Verbum Dei Sister Frances Drum returned to university this month, not as a student, but as the new assistant chaplain for the QUT Kelvin Grove campus.
Sr Frances will support chaplain Fr Bavin Clarke to provide spiritual support to students and staff there.
“I’m someone that students and staff can go to, to discover more about their faith,” she said.
Sr Frances said she was excited to be a part of the 16-year-long work that Fr Clarke had already established at the university. She said it would be important for her to continue to raise the awareness of Christian identity on the campus in a “gentle but firm” manner.
“That’s the aim, to be a faith-filled spiritual presence in an atmosphere that at many times is secular,” she said.
Chaplaincy work is common among Verbum Dei community members, as a platform for the distinctive charism of Verbum Dei, a Latin phrase which means Word of God, where it invites the Word into everyday life.
“Our work is the dynamism of the Word of God, so we learn to pray, share, and live the Word of God each day,” she said. “The Word of God is Christ, and the Word becomes powerful when you have a personal relationship with Him.
“My personal interest is, where appropriate, helping people develop their personal relationship with Christ.”
Sr Frances and three other Verbum Dei Sisters arrived in Brisbane in May 2011 and founded a Verbum Dei Brisbane community, following an invitation from Archbishop John Bathersby to support a new parish in Springfield.
As well as the Verbum Dei Brisbane branch, there are also communities in Wollongong and Sydney.
