A Fiscal year in review, from our provincial president

This past year has brought with it changes to daily and working life that no one ever expected. We faced implementing distancing rules to keep our Sisters and the people we serve safe. We accepted the call to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters separated at the US/Mexico border and two of our Sisters volunteered with people who recently immigrated to the US in El Paso. We were called to investigate our own white privilege and our relationship to the people of color with whom we live and serve. This has been a year of learning and reflecting on our changing world.

Many are suffering.

Will our pain help us to reach out in compassion to the pain of our brothers and sisters of color, people who have been or continue to be abused, homeless, or disregarded? Will we let their pain touch us? Will we allow it to touch us into action?

In the midst of the noise and challenges and key decisions of our lives, we are called to go into quiet and to pay attention to how God is speaking to us, and giving us the strength we need to respond justly and morally.

We are women of faith, and we use our faith to inspire our action. We, as Notre Dame Sisters, have still been able to accomplish so much as a group this year. When weather and COVID-19 restrictions permitted, each Thursday of last year there was at least one Notre Dame Sister standing on a corner of 72nd Street with other women religious and mothers holding signs to stand as a witness to the experiences mothers and children were facing at the border. We funded many women to independently rent an apartment after leaving a violent domestic partner. We continued to support our ministries focused on providing senior low-income housing and fighting human trafficking.

We are grateful that through all of the tumult of 2020 and 2021 that our partners have stood with us. With great generosity in campaigns like Do Good Week and our Spring Appeal, we were able to purchase new technologies for our Sisters to keep in touch with each other, family and the global community, in addition to funding our important ministries.

It is the actions not only of our Sisters, but also our partners, all of you, who change lives for the better. All our lives are changing in these unusual times, but we want to be able to reach those who need God’s warm embrace from the Sisters. Thank you for helping us do this!

Blessings,