About Us
Communal Life
As a family gathered together in the Lord’s name, we consider our first and most important mission the mission to love. We live, work, and pray together as a family. Through religious profession, we become permanent members of our religious family. This bond of love among us resembles the eternal love of the Blessed Trinity. As a community, we strive to attain an atmosphere of mutual support, respect and kindness among ourselves, assisting one another in our quest for the common goal of sanctity through selfless service.
Because of our relationship with God, we have a relationship with others. A religious community is made up of Sisters of different ages, backgrounds, experiences, and cultures. God called each of us to Himself as His bride in the same community. We hope to be, especially among ourselves, a beautiful reflection of God’s love here on earth. It is as if we are all different pieces in a beautiful mosaic; different colors, different shapes and sizes but altogether we create a masterpiece of God’s love.
Silence
One of the most important aspects of consecrated life lived in community is silence. In a world such as ours, noise is a fact of life. In order to cultivate that personal union with God, which is so necessary for the religious in the pursuit of the virtues, we observe times of silence in our convents.
There are also days in which silence is kept at meals or between meals. Most founders and foundresses of religious congregations build into their Rule of Life a healthy balance of recreation and silence in order to promote a spirit of charity and prayer throughout the day. Our Congregation is no exception. Once a month, the Sisters of Charity have a day of recollection during which there is complete silence the entire day, giving the Sisters the opportunity to step away from their apostolates and rekindle the fire within to be better prepared to do the will of God wherever and to whomever they are sent. In addition, each year the Sisters are provided with time for an extended retreat to celebrate greater prayer and intimacy with God in order to be effective witnesses to the beauty of religion.
The more one’s union with God deepens, the more the religious welcomes and embraces these times of silence when she can speak and listen exclusively to her divine Spouse.
The Eucharist binds us as one in the service of love. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Benediction and fervent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament all remind us of God’s great love. Our time spent in intense prayer deepens our relationship with our Spouse.
Devotion to Mary
We have a special devotion to the Virgin Mary under her many titles, especially that of Mary, Mother of the Church. Our devotion to Mary is one of unbounded confidence, childlike trust, and tender love for so magnificent a Mother. It is especially in Mary, Mother of the Church that we begin to understand our call to the consecrated life more fully. In all that we do, we go to Jesus through Mary.
The spirit of simplicity shown by loving obedience, charity and self-sacrifice is the distinctive spirit which permeates our lives and all that we do as we strive to fulfill the mission entrusted to us by the Church.
Saint Vincent de Paul
The founder of our Congregation, Bishop John Zwijsen, was inspired by the spirituality of Saint Vincent. We see St. Vincent de Paul as an inspiring example of evangelical service. We are called to live and work in his spirit. Commitment to the poor was the road St. Vincent de Paul followed. He states: in the poor you find God.
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