INTRODUCTION

 On many occasions you will have heard people stand here and say, “Sr. Paul told me to…” or at our weekly Wednesday Centering Prayer Session someone will start with, “I was volunteered.” The tables have been turned – I was volunteered!

 After our Conference last year, Peter Jamadar said to me, “We need a woman’s voice again, why don’t you do the talk next year!” I reacted with a definitive “No” as I am inclined to do; and then, as is customary, I thought, hesitated, and thought again. Perhaps the time had come for me to express my views. Not that I was given much chance to think otherwise!

 Those of you who know Peter Jamadar, know of his powers of persuasion and of his insistence, so you won’t be surprised to hear that I received many a nudge – I needed to voice my vision, he insisted; I needed to point to the two strands in the Foundation - the psychological and spiritual; I needed to express why I had chosen to go this way. I needed to say…

 And so I am saying. I am not sure that I have succeeded in pulling it all together with any measure of clarity but at least I am taking the first step. I want to begin by stating that I am not attempting an academic paper. I am instead telling my story, putting to you my reflections and inviting you to reflect with me, to ponder in your hearts.