News and Events

Sisters of St Joseph Host Visiting Speaker from USA

The Sisters of St Joseph were delighted to have the opportunity to host several presentations by Alexandra Kovats CSJP in June.    Alexandra, a Sister of St Joseph of Peace and well-known teacher and lecturer on ecological and creation spirituality, eco-feminism and religious life, was in Tasmania as the keynote speaker for the Australian Conference of Spiritual Directors for their Conference “Belonging to the Cosmos: An Exploration of Eco-spirituality and Human Creativity”.

Alexandra is adjunct instructor at the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University and teaches a number of courses in spiritual direction.

More than seventy people attended her seminar “Prayer: Awakening to Life and Love” at the Josephite Mission and History Centre at New Town on 15th June.   In the session, Alexandra explored with us how prayer invites us to wake up to all of life and all our relationships: to God, to self, to others and creation. 

After the Spiritual Directors’ Conference, Alexandra spent a few days at the Emmanuel Centre in Launceston, where she led two well-attended one day workshops and was the guest speaker at Spirituality at the Table.   In the first of the workshops "Celebrating Creation: an Exploration of Ecological Spirituality" Alexandra shared some insights into an ecological spirituality that emphasises our responsibility to listen to and live in harmony with creation and which challenges us to be co-creators with God in shaping the future.     The second workshop"Dancing with Mystery: Prayer and Creativity" focused on creativity as our birthright which shapes our understanding and experience of spirituality and prayer.   Each of the workshops involved storytelling, music and ritual as well as reflection and group sharing.