Charism

 
 Our earnest desire is to live the religious life faithfully and to teach the Faith correctly and courageously. We strive to do this by offering our lives, works and prayers that our Catholic people, adults as well as children will come to know their Faith again, what it means to be a Catholic, to live a Catholic life.

 The word charism comes from the Greek word charisma which means "grace" or "free gift". A charism is a unique gift of grace given directly by the Holy Spirit to a particular individual. These charisms which are given by the Holy Spirit to whom He wills and when He wills are meant to be for the up-building, renewal and growth of the entire Church. These gifts are not the same as ordinary graces granted for the sanctification of the faithful but are manifold forms of expression of the evangelical counsels. The character of each institute is made up of their particular style of personal sanctification and style of apostolate according to the charism received by their Founder. It is important to the life of an institute that the members be always striving to live faithfully in their own particular time the original inspiration received by the Founder from the Holy Spirit.

Our Founder and Foundress, Father W. Lloyd Ryan and Mother Mary Josephine Mulligan, both received the same charism to recognize two great needs of the Church in our time; first, a faithful renewal of religious life according to the teachings of the Church; and second, the courageous restoration of the teaching of the Catholic Faith in its fullness to our Catholic people. Father Ryan and Mother Mary Josephine always taught the sisters that faithfully striving to live holy religious lives would be their primary purpose and from this would flow the grace to teach the Faith with boldness in a world that that no longer recognizes Christ.

"Your first work of course is to become holy,
and then your apostolic work"
-Father Ryan

"Be faithful to everything that the religious life demands. . . doing everything
for God with no secondary motives. Obedience, humility, charity,
and simplicity...a very good description of the religious life"
-Father Ryan

  "To teach the Faith correctly and courageously is important because
there are lots of difficulties [before us] in teaching [it] correctly...so
it does take courage". -Father Ryan

Father Ryan, in speaking to the sisters in 2002 in preparation for their General Chapter, reminded them that we are living in a terrible time of ignorance of the Faith among Catholics and only a miracle of grace from God will be able to change the sad situation. He said "the proper teaching of religion is of such tremendous importance for the salvation of souls that it [is] a worthy intention, extremely pleasing to God [for which] to offer our prayers, works and lives."

Our community's specific spiritual character is based on a deep love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, a true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and fidelity to the teachings of the Church and our Holy Father. Our apostolate encompasses religious education in any and all forms as well as the care of the elderly and deprived, drawing both young and old to a deeper and fuller understanding and love for Our Lord and our Holy Catholic Faith.

"Consecrated men and women...live to the full your dedication to God, so that this world may never be without a ray of divine beauty to lighten the path of human existence. Christians immersed in the cares and concerns of this world, but also called to holiness, need to discover in you purified hearts which in faith 'see' God, people docile to the working of the Holy Spirit who resolutely press on in fidelity to the charism of their call and mission". Pope John Paul II, Vita Consecrata #109