in us, and with time it can manage to harden the heart. The deep beating of our life has this movement: - we open ourselves to grow -we close in to protect ourselves. All our cells, all our systems work in a similar way : -All that is open leads to life -Everything that is closed in on itself, goes into survival mode. Do you know what the first word that Adam says to God when he asks him where he is? I was afraid I was afraid and hid." (Gn 3, 10) There you have it what closes the wellsprings of the heart is fear. Fear is the first emotion and is the one that surrounds those who threaten us. It blocks off life and does not allow growth. Fear of what people will say, fear of failure of being judged or misunderstood, fear of teenagers when we do not understand them, dread of not being up to something. This fear shrinks our hearts and deprives us of joy. Fear is the major thief, the predator of our lives. It is why it is often repeated in the Bible, "Do not be afraid " When there is fear there is a feeling of being drawn in and mere survival. Do you remember the person in the parable who did not develop his talent? What he said? "I was afraid and I hid it" (Mt 20, 25), Helping each other and the children not to live lives full of fear, fear for the relations between countries and cultures, fear of the different ones, fear of what we do not know fear of all these realities that we feel may threaten us. This is our task When there is confidence in life, the pericardium that covers the heart expands. The direction of the energy expands from the inside to outside to be opened, to be nourished, to communicate and grow. Do you know what was the mantra of Sofia and Philippine? The slogan that accompanied them in the distance? VALUE and TRUST. Good antidotes against the dread that paralyzes us and shrinks us. When we can trust, when the "guardian of the heart", is free, flexible, open we live from the LOVE that is our deeper nature. Behind a violent child there are always hidden wounds, negative experiences and voices. The sign that the well spring of the heart is opened is that it has a luminosity, a generous availability, a friendly gesture, a cozy welcome, a smile, an attentive ear A way of greeting that gives health, a blessed way to be in life. Touching peoples hearts When we start getting in touch with our own hearts, or we allow others to connect with us, we discover how much warmth, sensitivity and space exists in our inner selves. Alain Vigneau, actor, clown and pedagogue, after a hard personal life story, was able to transform his pain into art. He reminds us that we all need a sense of belonging and that we are much more loving than we show, that we sacrifice much spontaneity and gentleness: "That which makes us suffer more is not so much the fact of not feeling loved, but of being unable to love as much we feel that our hearts are able to. We are much more loving than we show ourselves to be. In the same measure as love is released in us, we sense it in our lives, and return we become me and women who are life giving . A Brazilian poet says: "I do not know if life is short or too long for us. But I know that nothing of what we live makes sense if we do not touch the heart of the people ". (Cora Coralina) What does it mean to touch the heart of the children, of the friends, colleagues, the people we meet? When do I feel that other people touch my heart? When have I felt noticed, accepted, thanked? Sophie wanted to touch the heart of the girls, to conquer it, she used to say her sisters, "You must have a sincere and tender affection It should be a love without weakness, without excessive familiarity, without preferences or attention to appearances and exterior qualities. It will be a tender and delicate love, but also one that is noble, pure and unselfish." This kind of love is essential in our educational mission, Aristotle said about to some who approached him, "I cannot teach anything to them, they do not love me " And a Spanish psychiatrist commented: " We only retain those things which are transmitted with love." Janet Stuart was 13 years old when her brother Douglas said to her that every rational being had a purpose in life ( a telos); he asked her, What is yours? ". That began her search. Later Janet would say to her sisters: "It is necessary to remember that each of the girls is assigned a mission in life. Neither we nor they know what it is, but we must help them discover their own mission and to value it". To ask every child, also every companion what are the gifts they can give? Most of you will know the story of the writer Albert Camus when he went to receive the Nobel prize of Literature. Camus was born in a humble family of French colonists in Algiers, with a mother who could not read and was almost completely deaf and dumb, and a father whom he hardly knew as he died in the First World War. During his infancy, in Algiers, he became a star pupil in his primary school, especially thanks to the encouragement of one of his teachers, Louis Germain, a man who could see his latent potential. The teacher convinced his grandmother to let him continue his studies in secondary school and not force him to stay in the family shop. Camus did not forget his teachers efforts and when he received the Nobel prize he dedicated his thank you speech to him and later wrote to him personally: Dear M. Germain, Ive waited till the noise of all these days have faded before speaking to