Tag Archives: Religious Sisters of Mercy

More Signs of Life for Women Religious

I read with interest an article in the Rochester, MN, Post Bulletin (my old hometown), that a young nurse from Saint Mary’s Hospital has joined the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan. Christina Kluczny was 9 years old when she promised God that someday she would be a sister. After graduating from college with a degree in biology, Christina went back to Creighton University to earn her nursing degree. For 4 1/2 years, she worked as a nurse in Rochester.

But she never forgot her promise to God. After spending 5 days with the sisters in Jackson, Minnesota, where the RSM sisters run a medical facility, Christina “knew that a religious vocation was my future. I felt so peaceful.”

There will be ten (10!) women entering the novitiate this summer. Christian says, “Answering the call to be a religious sister is not a life that these women settle for. A religious vocation is a gift, and they feel happy and fortunate to be living their lives as Religious Sisters.”

The RSM Sisters, an IRL Affiliate Community, were founded in 1973. A unique characteristic of the Institute of Mercy (which is their heritage) as founded by Venerable Catherine McAuley is the fourth vow of service to the poor, sick, and ignorant.

“God has not stopped calling men and woman to be priests or sisters,” says Christina. “We just need to encourage these vocations so that those who are called feel free to answer ‘Yes.'”

 

A Mission of Mercy and the Misery of Mankind

The Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma welcomed Raymond Cardinal Burke to their Motherhouse on March 12, 2012, where he led a ceremony of enthronement and consecration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Cardinal had had a long-standing personal invitation to visit the motherhouse in Central Michigan.

The sisters devote themselves primarily to medical care, including hospital-based care and care for the elderly. Continuing the charism of their foundress, Venerable Catherine McAuley, each Sister of Mercy is called by her vows to be a point of convergence between the Mercy of God and the misery of mankind. What a beautiful and vital image for our time.