Are You Called to Join Us in Our Mission of Sharing God’s Love?

“Where and when God finds you ready, God must act and overflow into you, just as when the air is clear and pure, the sun must overflow into it and cannot refrain from doing that.”
(Meister Eckhart)

There are a number ways in which you can be a partner with us in living our spirituality and mission of love:

• as a vowed religious
• as an Associate
• as a lay missionary working with the sisters in foreign countries
• as a member of Hearts4Others.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of a religious vocation please contact:

Sister Jenny Seal
Phone: (03) 9557 1130
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If you called by God to share the charism of our Religious Congregation and live it as wife and mother, husband and father, or single person, in your day-to-day environment you may like to do so as an Associate. You can read more about our Associates on this website, under Chevalier Family. You may also contact:

Sister Ancilla White
Phone: (02) 9662 1777
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If you feel called to work for six months or more with our sisters on foreign missions and would like to know more about this, please contact:

Sister Lorraine McCleary
Phone: 02 9663 3599
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Hearts4Others

Are you committed to Social Change and deepening your Spirituality?

Hearts4Others (OLSH) is for young adults who are committed to working for social change and deepening their spirituality. If you would like to know more contact:   

Sister Philippa Murphy
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Facebook: hearts4othersolsh

Are these questions your questions:
Where is God calling me?
What is my heart’s desire, its deepest desire?
Where do I find true meaning in my life?
What journey will enable me to love the best way I can?
Are you called to come away for a while and enter into a time of stillness?

For information about our residential retreats for young adults contact:

Sister Philippa Murphy
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Our Mission entrusted to us by the Church,
holds a wealth of challenge in this day,
a challenge that is both immense and urgent.
JOIN US

  pdf Discern a direction for life... it's your call (1.01 MB)

In fulfilling this mission the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart spread from France to Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Central Pacific. Today we number more than 1000 sisters ministering in 27 countries on 5.

Our Spirituality of the Heart inspires us to live our mission of love. It calls us into relationship with God, with one another and with all of creation. We are enriched by the cultures of those with whom we minister and, by God’s graciousness, the women from these cultures who have joined us. We are involved in diverse ministries in attempting to meet the needs in the situations in which we find ourselves:

• Overseas Missions
• Working with the Indigenous peoples of Australia
• Working with Asylum Seekers and Refugees
• Promotion of Social Justice and Care of the Earth
• Spiritual Companionship and Guidance
• Young Adult Formation
• Hospital Chaplaincy
• Prison Ministry
• Pastoral Care/Parish Ministry
• Education: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary
• Health and Aged Care
• Orphanages for babies and children with AIDS
• Liturgical Artworks
• Secretarial Work

“We are attentive to emerging needs, particularly those resulting from poverty, violence, oppression, degradation of the environment, and the dislocation of peoples. We give special attention to the unjust treatment of women and children.” (FDNSC Directory 59)

As Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, prayer is a priority for us. We nurture the gift of prayer through personal prayer and have a special love for the Eucharist and for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Each day we unite with each other and with the entire people of God as we pray the Prayer of the Church.

We count on the love and protection of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and are inspired by the example of her life as a woman obedient to the movements of the Spirit in her heart. The Memorare to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is a prayer specially loved by us:

Remember, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart,
the great things the Lord has done for you.
He chose you for his Mother.
He wanted you close to his Cross
He gives you a share in his glory.
He listens to your prayer.
Offer him our prayers of praise and thanksgiving;
present our petitions to him.
Let us live like you in the love of your Son that his Kingdom may come.
Lead all people to the source of living water that flows from His Heart, spreading over the world hope and salvation, justice and peace.
See our trust in you, answer our prayer,
show yourself always our Mother. Amen.

In the initial struggles to found our Congregation Jules Chevalier was greatly assisted by Marie Louise Hartzer, a widow with two young sons. As our first Congregational Leader she instilled in us the importance of having a mother’s heart in our approach to people. She encouraged us to “Go with the simplicity of a child to Jesus and Mary in a spirit of confidence and abandonment.”  (Marie Louise Hartzer FDNSC, Her Letters, no. 105, 1903)

The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart are pleased to pray for your intentions.

Please be assured that all your intentions will be prayed for and remembered by the Sisters and in a particular way at the Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart which is said each Thursday at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at OLSH Church, Avoca Street, Randwick, New South Wales.

“As Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart we form one family in the Heart of Jesus. We support and encourage each other in our religious commitment and act towards one another with genuine affection and consideration …” (FDNSC Constitution 38)

In keeping with our vowed commitment, we live a simple lifestyle. We respect individual differences and seek to live our unity in diversity, particularly in international communities.