you from the bottom of my heart. I have received too big an honour, which I neither looked for nor solicited, but when I learned the news, my first thoughts after my mother were for you. Without you, without the affectionate hand that stretched to the poor child that I was, without your teaching and your example, nothing like this could have happened. It is not that I place much importance in an honour like this, but it offers at least the opportunity to tell you what you have been, and will always be for me and to assure you that your efforts, your work and the generous heart that you put in to it continue to live in one of your school boys, who, in spite of the years, has not stopped being a grateful pupil. I embrace you with all my heart. Albert Camus Paris, 19th November,1957 What a different world from ours now! Nevertheless the essential sentiments today are the same what does Albert Camus appreciate about his teacher? The affectionate hand that stretched his efforts, his work and his generous heart. Generosity is a major characteristic of our educational charism. Albert felt motivated in a special way by the teacher, who touched his child's heart and led him to believe in himself This look that he could see and the confidence the teacher had in him were definitely important for Albert, leading him to become an excellent author and allowing others to benefit too from his writing. We are going to do a small exercise before the break, we are each going to take a shell in our hands, it symbolizes the desire to live from our hearts, to educate from our centre We are going to give thanks for those people who have touched our hearts in a positive way Those who have motivated us. They have given of their best, with stretched out hands and generous hearts, provoking emotional responses in us. Interiority: Remember an experience, from your childhood or youth. An experience when of somebody reached out to you or inspired something within you. Someone who spoke from their heart. Someone who brought out the best in you. What are you thankful for from that experience? Perhaps in 3s you might be willing to share something of that experience. The second section: interiority The Scarf Once I was talking on the phone with a colleague, I had been very busy and looking forward to the ending of the month and I said to her, I want it to be here now!" And she asked me with a smile: "What can happen in this life to make you think that any other one will be more calm?" She made me laugh and when I was alone...it made me think. It is as if we were putting off to the future the moment when we will live fuller and more intensive lives, when the circumstances are "better", when we have more time and meanwhile life is passing by and we dont make things happen. When we walk overloaded we are not entirely involved in what we do because one thing leads to another and we just cannot give ourselves the space we need to be still and recharge. We also do not pay enough attention to what is going on in the lives of others, and much less to their hidden pain. I do not know if it happens to you but sometimes there are people who are always busy when we meet. Do they see us in the same way? No matter how many things we are managing, and responsibilities, if our interior space is available, open, deep , we will have space for others. If not, we will be like the Levite and the priest in the parable of the Samaritan who passed by in a hurry to their "good tasks" and our eyes are blind to the needs around us. We can always justify ourselves. How good are those people who, in the midst of all their busy-ness, are ready to listen and heal us!!! Without cultivating interiority in our daily life we will not be able to be have an attentive and careful heart when with others. The opposite of interiority is superficiality. When a mother feeds her baby with the breast or the bottle, it is not enough that she gives him the food, the mother turns her face to the child, has a look of care for him. A mother who was doing all the gestures correctly but whose look was cold or absent, would harm this relationship. If she cannot be present with her heart, the newborn child pick it up and the food will not be enough to nourish him (C. Bobin) One of the big diseases of our time is the lack of attention given to others being disrupted by technology. This technology can divide with its excessive number of screens and the false need to be up to date. One of the virtues of silence reminds us of the need for awareness and being ready to be with people. The need of silence, in the middle of the constant noise that surrounds us everywhere, is one of the "signs of the times" that speaks clearly about this thirst for the Absolute, for Transcendency, which we all have within us. You know that it is one of the calls of our Chapter in 2016 is the call TO SILENCE, to go deeper into our interior life. Let's not discover too late that without moments of silence life freezes up, and falls ill. When we reflect on our lives in silence we can guess how we can see where we are, we become aware of how we live: is my life lived on the surface or has it depth? Without moments of silence we cannot be attentive to the transformations that the Spirit wants to make in us and in history. If we had to sum up in two words what the action of the Spirit consists of, we would say that his beating in our hearts contains these two words for us: ONWARDS, ONWARDS