Catholic Schools Week Talk
During Catholic Schools Week, a very important week in the school
calendar, we had a lovely woman called Reena came in to talk to us about her
journey of faith throughout her life. Reena grew up in the 1950s during tough
recessionary times. She told us that the recession we know today was plain
sailing compared to the recession she lived through. She noticed growing up the
issue of gender equality and how women were expected to just clean the house
and mind the children – practically to be seen but not heard. Reena wanted to
be unique and live her life as an independent woman so she left Ireland to
travel to Canada where she felt she had a vocation to become a nun.
In
Canada, unlike many women back in Ireland, she completed secondary school and
university where she studied nursing and eventually became a nurse. She soon
realised that although being a nun was a worthwhile vocation for some, she
realised that it wasn’t for her so she turned solely to nursing and through
nursing she wanted to understand what it is like to be a Christian.
She thought about it for years and realised to be a Christian you must
act and do what you would like done to you. Wanting to be a good Christian
helped Reena to found a hospice movement. This inspiration also stemmed from a
child with leukaemia Reena grew to know and Riona then wanted to work with
people who were dying.
To this day, Reena still works in hospices and feels that rather than
being a place of sadness and darkness, a hospice is a celebration of life.
Reena was one of my favourite speakers so far in TY as she brought something
different, something inspiring. There was no power point presentation or
distractions, just her speaking and she held our attention all the way to the end.
The things she said throughout her talk were influential, humanizing and
liberating. Honesty shone through Reena’s words and she made me want to do
something good in the world.
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