January 26, 2022 at 4:01 p.m.
‘SACREDNESS OF HUMAN LIFE’
‘SACREDNESS OF HUMAN LIFE’
“We live by donations and someone donated bison of all things,” said Sister Madeleine Agnes, SV. Sister Madeleine sports a jean-styled kitchen apron over her typical navy blue and white habit, signifying her turn to cook dinner. This evening, she’s preparing bison burgers.
“It’s just like ground beef,” Sister Madeleine assures the group.
Sister Monica Marie Currie, SV, is skeptical: “How?!”
In the back, Sister Brigid Ancilla Marie, SV, superior of the convent, checks on things in the kitchen while Sister Monica leaves the bison to grab a cup of coffee. The women chat while Sister Madeleine preps dinner. Her brown rosary beads — almost four feet long and hanging from her habit — jingle as she moves. It’s a typical Saturday afternoon for the Sisters of Life: congregating in the kitchen to chat on their breaks or unload from the day.
The sunshine from the bright January day fills the kitchen, and there’s an easiness in the room that feels like you’re at home with your own sister. Someone you can talk to over tea or bother with the tedious parts of your day. It’s that feeling of support and love that only comes from maternal love, and it’s a love so potent in these women that it fills the room like a sweet perfume.
It’s the same love the Sisters of Life are eager to bring to the Catskills. After over 100 years in the area, the Franciscan Friars of the Province of the Immaculate Conception, Order of Friars Minor, left the St. Anthony Friary in Catskill to the Sisters of Life, who have entered into a long-term lease of the property.
“All of our guys had gone through Catskill one way or another, so there’s an emotional involvement (to the building),” said Father Joseph Lorenzo, OFM, provincial secretary for the Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception. “When we heard about the sisters looking for property up there, it was very attractive because we didn’t want to see the building razed. So we were happy with the sisters coming up here.”
In August of last year, Father Paul Guido, temporary administrator, turned over the keys of the St. Anthony Friary to Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, SV, the superior general of the Sisters of Life, at a Solemn Mass celebrated in the chapel. In turn, Mother Agnes gave the keys to Sister Brigid, the new
superior of what is now the St. Anthony Convent.
While based mostly in the Northeast, the Sisters of Life have orders in Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington D.C., Stamford, Conn., Denver and Phoenix. Now, the seven sisters at St. Anthony’s are preparing the building for four more sisters who are moving from the Stamford location.
“I knew there was a peace and joy out of (this move),” said Sister Brigid, 39, who moved from the Visitation Convent in Manhattan. “No matter what path we take, it’s a call to love. My heart was made for God’s love and … with the Lord you have that reassurance.”
MADE FOR LOVE
Trust and love — particularly love for the sacredness of human life — are big factors for the Sisters of Life. Formed in 1991 by the late John Cardinal O’Connor, the Sisters of Life were born with a specific call in mind: to protect and support the dignity of human life.
In addition to the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the sisters take a fourth vow “to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life.” A key to everything the sisters do — in their prayers, their volunteering, and their work to support life — is that it’s all done in a way of nurturing, maternal love.
“Everything we do is adhered to upholding the beauty of God and life,” Sister Brigid said.
“There’s nothing to take away from the fact that God loves you, nothing can take away from that,” Sister Monica added. “No sin is too great, no failure, nothing. And to uphold that truth often before a soul that is very much living despite that truth is so powerful.”
It’s a motto that seems to resonate with a number of women, particularly millennial women. At a time when many orders find their numbers on the decline, the Sisters of Life are the opposite.
In June, five novices of the Sisters of Life professed their First Vows at Sacred Heart parish in Suffern, N.Y. A month later, six postulants received the holy habit and a new religious name. Then, in early August, six sisters professed their final vows at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, including Sister Cara Marie, SV, 34, who moved to Catskill after her profession.
The average age of a U.S. nun is estimated to be 74, according to the Center of Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a Catholic research center at Georgetown University. For the Sisters of Life, the average age of women in the order ranges in the mid-to-upper 30s.
And for these young sisters, it’s what they were called to do: “It’s a profound mystery, our lives, when you stop and think about it,” Sister Monica said. “It’s deep.”
