Sister Heather Francis OHP, shares her perspective on the vocational ministry of the Order of the Holy Paraclete.
OHP was founded as an educational order in 1915, adopting St Hilda as inspiration and guide; part of the great flowering of girls’ education around the turn of the 20th century.
The Community was placed under a dedication to the parakletos = “the one called to come alongside”. Think Emergency Services – Police, Fire, Ambulance – for the name had one legal and two maritime uses. The Legal Aid lawyer called to a courtroom to defend someone without representation, a small boat called into a sea battle to grapple fireboats away from the fleet, and a bigger boat called out to a small boat in difficulties to guide it into harbour.
Like other communities founded to provide institutions of support and care that are now functions of the state and business, today the OHP Sisters are more into “along-siding” others, not least in an age-old monastic tradition of Hospitality; monasteries were the “Premier Inns” of the ancient trade routes.
At the time of writing, we are awaiting a new window in Chapel in which the Cross is central and around it the wind of the Spirit blows across the moors. This memorial window will honour all who have been alongside us through the years.
May the Spirit be with you!
Please pray for the Sisters in the OHP Community, in their vocation and ministry.
