It was at Mass, receiving the Eucharist with new eyes, that Sr Susanna Edmunds OP first glimpsed the life she was being called to.
Then a biomedical engineering student at the University of Sydney, she had found herself drawn into a circle of young Catholics who took their faith seriously, and the encounter changed everything.
Watching peers live what they believed, and meeting Christ in the Eucharist in a way she never had before, she began to wonder whether she might be called to do the same.
“When I saw them doing that, I thought maybe that’s something I should try,” she reflects. “Maybe the Lord sent me to university to major in the spiritual life.”
That small movement of grace set in motion a remarkable vocation.
In 2010, she entered the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee, a congregation known for blending monastic prayer with active mission.
Years of formation and teaching high school religion across several US states shaped her thinking about what she describes as the most fundamental truths: who God is, the dignity of the human person, and what we are each called to become.
Since returning to Sydney in 2018, Sr Susanna has served as Dean of Studies at the Seminary of the Good Shepherd, also serving at a university chaplaincy, conducting adult formation and vocation ministry, and is currently completing a master’s thesis in biblical theology.
The Eucharist at the heart of renewal
On 18 July, Sr Susanna will deliver a keynote address on the theme: the Eucharist as Source and Summit of Parish Renewal at the Parish Renewal Conference, held at the Liverpool Catholic Club.
It is a theme she inhabits rather than merely teaches.
“When we eat ordinary food, the food is absorbed into us, the higher life form. But when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, it is really the opposite,” she says.
“He is not just the higher life form but life itself, our Lord and Creator. It is not so much that I eat Jesus as that I am eaten by him, drawn into his life.”
That, she explains, is why the Church is called both the body of Christ received in the Eucharist and the body of Christ alive in the world: the two realities are inseparable.
“Holding those two realities together is this tremendous fountain of life and renewal of charity, and that’s what I’m really excited to be unpacking at the conference,” she said.
Answering the Synod’s longing
The conference arrives at a defining moment.
The recent Sydney Synod revealed a clear and consistent longing among the faithful: more Christ-centred parishes, more mission-oriented communities and a yearning for deeper Eucharistic formation.
Sr Susanna, who participated in the Synod, sees the Parish Renewal Conference as a direct response to those longings.
“This is a chance to come together, to be renewed ourselves, and to be equipped to go out.”
Joining her on the programme will be Marcel LeJeune, whose work building missionary disciples on American university campuses has become a reference point for Catholic renewal.
But Sr Susanna suggests the most valuable exchange might happen not in the plenary hall but over a sandwich.
“I think the conference is a great way to share ideas of how to be those missionary communities that we long to be.
“How to share our faith with others. And the best tip that you pick up at the conference may or may not come from one of the plenary speakers.
“It might come over lunch from a chat with someone while you’re waiting for your sandwiches and sharing, what you do at your parish?”
A runway to Eucharist28
The Parish Renewal Conference is also, Sr Susanna believes, an important step on the road to the 54th International Eucharistic Congress in Sydney, Eucharist28.
“The congress will be a wonderful, almost transcendent moment, a glimpse of heaven,” she says.
“But it is in the small-scale lead-up encounters that we will be deepened in our Christian identity. That is what will carry on through the congress and beyond.”
Her challenge to anyone is characteristically simple: find a church that is unlocked and visit the Blessed Sacrament. Five minutes. No agenda. “Just say: Jesus, thank you for being here. He waits for us in our churches.”
And for those wondering whether the Parish Renewal Conference is really for you and your fellow parishioners?
“Come as you are,” she says. “And be ready to be transformed.”
THE PARISH RENEWAL CONFERENCE 2026
18 July 2026 | Liverpool Catholic Club, Sydney
To register go to: gomakedisciples.org.au/prc26
