Thank You Women Religious!

Since the earliest days of Christianity, women of faith have played an important role in our Church.   Our Blessed Mother was the first woman to support and promote the ministry of Our Savior.  She and other women of faith like St. Mary Magdalene were with him when he died on the Cross for our sins and they were among the first to witness his triumphant Resurrection.  

 
Over the millennia since Jesus ascended into Heaven and our Church grew in size and faith, women of faith have worked tirelessly to spread the Good News and serve God and the Church.  Women who dedicate their lives to God and the Church have played a particularly important role.  Women religious may be categorized as ‘nuns’ who live cloistered away from the world and ‘sisters’ who live amidst the world.  Both types of women religious faithfully serve the Church and humanity in their own special ways.  

 
The Church has long recognized the importance of women religious, including by canonizing them as saints.  Women religious have written some of the most inspiring works of our faith including St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of the Child Jesus.  Women religious have selflessly served the poor like St. Louise de Marillac, St. Katharine Drexel, St. Frances Cabrini, and St. Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Mother Teresa.  Women religious have been Heaven’s messengers like St. Faustina Kowalska, St. Bernadette,  and St. Catherine Labouret. Women religious have been educators like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and even martyrs like St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein).  

 
Educated in public schools, I do not have much personal experience with sisters or nuns.  There are two sisters who did have a spiritual impact upon my life, though I did not realize it until much later in life.  They were Sister Mary Xavier and Sister Maureen.  These two dedicated Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth were lifelong educators, serving in Catholic parochial schools as teachers and administrators.  They also ran the Religious Education program for my first parish,  the Church of St. Martha in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, for many years.  To be honest, young Bryan was more than a little intimidated by them.  Yet it was not until they died in 2012 and 2013, that I learned just how much they contributed to Catholic education in New Jersey during their lifetimes.

Therefore, I would like to recognize the dedicated service of our Church’s sisters and nuns in two ways. 

 
First, in prayer:  Heavenly Father, we thank You for calling women to serve as religious sisters and nuns.  We thank You for the countless hours of service that they give to our Church and to people across the globe.  We ask You to inspire and call many more women to serve as religious sisters and nuns and to continue to develop the faith, hope and charity of those women who have answered Your vocational call.  And when at last, You call them to leave this world, we humbly pray that Your Most Holy Son, Our Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph will welcome them into Your Heavenly Kingdom.  We seek Your mercy for the souls of those religious sisters and nuns who are in Purgatory and we humbly beseech You to expedite their purification that they may join You in Heaven for all eternity. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God.  Amen.

 
Second, I also offer my personal thanks and appreciation to all religious sisters and nuns for giving their lives and their talents and their faith to serve our Church and humanity in general.  You are making contributions that are often unseen and unrecognized but those contributions will resonate throughout this life and the life to come.