The Shape of Your Heart, The Focus of Your Love

What I love most about this quote from Blessed Theresa is the gentle but very real challenge that it is. These are words that hit me right in the chest - right in the heart - every time that I read them. A soft poke, whispered questions: What do I love? Does my interior landscape (the things that I spend time thinking about, the things I desire, etc) seem like a reflection of what I say I love? Would a stranger looking at my day-to-day life know what I love based on what they would see me spending my time, money, and energy on? After reflecting on these things I always find myself shaking my head with a wry smile. I know the areas in which I can do better - we all do - and part of a life of discipleship is always striving to do a bit better. Being human means, among other things, having an inborn longing to become the best and most authentic version of ourselves over the course of our lifetime. This journey to wholeness, and our desire to make this journey, reminds me of Jesus' promise that, "I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10).

For those who are working out what they are going to do with their "one wild and precious life" (Mary Oliver), it is often helpful to take some time to consider what the shape of your heart is now and to consider what you hope the shape of your heart will become. These can be powerful insights about what makes you happy and helps you to feel most alive - what gives you abundant life.

Virtue and Vocation

It is always helpful to hear why others have chosen to do (or not do) something that you are considering for yourself. Global Sisters Report strikes again this week with a gorgeous reflection from Sister Susan Rose Francois on the call we all share to become more virtuous and her call in particular to become a sister. Well worth reading slowly and prayerfully! You can find the article here.

Who We Are Wednesday

Do you enjoy history? For this edition of Who We Are Wednesday we would like to share with you our founding story as told on our international website, gerhardinger.org. Here is a preview:

The congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame came to life when God’s call found an answer in the hearts of people strong in faith, farseeing in vision, and courageous in action. The congregation continues today in the mysterious interaction of divine call and human response.

 

Our charism flows from our spiritual heritage, especially the gifts of St. Augustine, who formed a community to be of one heart and one soul in God, seeing in the Trinity the basis, source and goal of all community. It is in this spirit of Augustine that the first rules are framed.

Blessed Alix Le Clerc and St. Peter Fourier gave a new direction to religious life, insisting  that the ministry of furthering the interests of education be integral to the community which they founded and named it the Congrégation Notre Dame - Canonesses of St. Augustine. Alix and her companions pronounced their first religious vows on Christmas Day 1597 at Mattaincourt in Lorraine.

 
Though its roots lie deep in the past, the congregation traces its actual beginning to October 24, 1833, when Caroline Gerhardinger and two other women began a common religious life in Neunburg vorm Wald, Bavaria. Their action was inspired by an apostolic spirituality destined to shape their own lives and profoundly affect those of many others.

You can read the full history here!

A Unique Global Responsibility

"Believing that our international presence gives us a unique global responsibility, we address urgent needs of our time, particularly those of women, youth and those who are poor."

The School Sisters of Notre Dame live and minister in 34 countries around the world. This reality compels SSNDs, communally and individually, to act and to speak up for matters of justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. Yesterday, for example, the sisters here in the United States were active in calling their local Senators (SSNDs live all over the US!) regarding a series of bills concerning Human Trafficking. Two of the bills being proposed in the Senate fly in the face of the AM-SSND Corporate Stance on Immigration Reform and/or fail to address the community's commitment to end Human Trafficking. An essential component of being a School Sister of Notre Dame is being engaged in the world so as to help bring about the reign of God, characterized by  "that oneness for which Jesus Christ was sent." (You Are Sent, Constitution of the School Sisters of Notre Dame)

Updates from Our Students at the UN CSW

For this week's edition of Who We Are Wednesday, we'd like to share with you the reflections of two of our students who are part of the SSND delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women this week. After all, they are a reflection of what we do and of the spirit that SSNDs impart to those they touch through their ministries!

School Sisters of Notre Dame delegation to participate in UN Commission on Status of Women

The School Sisters of Notre Dame has been a registered NGO (non-governmental organization) with the U.N. Department of Public Information since 1993! This year, as in years past, a delegation from the School Sisters of Notre Dame, including students from SSND-sponsored Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore, Notre Dame High School in St. Louis and Notre Dame of Maryland University, will attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meeting March 9-20, 2015, in New York as the CSW addresses the issues of gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Read a full article about what the Commission on the Status of Women is about and what the SSND delegation will be up to here, on the SSND website for North America!

Who We Are Wednesdays: Educators in All We Do

School Sisters of Notre Dame are "Educators in All We Do." The Second Vatican Council called all communities of women and men religious to go back to their roots and reinvigorate their way of living out the vows within their particular charism. For the SSNDs, this led the community to several important conclusions and to changes. One of these was that the community's work of education, with a focus on educating girls in order to empower them to better their lives and the lives of their communities, could be accomplished outside the traditional classroom as well as within it. Since then, School Sisters of Notre Dame have been ministering as educators by a variety of means and in very diverse settings. Some SSNDs still teach in classrooms, from preschool through graduate school. Others run ESL programs for recent immigrants, retreat centers, and pastoral counseling practices. Some coordinate programs that seek to promote peace, justice, and the integrity of creation. There are SSNDs who are doctors, dentists, and lawyers, and even one who serves as the community's representative to the United Nations (the SSNDs are an officially recognized UN-NGO - more on that later!). In all of these and many other ministries, School Sisters of Notre Dame are "Educators in All We Do."

Who We Are - As Sisters

S. Tracy Kemme, contributor to Global Sisters Report

This article from a young soon-to-be-Sister of Charity (she is currently a novice) is a gorgeous reflection on the vows that all consecrated religious take. Though this article is not directly about the School Sisters of Notre Dame, it gives great insight into the lived experience and the way of life of generations of religious women and men, SSND and otherwise! If you are discerning about a call to religious life, or even just curious what religious life is all about, we encourage you to grab a mug of something cozy and READ THIS: Vows That Wake Up the World

Introductory Video

Our communications office created this video in celebration of the Year of Consecrated life and in order to help spread the word about who the School Sisters of Notre Dame are. We hope that you enjoy it, and we ask you to share it with your friends and social networks!

Love Cannot Wait

We, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, are profoundly affected and challenged by the many divisions in our world and church today and by the social, economic and ecological crises of our times. As an international congregation of apostolic women religious, we are called and sent to address these divisions and crises with audacity and hope. In fidelity to our charism of unity in diversity, we commit

• to embrace dialogue as a way of life that leads to new discoveries about ourselves and others and to conversion, reconciliation, and healing;
• to live more simply, responsibly, and sustainably with one another and with all of creation;
• to intensify our efforts to witness to unity in a divided world by holding all in common;
• to direct our resources and ministries toward education that transforms and calls all to eliminate the root causes of injustice;
• to deepen the contemplative and prophetic dimensions of our lives by grounding who we are and all we do in the love of the Triune God. 

“United and content with little, we go out into the whole world” because “love cannot wait!”*

*Blessed Theresa Gerhardinger, writings #144 and #1.