Whatever the time and the circumstances that we are dealing with: onwards, onwards... The Spirit animates our lives, the Spirit takes care of the most fragile part and it wants to open all its potential; it is The One that brings us up in silence. Silence that is a womb in which we learn to receive, like a child growing in the uterus of his mother. Silence allow things to be as they are. Silence allows us to put distance between things and ourselves, this necessary distance to let things be and to understand them. To take care of this interior dimension as educators, we need to protect certain daily spaces for silence and to incorporate them into our everyday life. In our centres we have to offer training to the teachers. Just as we offer courses of languages, technology, innovation we have to provide times and places during the school day where everyone can stop and take moments of contemplative silence. We know that solitude can bring harmful loneliness and poor communication but we can be careful with this fertile loneliness possible in this calm and confident meeting with what we are. We need to be careful as we encounter our inner selves, be ready to touch with tenderness the inner selves of those we encounter. If not we will trample a little blindly: hurried and overwhelmed by these encounters with colleagues and children. Janet Stuart, when in Japan, was impressed by the girls moment of silence before the beginning of the class. How prophetic and wise her words are: "It is very advantageous not to be oppressed all the time by competitiveness but to have intermittent moments of relative solitude, in silence, complete freedom, even if you are not completely on your own . to have the possibility of a few minutes doing nothing more than live and breathe, profiting from the fresh air and the light of the sun. In these periods of rest, we see that the conditions of real life and nervous constitutions do produce temperaments incapable of rest and solitude. We see that in real life, it is like that, children cannot stop themselves and we cant either. Barbara, our Superior General reminds us, that in the depth of the silence is where we listen to the beating of the God's heart, that which we need and that which do not need "..what nourishes us and what poisons us. There is a story about a primary teacher who began the class with a moment of quiet every morning. The children were becoming aware of their breathing for a while, and called it "their moment of calm". One day she said to them at the beginning of the class: " I wanted to apologize because yesterday I was a bit brusque with you, I was not so patient as I should have been, I am very sorry about it ". One of the small ones stood up and said: Could it be, Miss, because yesterday we did not have our moment of calm? " Will we, the adults, be able to take a moment of calm before beginning our meetings, our tasks it does not take us any more than 5 minutes and it colours the rest of what we are going to do? We live in a time obsessed with efficiency and progress, we overestimate results and efficiency of our use of time and we neglect the essential dimensions for life to develop: breaks, that which is free and patient, that which on the surface seems of no use. We need to review our attitude to the soft and pleasant moments, of not doing, of not being useful simply being, being; to give up the mobile, to give up a few hours of screens, to give ourselves a few minutes of being simply, of breathing if not, we will be good managers, professionals who perform at their best, but the most valuable dimensions of life escape us: the capacity of being surprised, spontaneity, attentiveness, that certain warmth of presence.. To put beauty in our mission. Mater's icon that presides over our schools shows us a way of being in life, away from the heart, and teaches us to look slowly at the daily life of the school, to receive his light and shade; to bring calm and beauty there where we are. We need to put beauty in our way of living out the mission. To work in a beautiful way shows that we enjoy and value what we do, that it makes sense for us. We are what we are ready to learn. We are craftsmen of our own life and are giving brushstrokes here and there in the way we live our lives and how we are with others in that canvas which is the canvas of each childs life . As educators we are called to live through a kind of "motherhood" there where we are, just as mother earth provides for us: nourishing, healing the wounds, making it better, always encouraging In our society where performance is all, there are terms that are always out there and can obsess us: efficiency, aims, competition and there are others whom we urgently need to give more room for: calm, amazement, openness and to value these qualities that can only be seen from inside. Because what matters is not outside appearances (which we are pushed towards constantly by advertising that bombards us and emphasises only appearances). The really important thing is to take care of the students inner self, his whole self, his inner beauty, his warmth, his ability to offer shelter and nurturing to others and this internal beauty is not something to improvise...we need to nourish of it day after day . The best of each person comes out from the inside, sometimes it takes a little time to bloom but it is there latent, waiting for a look or a voice that will wake it up. I want to tell you about