Our Charism

“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 religious life.”

— Father William Lloyd Ryan, Founder

Fidelity and courage. These were the words of our Founder on how we are to live our religious life. These virtues penetrate our daily lives from prayer to apostolate. God calls us, through our founders, to offer our lives, works and prayer each day for our Catholic people, especially in Canada, that they may receive the grace of reconversion; that they may grow in their relationship with the Lord and come to know what it means to be Catholic.

We are a contemplative-active community with Eucharistic and Marian spirituality.
From our contemplation flows two apostolates of catechesis and care of the elderly.
Following the Rule of St. Augustine, we strive to live together in oneness
of mind and heart.

What is a Charism?

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. 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.

The SOLI Charism

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.

“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.”