A shared mission stretching across countries and cultures can broaden horizons. Yet seemingly trivial factors such as differences in language and time zone, as well as a lack of time due to wholehearted engagement in local ministries, can make global connection more fragile than we expect.
In recent years, Zoom, WhatsApp and similar tools have helped bridge many gaps. Yet they have brought new pressures. An overload of information and an expectation to be “always on” can end up dulling the warmth of genuine connection.
Aware of these issues, the sisters of Notre Dame de Sion prioritise encounters that go beyond screens and timelines, where possible. In-person experiences through study abroad, short-term community exchanges and general assemblies in different locations are reminders that nothing replaces the richness of time spent together, face to face.
The recent ConnecSion meeting gave form to this priority. Fourteen sisters from eight countries came together in Strasbourg and Paris for two weeks, to immerse themselves together in the historical and spiritual origins of Sion in the very places where the Sion story began.
Through the carefully curated presentation of a wealth of archival material, the life of NDS’s founder, Théodore Ratisbonne, was reconstructed. Walking the streets where he’d walked, visiting homes where he and his family had lived, and standing in spaces where he’d prayed, studied and served, gave substance to a history set in 19th-century France that the sisters had read about, but never seen in context.
As ConnecSion progressed, stories intertwined to make the history come to life.
With the sisters of St Louis in Juilly, the group gained a deeper understanding of the ties between the two congregations. The founder of the St Louis sisters, Louis Bautain, had been the young Théodore’s philosophy teacher, and had introduced him to a science that combined philosophy with theology, exalting faith above reason. Through frequenting the course, Théodore met the woman who was to become his spiritual guide, Louise Humann.
On another day, the group visited the Church of Saint John the Baptist, where Théodore celebrated his first Mass. It had been the first Catholic church he had ever stepped into, on the occasion of the funeral of Thérèse Brek, another friend of Louise Humann. Both Louise and Thérèse had signed the Pact of Turkenstein as a spiritual union of hearts for the promotion of education and knowledge of religion, which shaped Théodore’s formation through Louise’s teachings.
The sisters contemplated these events as they cleaned moss from the altar at the Turkenstein site, before giving thanks in prayer.
Reaching even further back, one session explored the remarkable life of Théodore’s grandfather, Cerf Beer, a pioneering figure in the extension of civil and political rights to Jewish people in France. In the mid-1700s, he was one of just four Jewish families allowed to reside in Strasbourg. As General Representative of the Jewish Nation in Alsace, he worked tirelessly for justice, establishing synagogues and schools, founding hospitals, and securing the abolition of the poll-tax that Jewish citizens had long been subjected to. His legacy of courageous engagement for human dignity echoes in the Sion charism today.
Equally as meaningful as the visits and study sessions were the moments of shared reflection, exchange and companionship. In breaks and over picnics, sisters told each other about the different ways the Sion charism finds expression in their regions, in forms shaped by the local realities of Romania, Brazil, Costa Rica, Egypt, the Congo, Belgium, France, and Poland. Many were the moments of prayer and thanks for the new memories they now shared.
ConnecSion was a wonderful experience of historical learning. But beyond that, listening and sharing while standing in spaces that have shaped Notre Dame de Sion’s collective identity strengthened a sense of belonging. Participants left with a renewed clarity about the work of communion, not just as an ideal, but as something to be practised within the Congregation and in the world they serve.