something that happened to me recently: I was with my mother in her village and on our arrival she led me to the courtyard to show me what she considered to be a small miracle. A few years ago, she had bought a plant because she liked the patterns on its leaves; with the time she re-potted it and it had grown very tall. Up to that point everything was quite normal. But to her astonishment now, after more than twelve years, for the first time, three little pink flowers were sprouting, and while was touching them delicately, I thought, "I did not know that the plant was hiding flowers and suddenly after so much time it was displaying them. That reminded me that the same can happen with people. When we have shared someones life for a time, we think that they have given all they can, that we know them, that they cannot surprise us , and the vision of these small flowers produced after so many years made me change my mind . My mothers care made them emerge and God acts in this way with us, he knows the flowering that supports our lives until the end and he waits patiently.. Sometimes we feel we have little energy to confront the tasks and challenges of a new course or syllabus, we want to free ourselves from the burdens which prevent us from making progress: the disappointments, powerlessness in face difficult situations, the fear of not being up to a task ... and much as we want to facilitate our own development and that of others, we dont know how to escape the forces that drag us down and can become destructive. It reminded me what Bobin puts across in his beautiful book, Resucitar (Revive). He writes of a woman who thinks that everything what she does is incomplete, bad, unsuccessful. She would like to be granted a second life, a blank sheet with the first life removed, without all the mistakes and the crossing out. She does not realize that real life is the messy draft. I feel the same at certain moments, wanting my own new blank sheet, the second go at life. It takes us time to discover that the one that God loves is the messy one that pains us, with all its blemishes. It is from this one and not a new one that will come unexpected blossoms. We pause for a moment to be grateful for this life that beats inside us, that we cannot see but that we can feel. This inner life that is our secret, all these flowers that we cannot yet see and they are to come. The painter Paul Gauguin used to say: " I close my eyes in order to see " we are going to close our eyes and to give a small gift to each other . Exercise: In pairs, stand opposite each other; look at each other and take in the person you see. Look into each others eyes and then and put on the scarf. The one that is going to receive places the palm of his/her hands upwards. The other person places his /hers above. Softly and delicately. From deep within you but silently, think this of the other person: "I honour this place within you where the entire Universe resides. I honour this space inside you of Love and Light, of Kindness and Peace. I honour this place within you where we meet as One ". We stay for a moment sending this energy. Exchange roles and repeat the exercise Third Period: Everyday life The perfume On a Sunday evening I was coming back to the community by train. Next to me was a boy with headphones, tablet and mobile. I was with my laptop, on a blank page trying to write an article for a magazine about a Finnish film which had moved me: "The other side of hope" (Aki Kaurismki, 2017). Deep, hard and tender all at the same time, with touches of humour that make you leave the cinema wanting to be a better person. The history of a Syrian refugee told in an original and intimate way which shows where our ignorance of the quiet suffering of others comes from, and how much we need to have faces who bring us closer to understanding. Immersed in my writing I do not realize that the child who is at my side reads what I write and smiles. I speak with him about the children in situations of war, thinking that he has everything he needs and his parents may be close by. To my surprise he tells me that they separated when he was two years old. Since he was seven he has travelled by plane from Malaga to Madrid to be with one and then the other and, now that he is eleven, he takes the train every week. At first he had wanted them to get back together but he has understood now that they are very different and that it is better they are apart. If he hadnt warned me, I would have missed my stop. "My name is Santi ", he told me. I kissed him. "You are very special," I said to him how stupid was I! Why hadnt I realized that behind all his screens, Santi was also looking for company and warmth. Children need attention and company at a time when the majority of the parents spend many hours outside the home, in which relationships around them are breaking up. What the children need more, without knowing it, is people being with them. It happens to us as well. They need to know that we look after them, that we are there for them. Remember the story told by Galeano about a child on his own in a hospital in Managua, who on Christmas Eve, lightly touches the hand of the nurse and whispers: "Tell tell someone that I am here. To make them feel that we see them, that we are there for them, that their presence makes us happy, Sophie was urged her sisters: "Keep your eyes on the girls at all times. Be always there to help and encourage them. Remember