The theme for Catholic Sisters Week this year is “Celebrating Traditions! Changing the World!” This theme is very relevant in my life and in my vocation ministry. To me, this theme is reflected in one of the most encouraging and challenging lines from the Prologue of YOU ARE SENT:
Our charism continues to develop in the living community,
which, enriched by the past,
enables the congregation
to unfold in the present and
to be challenged by the future.
As a member of the North America Vocation Team, I am very aware that, when I invite a young woman to consider religious life, it comes from our rich SSND heritage in responding to God’s love.
One way our Vocation Team is inviting children of all ages to celebrate Catholic Sisters Week is to enjoy the oral reading of the storybook, Caroline’s Dream, written by Sister Mary Magdalen Nomoto, SSND, of Japan. We recorded the story with Sister Bernadette Alfieri of the AM Province and Sister Rita Anne Kipka of the CP Province reading it, and we will be sharing it with our sponsored elementary and middle schools in North America.
It is our hope that this is a way that the children who listen to this story of Blessed M. Theresa of Jesus will be able to celebrate this SSND tradition, and, perhaps, live lives that will change the world.
~ Sr Nancy Gilchriest, SSND
