People of many faiths and different cultural backgrounds live in the Wimmera. For this week’s With Heart series, KAITLYN FASSO-OPIE looks at How We Pray…
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HORSHAM spiritual director and retired teacher Sr Jacinta Rice spends her days discussing prayer and finding meaning in an often disconnected society.
“This is what I do all the time,” she said.
“This is my world.”
Born into a Catholic household at Murtoa, Sr Rice said faith has always been central to her life, from the time she was a child.
But faith has always been broader to her than just the Catholic faith.
Attending the state school at Murtoa, the young Jacinta was friends and classmates with other Wimmera children, coming from homes with other faiths, including Lutheran and Presbyterian.
In her own home, the rosary was prayed every night.
“Mum was a spiritual person, and Dad didn’t talk about it – he lived it,” Sr Rice said.
“Growing up, I became aware of different ways of praying.
“I particularly like the silent prayer.”
Sr Rice was professed as a member of the Congregation of St Brigid in 1954 and left the Wimmera region as a young woman, returning ‘home’ eight-and-a-half years ago.
“Faith, to me, is not just about belief, because belief to me is something that maybe you’ve been brought up with – it is about intellect, a lot of the time,” she said.
“There is a lot ‘not expressed’, it’s about the heart and the head.”
Sr Rice, who has taught biology during her time as a teacher, said the emphasis in today’s society was on science.
“People want proof of this, and proof of that, visual and external data,” she said.
“But one of those things left out of our life is intuition – and I think women understand that.”
Sr Rice said many people believed they weren’t religious, but they were spiritual.
“But every single one of us is a spiritual being,” she said.
“People are saying ‘I don’t want regulation, to follow some sort of dogma, I don’t want to be restrained, I want to be free’.
“Individualism is power, or trying to be power, and it’s causing trouble.
“There’s a lot of people looking for community – they think they’ve found it on Facebook or Messenger, and maybe it’s helpful.”
However, Sr Rice said while people could seek meaning through belief, or ‘disbelief’ as the case may be, what they were really seeking was healing.
“People are seeking it in the unknown,” she said.
“Some people pray very much visually, and some people are praying without visuals, which fits into Buddhism and has become popular – people are seeking mindfulness.”
Sr Rice, who has lived and worked in Thailand, said she found people in Australia were self-conscious about talking about religion.
“But in Thailand, they have no qualms about that,” she said.
“I was teaching English to civil servants in Thailand and they have no hesitation in speaking about their temples.
“One student spoke about a new form of mediation and when asked about it, said ‘there’s no point in trying to answer those questions’.
“In other words, just do it.”
Sr Rice said her own influences included Ignatian spirituality, from the Jesuits, and Celtic influences, stemming from the Brigidine Sisters, the order to which she herself belongs.
“Simply put, the connection with nature, which is Celtic, is very, very strong,” she said.
“Scripture is also very powerful, it’s a relationship and is very much about listening to God.”
While Sr Rice said God “didn’t intervene often,” humans could have experiences beyond what they expected.
“The danger is when people are looking for something to lift themselves out of a situation, that may not happen,” she said.
“The best way to describe it is, it’s just like any relationship – sitting, talking, or walking with someone – and you don’t know what’s going to happen.
“Sometimes, you get a surprise, and I believe that’s God speaking to us.”