Georgetown Visitation’s last New Faculty & Staff Formation Meeting, May 2023
In the life of a school, May is traditionally a month of “lasts” - final meetings and a long stretch to bring projects to closure before we say goodbye to the year. Last week, Georgetown Visitation hosted our last Salesian formation meeting for new faculty and staff, followed the next day by our last Sisters’ Salesian Friends Group for alumnae, parents, and faculty. While different in format, the intention of both gatherings is the same: to share the gifts of our Catholic faith, Salesian Spirituality, and Visitation charism so as to grow in devotion on our path to holiness.
Recently, it struck me that these invitations to the lay to “carry the charism” - a living gift of the Holy Spirit to a community to do the work of the Church in the world - is a spiritual echo of that first Pentecost. With a decrease in vocations to religious life, the Holy Spirit is breathing life into a new expression of how Visitation continues to be, as St. Jane wrote, a “tiny kingdom of charity.” While these formal meetings are relatively recent initiatives, the Sisters have been informally shaping their spiritual daughters and sons for generations simply through the witness of who they are and how they Live Jesus!
It is the Sisters' hope, then, that when any or all of them leave us one day, we are prepared to spread the Gospel in their same inspired way. When we’ve hesitated or faltered, felt anxious or inadequate about being torch bearers, the Sisters remind us that our patrons weren’t born saints and that the habit holds no magic power; the power rests in our will to allow Jesus to make His home in our hearts. Each of us will - and should - carry the charism in our own authentic way.
In each of our monthly formation conversations, I am in awe of how subtly, yet deeply, the gifts of the Holy Spirit pour out into our minds and hearts, especially the fruits of knowledge, understanding, and fortitude. The Sisters teach us how devotion looks different in each vocation, how the practice of the Little Virtues grows our spiritual muscles, and how God calls us daily, if not hourly, to unite our will with His. Using their lives as the curriculum, the Sisters trust the Holy Spirit to work in each of us to fulfill the commission to carry their charism in our school and beyond 35th Street. Their trust in us, their “apostles,” to join the centuries-long Salesian procession of hearts has given us the courage to bring the spirit of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal out into a world whose wounds need the healing balm of the gentle, humble heart of Jesus.
So, as the Sisters said ‘goodbye’ to us for a summer’s rest, we know that regardless of the time we may be physically separated, they have never left us. Through the Holy Spirit’s gift of the Visitation charism, we have grown into a never-ending community of holy friends fortified to carry Christ to all whom we meet.
Olivia Wills Kane
St. Jane de Chantal Salesian Center Director
Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, Washington, D.C.