Our unity is affirmed when we pray together and share in the ordinary activities of life. It is a sign of the presence of Jesus, living and active among us. We are encouraged by Father Chevalier’s often repeated encouragement: “Let there be no strangers or foreigners amongst you”.

Mary did not receive the Son of God only into her body, but into her entire being as woman. By Jesus becoming human, God assures us that the unique condition of woman is an essential element in his extraordinary and wonderful plan of coming to live among us.  When we reflect on the way Mary herself sees her life journey, we see that she creates space in her being in order to accept the human Jesus and all the Good News of salvation. She enters into a personal relationship with Christ, developing her gifts of tenderness, perceptivity, and listening.  Mary makes her special gifts of intuition and sensitivity effective in the service of Christ’s mission.

As the first disciple, Mary is a role model for each of us in our relationship with God, through the heart of Jesus, and in our relationships with others.

In gratitude for all the great things the Lord has done through her, our founder, gave Mary the title Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. This title focuses on the relationship of love between Jesus and Mary, the same relationship of love we are invited to participate in and have with each other.

“Father Jules Chevalier gave us our name to honour Mary as Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the one chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus.  By her response in love and in total availability to the Holy Spirit, she gave Jesus his humanity, following him even to the cross.” (FDNSC Constitutions No 4)

To live and make known the message of God’s unconditional love, Jules founded two religious congregations, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Our mission, like that of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, is reflected in our motto:

“May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved”.

In fulfilling this mission the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart spread from France to Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Central Pacific. Today we number more than 1000 sisters ministering in 27 countries on 5 continents.

The spirituality of Jules Chevalier MSC was driven by his conviction that God’s love is boundless and unconditional. It embraces every person, regardless of who we are, where we are, or what we may have done. This conviction coloured his way of living, the spirit in which he lived his life, his spirituality.

God’s greatest expression of love for us was the gift of his Son, Jesus, who in his human heart showed us God’s love for us and for each person. God asks only that we, with our human heart with innate goodness together with its limitations and failings, love God in return. Furthermore, God asks us to love each person who comes into our life with a love that reflects God’s love.

We find in Jesus’ heart the full range of emotions – hopes and fears, joys and sorrows – that we experience. We see in his life how to use the opportunities of daily living and our ordinary interactions with people to show forth God’s love and make it tangible in our world.  

Father Jules Chevalier's motto, "May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be Everywhere Loved!" became the driving force of his life. As well as establishing two religious orders, he was very aware of the strength, power for good, and spirituality of lay people.

By the time of his death, he already had more than a million people enrolled in the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Today we use the word ‘Associates’ for those who find themselves at home in our spirituality and who want to find guidance, support, and companionship along the journey, as well as rejoicing to be for others "the Heart of God on earth".

It is within their own life situation that our Associates fulfill their special mission of love. Their way to the Heart of Jesus and to the hearts of others is their prayer and understanding help in needs that arise in the here and now of their lives.

Associates are however also one with the Sisters in their mission, in fact, extending it far beyond the sphere of the Sisters' influence.

The 'belonging' of Associates in our Congregation is expressed in our Constitutions approved by the Church.

O.L.S.H. Associates are found in all States of Australia and in many other countries where our sisters work.

For further information, write to:

For further information, write to
The National Director,
Associates of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
OLSH Convent
2 Kensington Rd, Kensington NSW 2033
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ametur Newsletter of the Associates

The vision of Father Jules Chevalier, to make the Sacred Heart known and loved everywhere, led him to the deep desire to found several congregations. He also wanted a separate branch of laity, who would be formed and share in the spirit, charism and mission of the congregations.

In 1854 Fr. Jules Chevalier founded a Society of Priests and Brothers whom he called Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (M.S.C.). Twenty years later, he founded us, a Congregation of Sisters called Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (F.D.N.S.C.). In 1900 the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart were founded in Germany by a Dutch MSC, Fr. Hubert Linckens. These three religious families, with their lay members form the Chevalier Family.

Nowadays 3 religious congregations with an international network of laity are all part of one Chevalier family:
 

There are over 1000 Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart throughout the world and the Congregation is present in twenty seven countries.

The most recent places we have gone to are Angola 2005 and Vietnam 2012.

Australia

We have sisters presently living/working in

• New South Wales
  Kensington, Blacktown, Burradoo, Daceyville, Rosebery
• Victoria
  Airport West, Bentleigh, East Bentleigh, Elmore, Werribee
• Queensland
  Corinda
• South Australia
  Kilburn, Prospect, Roxby Downs, Whyalla Norrie
• Northern Territory
  Alice Springs, Darwin, Bathurst Island (Wurrumiyanga), Port Keats (Wadeye)

Internationally

We have Australian sisters presently working in:

• South Africa
• Papua New Guinea
• Kiribati
• South Sudan
• Italy
• Japan