Most women in the St. Anthony’s Convent are in their 30s, an unheard-of number to so many other orders. Sister Brigid believes it may speak to the importance of their mission
“I think it says something timely about our charism,” Sister Brigid said, “that the Lord is calling and raising the vocation for this particular work.”
On the flip side, it means that the Sisters of Life are trailblazers for the next generation of women religious: “There is a poverty in our newness in that we don’t have all those sisters who have lived this life for years before us,” she said. “It’s beautiful because it’s such a young, vibrant community but we also don’t have the gift of those who have come before us, and we’re going to be that for our younger sisters now.”
CALLED TO BE A SISTER
Just behind the Garden Room in St. Anthony’s, a porch leads into an enclosed courtyard. A tall tree stands to the side with a white, roped swing dangling from its branch. Sister Monica heads right for it: “This is my happy place,” she laughs.
Growing up, Sister Monica never planned to join the sisterhood. A native of Anmore and Port Coquitlam, B.C., Sister Monica’s life was filled with brothers and hockey, with little exposure to women religious. Her dreams for the future leaned more toward a secular life: of raising a family and working as a nurse in health care.
That all changed after a trip to Mexico.
At 17, Sister Monica flew south on a mission trip to volunteer building houses and helping out in the community. One afternoon, her group was tasked with comforting children who had been diagnosed with HIV or AIDs at a local orphanage.
All of the children in the orphanage were actively dying, she said, but one child in particular stood out to Sister Monica: a tiny 6-month-old named Andrea.
“That was the first encounter I had with such innocent suffering,” she recalled. “It really inundated me with the thought, ‘What is the purpose of these innocent lives if they are only born to die?’ I felt one thought after another.”
Sister Monica and Andrea spent the day dancing and playing, and by the end of her visit, Sister Monica realized that Andrea’s life carried a greater purpose, one that stretched beyond the walls of the orphanage.
“I knew that no matter how bad the circumstances of her life were, they could not and did not define her,” Sister Monica said. “It was like the only thing that identified her was something deeper, something more lasting, more true — which was the fact that she was loved by God and she had a plan and purpose for her life beyond this.”
Every sister has their own vocation story, but everyone has to answer the same call: the call to use their love for a higher purpose. Before joining the Sisters of Life, Sister Brigid was studying to enter medical school. Sister Madeleine graduated from Seattle Pacific University and worked in dietetics in Vermont.
As part of their call, the Sisters of Life offer assistance with crisis pregnancies through housing, counseling and emotional support. The order also offers post-abortion retreats and assistance for women.
Based out of St. Andrew’s Center in New York City, the order runs a Visitation Mission that serves women experiencing a crisis pregnancy or seeking emotional or practical resources for pregnancy or motherhood. Sister Maria Frassati, SV, Sister Monica and Sister Brigid assisted at the Visitation Mission during the initial outbreak of COVID-19. “There were moms who needed supplies and didn’t have any,” Sister Monica said. While the thought of infection wasn’t lost on the sisters, “there were too many people (in need) to worry about hiding inside,” she said.
FOCUS ON PRAYER
Above all though, the Sisters of Life focus on prayer. The sisters each pray four hours a day in common prayer centered around the Eucharist, and reserve one day a week solely to focus on prayer. Unlike their other ministries, which have more tangible and physical elements, the impact of prayer is just as — if not more — important than all the other sisters’ duties.
“We lay everything down,” Sister Brigid said. “Our prayers actually focus more on our relationship with the Lord, but then through our religious consecration and vows, there’s another reality happening so everything we do through consecration is lifted up through that prism for that focus. Our life is given so no matter what we’re doing, it’s the offering of our hearts to the Father for life.”
Later in the day, the sisters head to daily 12 p.m. Mass in the convent’s chapel. Sister Brigid grabs a pew in the back and bows her head toward the floor, her hands wrapped around her rosary beads.
All the sisters slowly and silently fill the chapel. The priest, Father Jay Atherton, is not there yet but the sisters arrive early. Some look to the front of the church or bow their heads to the floor. And collectively, as one organism of love, they pray.
“I pray three times a day because we want to encounter the one who is the source of all this goodness,” Sister Monica said. “There’s that motivation of deep love in all that we’re doing.”
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