Communicating with Heart

By Pamela Schaeffer, former Communications Director of the Society of the Sacred Heart United States Province

When Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ, and her Provincial Team hired me in late 2001 to be the first communications director for the United States Province, I came with skills acquired in thirty-some years as a journalist and a sense that I would enjoy working with the RSCJ. I was installed in an office on the first floor of the provincial house, then an aging three-story brownstone in a historical area of St. Louis; and soon, as often happens when someone begins a new job, I felt at a bit of a loss. Where to start? How do I meet the needs the Provincial Team had expressed? One of my few early instructions had been to travel around the Province, to get to know the sisters and their constituents.

My “aha” moment came in a conversation with the alumnae director of an out-of-town Sacred Heart school, who told me ruefully, “We miss the nuns in the schools. No doubt they’re out there doing good things. But it would be nice to know what those things are!”

That clinched it! I understood that people who loved the RSCJ were hungry for their stories. My job was to tell them. What could be more fun? But there was a lot of catching up to do. The RSCJ had been moving into new ministries for at least three decades. We needed a vehicle that would demonstrate a sincere effort to close a big gap. And so, the RSCJ on the Provincial Team and I decided to produce a high-quality magazine in which we would tell the family of the Sacred Heart not only what the sisters were doing, but why. What were their motivations? What was in their hearts?

Lacking the budget to hire photographers to take the highresolution photos a magazine cover requires, we decided to use stock photos of hearts in nature. How better to portray the Society’s contemplative dimension and to express its charism to discover and reveal the love at the heart of the universe. So it was that when the first magazine appeared in 2003, it featured a big green heart-shaped leaf on its cover.

At first, many RSCJ were hesitant to take the limelight, but gradually their reticence gave way as they began to realize that this, too, might be a work of the Spirit. Our readers, the family of the Sacred Heart, expressed gratitude at learning about the many paths the sisters’ lives had taken as they followed the Spirit over the years.

Meanwhile, I saw how right I had been to think I would enjoy working with the RSCJ. I continue to treasure memories of many special moments with the sisters I came to know; and after I retired, I joined the Associates of the Society of the Sacred Heart in order to continue to experience the many ways in which the RSCJ enlarge and enliven my own heart.

Over time, this magazine has evolved, both in its editorial content and in its look. But it remains true to its early purpose: to portray the mission of the United States – Canada Province in its everchanging dimensions, as a force for love, peace and justice in our imperfect world.