Dear Friends,

One of the great things about missionary life – and life in general – is the people you get to know along the way, and the richness they bring to your life.

Sr Rita Hassett rsm was one of those people who enriched the lives of many SVD missionaries, with her zest for life and her love for people and mission. Sr Rita died in her sleep recently, while in Alice Springs, working with us at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish.

Right up until her unexpected death, Sr Rita had been preparing and helping to facilitate the successful running of an ecumenical seminar on Aboriginal Theologies. It was typical of the energy she brought to everything she did.

She had been a friend of the SVD for many years, having spent nearly 30 years living in Papua New Guinea as a teacher in remote rural areas, working with teachers, seminarians and families and leading the Diocesan Education Office in the highlands.

Later, after returning to Australia, undertaking a university degree and carrying out ministry with unemployed people in Sydney’s west, she took up a communications role in our SVD Mission Office. She was the editor of our mission magazine, Society Matters, and in an interview with Catholic Religious Australia in 2012, she said she felt strongly about Religious congregations being pro-active in telling their stories.

“I believe that unless members of Religious Orders tell the stories of their lives in ministry, they are robbing the Church of role models and inspiration for living the Gospel as it can and should be lived today,” she said.

Speaking at Sr Rita’s funeral, Fr Viet Nguyen SVD said she would be missed by all who knew her.

“She was a woman of great compassion and was ready to lend a helping hand wherever and whenever required,” he said. “Rita also had an adventurous streak, which came to the fore when she packed her camera and left in her van called ‘Rippin Rita’ on her road trip, headed somewhere towards the outback.”
Sr Rita’s sudden death and return home to her loving God, to whom she had dedicated her life, gave all of us who knew her, pause for thought.

It reminds us that life is tenuous and is there to be lived, with enthusiasm and love, serving others. It asks of us, would we be ready if we were called home to face God suddenly and without warning? The best way we can be ready is to live our life well; live it in union with God and our neighbour to the best of our ability.

When Sr Rita took her final vows as a Sister of Mercy in 1964, the motto she chose to be inscribed on her ring was from John’s Gospel, “That they may have life”.

Sr Rita was full of life, and she lived it to the full. We pray for the repose of her soul. We honour her life and ministry, and we thank her for her friendship and commitment to the Divine Word Missionaries. May she rest in peace.

Yours in the Word,

Fr Asaeli Raass
Vice Provincial-Superior, and Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Alice Springs

PHOTO: The late Sr Rita Hassett rsm