Toronto novice in U.S. convent: religious options growing

With each passing decade, young Canadian women discerning a possible call to convent life are finding more options, with word spreading of viable new female orders flourishing and attracting young vocations.

Each of the new orders offers a unique and slightly different witness to the glory of the Church, in some ways reflecting a similar pattern from the 19th century when there was a flowering of new religious orders in the wake of the devastating French Revolution. 

There is great hope some of these new orders will eventually look north and establish religious houses in Canada, as the Dominican sisters of St. Cecilia did in the Archdiocese of Vancouver. 

One new order that deserves mentioning is the Filiae Laboris Mariae, the Daughters of the Works of Mary, based in Minneapolis, Minn. 

This new semi-contemplative community was originally founded in 2017, ad experimentum in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, with the blessing of the local bishop.

The Labor Mariae sisters are a traditional order with statutes that aim to serve parishes while assisting in the catechesis of the young, continuing in the pattern of Christ and working for the upbuilding of the Church according to heaven’s design.

The foundress and first superior of the order is Mother Maria Regina of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, a native of Rotterdam, Holland.

Mother Regina had been living in the U.S. as a religious sister for many years when she felt the call to found a new order. Her response was prompt and in a spirit of humble obedience and prudence.

The sisters moved to their new home in northeast Minneapolis in the spring of 2019 at the invitation of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. 

All Saints Parish, where the sisters teach and reside, is under the care of the FSSP. The pastor recognized a void without sisters in the parish and extended an invitation. The sisters responded with generosity. 

They live in a heritage convent on the property that was occupied until last autumn by the Sisters of St. Francis, a 2 ½-storey structure located just behind the church. 

Northeast Minneapolis is an area that has been Catholic for generations, a hard-working, blue-collar neighbourhood with a dozen parishes within walking distance. 

The new community consists of four members, one fully professed and three novices, with a steady flow of young women expressing interest in joining as postulants, inspired by the suitable vocation of spending themselves readily in God’s service and in the works of the apostolate.

On Aug. 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption, Sister Maria Gratia (Jadczuk) of Toronto was invested as a novice in the community in a milestone ceremony held at All Saints Church. 

The rites of investiture were witnessed by the parish community and will no doubt inspire many vocations to follow the path of religious life. 

The event offered an outstanding token of heavenly riches through a wealth of poetic imagery seen in the rites with various symbolic items that were made use of for all to see.

The new novice was accompanied by her family who visited from Ontario as they sat in the front pews. 

The young Canadian was given a new name as a sign of her newfound life in conjunction with having her hair cut by the bishop while exchanging an exquisite white wedding gown with the habit of the order. 

The items of the religious habit – all blessed objects – include the tunic, cincture, scapular, wimple, veil, medal around the neck, and even a rosary and breviary, each handed to Sister Maria Gratia by the bishop. 

A particularly poignant moment in the life of every nun reveals itself when sisters make final profession of vows: they lay prostrate on the sanctuary floor while covered with a large, black funeral pall as a sign of their death to the world while the entire community joins in supplication for them singing the Litany of Saints. 

Needless to say, nuns play a crucial role in the life of the Church and are a tremendous blessing. 

Many who grew up under the care of teaching sisters can attest to the immense benefit they bring, especially to children, greatly enriching parish life on many levels. 

As the rites illustrate for us, the sisters fulfill a distinguished part in Christ’s Mystical Body, where “all members have not the same function” (Rom 12:4).

The Church has a lot to teach us in these rites, reflected in the vows of profession. The vocation of the sister is highlighted in the rite, referring to her as, “His [Christ’s] handmaid, our sister,” consecrated as an overflowing fountain of heavenly graces while building up Christ’s Body the Church (cf. Eph. 4:12). 

As the tenor of the rite suggests, the Church is very much in need of sisters.

Hence it must be stated that nuns are part of the earliest history of the Church. 

The first Catholic nun was Our Lady, the Blessed Mother. She leads the way, and was followed by others during the apostolic age, including St. Mary Magdalene.

It was St. Mary Magdalene, legend has it, who fled the Holy Land amid persecutions and arrived on the shores of France at the fishing village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.

There she evangelized in the Roman port of Marseille and finally lived as a hermit high up in a cave on a mountain ridge called Sainte-Baume.

The Church has always taught that the more ardently sisters unite themselves to Christ through self-surrender involving their entire lives, the more vigorous becomes the life of the Church and the more abundantly parish life bears fruit. 

As the rites attest, the sisters are “fortified with heaven-sent strength.” 

The Church rejoices and thanks heaven for the presence of these good sisters, a choice sacrifice of praise, brightening God’s people with the richest splendors of sanctity. 

By their complete example they motivate the faithful by imparting a hidden apostolic fruitfulness to the parish, causing the Christian community to grow. The good example of their own lives affords the highest recommendation for their life-long commitment and inspires further vocations in the parish. 

The Church has spoken thus in Perfectae Caritatis (24): “Parents should develop and protect religious vocations in the hearts of their children.”

J.P. Sonnen is a tour operator and history docent with Orbis Catholic Travel LLC.