Ministry
Our foundress, Blessed M. Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger, and the women who joined her chose education as the best way to show God’s love to the world and thereby create a better world. Following in their footsteps, we also direct our ministries toward education. We educate with the conviction that the world can be changed through the transformation of persons.
Our life
Our life in mission is an integrated whole: prayer, community life, and ministry flow from and into one another. Through our prayer, dialogue, and ministry, we become a community of one mind and one heart. The values, attitudes, and virtues that foster oneness in our faith community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, are the same by which we promote unity among all people. As the desire of Jesus that all be one becomes more fully our own, our striving for unity embraces all humanity and the whole of creation
Priorities
Following our foundress’ example, we exclude no one from our concern. We are particularly sensitive to the needs of children, youth and women, often the weakest in society. We give priority to persons who are poor. We strive to be sensitive and attentive to the ever-changing conditions in our rapidly changing reality. We try to discover where we are called and which of the world’s needs we are called to address. We strive to identify who are the poor of our time and where there is the greatest need in the field of education.
By sending Sisters in two’s and three’s to reach people in rural areas, Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger departed from her contemporary's pattern of large, formal monasteries. In order to maintain a common spirit, direction and goal among the Sisters, among the branch houses, and later among the provinces, she insisted on a unifying central government in her congregation. In contrast to established precedents and the prevailing spirit of the times, she was convinced that a woman could better understand and, therefore, direct and motivate her Sisters. When her views about the government of her congregation were misunderstood, her trust in God and her deep loyalty to the church sustained her in the suffering she endured. ~ Learn more our History at Gerhardinger.org
Coming to America
In a further leap of faith, Mother Theresa expanded her community to North America in 1847, finding a home in Baltimore, where she and her sisters were welcomed as teachers by the German immigrants who had settled there. When Blessed Theresa returned to Europe, the young Caroline Friess stepped in to fill her shoes and found great success in her call to expand the congregation in North America. By the time Mother Theresa died in 1879, more than 2,500 School Sisters of Notre Dame were living religious life according to her spirit.
Strong women formed the foundation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and in their spirit generations of strong women have dedicated their lives to the service of God and others by becoming SSNDs. We celebrate those amazing women, the work they have done and all of the lives they have touched.
Our mission is to proclaim the good news as School Sisters of Notre Dame, directing our entire lives toward that oneness for which Jesus Christ was sent. As he was sent to show the Father’s love to the world, we are sent to make Christ visible by our very being, by sharing our love, faith, and hope.
Our mission is to proclaim the good news as School Sisters of Notre Dame, directing our entire lives toward that oneness for which Jesus Christ was sent. As he was sent to show the Father’s love to the world, we are sent to make Christ visible by our very being, by sharing our love, faith, and hope.