that your presence reminds them of GOD. There are so many beautiful words in our documents and chapters on the relationships and the challenges in our mission of education But these grand aspirations they need to be clear in the daily things where life is played out Sometimes we are so get involved in a whole range of tasks with worthy outcomes and we dont notice that the people closest to us or we arent sufficiently aware of their needs and hopes. It is useless to have amazing ideas, to tell our colleagues and pupils each year the values we want to live, if, in the daily routine we dont make it happen. No matter how innovative and attractive our documents may be it is not on a paper but in the little daily things where our educational mission is lived by each person. We are going to look at a woman who inspires us who shows us that beyond the words and the projects, we educate with what we are, day after day, and that daily contact is the fingerprint that we are going to leave on the children. Philippine had learned from her dear Sophie that "nothing works so powerfully in the spirit as example." A sufi saying expresses it in a beautiful way, "Your teacher is not the one you hear speeches from, but the one whose presence transforms you". We teach more with what we are than with what we say. What do we radiate everyday? What perfume do we leave ? People will forget what we have said and what we did, but they will never forget how we made them feel. I read a story about a mother who said to the teacher: "I am very worried about my daughter, she has achieved excellent marks in drawing and a very bad mark in mathematics." And that did you do? "I have found her a personal maths tutor " And the teacher asked her: "Dont you think it would be better to offer her a good art teacher rather than a maths one? Everyone is good at something but not all at the same things. This is our heritage from the first educators of the Sacred Heart, to be able to discover the gift of every child, (and likewise the Headteachers of every teacher), and support them in order that they grow and develop this gift. Philippine failed at English Language but she was outstanding at listening to the hearts of others, to their needs. Probably she got only a pass at organizational skills, but she was distinguished at warmth of presence, taking care of others, in sharing happiness, in expressing gratitude. She transmitted with her presence much more than she managed to transmit with her words. We can see in her attitudes another call of our 2016 Chapter: "to live more as a humanly: simplicity, nearness, a presence that makes life more straight forward and can show God's LOVE for all A precious programme to enable everyday cooperation and understanding in our schools. To educate and to educate ourselves to live more humanly means to strengthen a presence that makes things happen. Presences that dont create shadows, they do not compete, but create opportunities for people to shine. Looks that make the others feel valued, just as Sophie encouraged us to do, because welcome and attention makes every relationship grow. Do not let the grip of the internet decrease our presence: the look and contact are what those closest to us need. When Philippine set off for America with the three other three sister on board the Rebecca, she did not know what she was going to find; she took the risk and she trusted and in spite of the difficulties and troubles, which were a numerous, she chose life in every occasion. She was not beaten by difficulties and powerlessness and she trusted in God's dream for her until the end. What is Gods dream for us today as educators of the family of the Sacred Heart? Barbara, the Superior General, invited those at the Chapter to be adventurous, to embark like Philippine and her first companions and to choose life both in the small as well as in the large challenges. To choose life in the educational mission has to do with choosing gratefulness and joy each day in the small things as well as the big things. To choose to be grateful. The feeling of gratitude opens us up and spreads our ability to give and receive, to be rejoice with the well-being of others. We can choose to protest and complain or try to find the positive. We stay many hours in our schools and colleges, with our colleagues and with the students, when we show gratefulness in our daily relationships we are admitting that we cannot do everything ourselves, that we are part of a chain of people and events. It is not possible to educate if we dont include every member of the educational community. To feel self-sufficient isolates and impoverishes us. Only the recognition of how much we receive and learn from each other leads us to understanding the wealth of being part of one unique group. Gratitude brings us peace, makes us trust that things will finish well because they do not depend only on us, there are many hands involved. And it is not that we choose to be grateful when we are happy, but it is gratefulness what makes us happy. This allows us to enjoy what we do. To realize of how much we gain every day there where we are To choose to be joyful in the little things amongst all that burdens us every day, that can be too much sometimes. It is to be aware that more than any other competence or skill, it is vital for us to care and to strengthen the joy in our educational mission, not to lose the humour makes us human. The major gift