Religious Life--the fabric of Christian life for all ages

Many individuals today believe that religious life is on the decline. Why, some people ask, to you continue to promote religious life? Are you not aging? Diminishing? The answer to  that first question is "yes"; we are aging. The answer to the second question is "No”!   Like Gideon in the Scriptures whom God asked to reduce his army, so, too, have the number of women and men religious been reduced for varuiys reasons--attrition, fewer individuals answering God's call, fewer families supporting the call.  As with Gideon, however, the power of God is the force that builds religious life and is truly evident in a few good men and women-- yes, ordinary women and men--doing extraordinary things in a variety of ministries. In many cases,  women religious are involved in more ministries than when first founded! Through the power of God's Spirit this form of serving the Lord will continue for many, many years to come. It's part of the fabric of Christian life--always has been and always will be, in my estimation.

The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, with fewer members than in the early  and mid 1900's, are serving the poor in several countries: the USA, the Caribbean countries of St. Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad, and the Dominican Republic; in the European countries of Austria, Germany and Italy; in Brazil and in Tanzania.  Our mission in Tanzania opened as recently as 2006.  The Franciscan Institute staffed by our Sisters in the Caribbean was created in a 2001 brainstorming session with the Sisters in the Caribbean who were looking to establish a corporate ministry.  This mobile ministry serves St. Lucia, Grenada and Trinidad. We also run a secondary school (high school ) on the island of Grenada. Our ministries in the Dominican Republic include healthcare, community development and education.  In the US we began and continue to serve the needy in several healthcare institutions. Some of our Sisters work with Native Americans, Immigrants, prisoners, the mentally ill and those suffering from the disease of alcoholism and drug addictions.  Others work in education to elementary school children. Through the generosity of God's love, this community will continue as it began, through a call from God that a community be founded that would unite action and contemplation as a means to ongoing conversion and thus to being a catalyst of transformation of the world in which we live.  The essence of our lives is this relationship with the Lord and one another, thus growing in trust, in faith, in love and interior strength to serve and seek the Lord above all. Through all these efforts,  the refounding of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother continues on a daily basis!