Sisters' Stories
Interview with Sister Cecilia - former Provincial Leader, Treasurer and Formator
Just for starters and for those who may not know you, tell us your name and what made your day interesting today.
I am Mary Cecilia Masterson at 10.30 a.m. on the 26th April 2004. I live in Subiaco Western Australia. What made my life interesting today? Very little except Mass and breakfast has made my day so far, but I hope to enjoy the joys of living for the remainder.
In the Renewal that followed the second Vatican Council your Sisters identified themselves unquestionably as active women in the service of God's people. How did that affect you at that time and in the events that followed?
I had started to live outside the square for some time before Vatican 11.
Pius X11, with the assistance of Karl Rahner S.J. had written a number of Encyclicals and other doctrinal documents which formed the preparation for the Council which John XX111 initiated. Pius X11 had even gone so far as to spell out some of the detail, not necessarily doctrinal, i.e. about Religious wearing more hygienic clothing, and whether or not it was necessary for active Religious to say the Office. Also I was going to New Zealand quite often when the then Archbishop of Wellington, Cardinal McKeefry was going back and forth to the Council process in Rome. He was a good friend to our little community, and gave us a run down on the progress of the Council-in-the-making during his visits to us which were frequent. All of this found a resonance in me and I followed through since that time.
Those same changes affected the Sisters' spirituality. Spiritual practices now are varied and vibrant. Have you held a particular spiritual devotion through those changes that upholds you now? Would you share something about that?
My special spiritual devotion has been for a long time, and still is, to the Holy Spirit.
Your own ministry took you into areas that would not be traditionally described as'spiritual' - such areas as finance, investment banking and real estate. What surprised you about the people you worked with in those areas?
When I was Provincial Treasurer, the people I worked with were many and varied. It surprised me that many were interested in the not-for-profit organizational ethic. A few, some still with us, came to work for us.
How did big business affect your spirituality?
The blood thirsty run for money and profit which was prevalent in big business gave me a much deeper appreciation of gospel values.
Does that affect your spirituality now?
The amount of corruption in the Multinational Corporations at this time, together with the increase in the number of new such corporations being formed, is alarming. It seems to me that the individual person will have little voice in what so deeply affects his/her life.
In your diverse working life you had responsibility for the Novitiate for a period. Did that kind of work change you in any significant way?
Yes, in the sense that I had to study and to think more deeply.
What is the best thing about this time in your life?
The freedom, hard to explain, of just being oneself.
What is the most challenging?
Coping with the decline of physical powers and vitality.
If you had a magic wand what would you change about the way the sisters are now?
That all could be 21 years old again and that they be God-centered women devoted to making the gospel effective.
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