that a child can receive - or a teenager - is a happy educator. Sophie and Philippine wanted that the girls to be happy during their school days, Hard work and joy were distinctive features in our way of educating, as were: "happy discipline " , and the challenge of cultivating in the lessons an atmosphere of encouraging joy ". (from Life in our Schools) In all the daily learning we must not reserve any of the perfume but we must pour it generously The perfume of Philippine and of the women who preceded us filled the house of the Society and today we must continue to spill this perfume in the commitment to each person, the warmth, the positive look, the serious work and the shared happiness This human framework of love and support, of shared values, a common horizon that can offer the students a land where they are not afraid to live their lives for others. To educate from the heart is also to do with being tender in the daily things. The tenderness is this capacity to make others feel safe from our way of looking at them, of touching their hearts or speaking to them. Tenderness does not threaten, it affirms; it allows soil to grow; its makes it possible for students to fall down and to stand up again without having to hide in the mud; after all we all have wounds and our gifts. The chapter encourages us to "To be and act as one body ". We form a part of something bigger than ourselves. Alongside individualistic and hypercompetitive societies, we are thankful that we are members, that we are a part of an international body where we are concerned and care for one another. We need to travel through life in company, (two by two, sent by Jesus) because there are realities we will never be able to live through alone. The first one: we help each other when we fall, and often we will feel frustrated and discouraged as education today has so many challenges and the second reason is to have someone by our side with whom we can celebrate and feel happy. Someone with whom we can share a toast when we see a child improving, when we can share the emotion and the passion of helping other lives grow again. I remember a teacher of one of our schools who told me how much upset she was when in a meeting with a teacher from another school told her about the children with problems, as "rotten apples" who were spoiling the whole rest of the basket. And she said to her: "I want to work with these rotten apples, because they are these children who need to feel a hand stretched out to them and someone who accepts them. I think that Philippine would be proud of a response like that. She did not give up, in spite of all the difficulties, she wanted to be with the Potowatomies who had conquered her heart. She has had to abandon and give up so much, and all that made her more receptive and vulnerable. Less strict and more tender. In the spirit of Philippine we can strengthen our links as educators of the Sacred Heart crossing new borders, being creative in our ways of being present, making networks of justice and compassion woven with "tenderness and firmness " that make possible that every child could find his place in the world. What joy it is if they can leave school feeling that their lives are blessed and aware that they bring their gifts wherever they go: in their families, their work, their homes, towns, countries in any of the places where their life stories will be written. Philippine was a woman moved by a passion, by an unstoppable desire: that the small and forgotten should feel that Jesus' great love was for them, to help them discover how much they were loved by GOD, and how his dream was for them happy, with their lives unfolded and offered . In the new frontier that she crossed 200 years ago (the limits of the New world!) she had to be open to another culture (would she manage to understand it?), to other customs (would she manage to make them hers?), to another way of seeing life and though in many occasions what her sisters were advising her from Europe was of no help there (and she suffered because of this) she always considered what Sophie said to her She knew that the strength of her mission, the capacity to carry on, to throw herself into new ways of learning, despite her age, of continuing to trust others when things were not going well, to keep trying again It was in the support of her sisters from the other side of the Ocean and from the new companions she met there, in thinking and making the things together. Ideas are valuable but they are not what move us: we are moved by hope and the emotions. Other faces with whom we might take a risk and everything that captures our heart When we get involved with someones life, something from their spirit enters and stays with us, it touches us deep inside. Let Philippine give each one, in this year, that which we need to receive more.. I conclude with the testimony about her left by one of her former pupils (and to encourage those who are weak at English!) . I was always attracted by the force and the kindness of her character... Her appearance was not attractive She was an educated woman but simple. She did not step back from any type of work. She was very practical and original in the way she treated us She was very considerate with the small girls and gathered them around her even though her English was very poor and her vocabulary very limited. BUT THE GIRLS LOVED TO BE WITH HER. 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