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Nun Photo – Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
Happy Nunday! I hope this is a beautiful day to start your work week. Today’s Nunday nun photos come from my friend and colleague Michelle.
Michelle writes, “I saw that Monday is nun day & I wanted to submit my nuns. 
They are both Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. [Their] Motherhouse is in La Crosse Wisconsin & they have the most AMAZING adoration chapel.”
This first picture is of Sister Silvana last winter on a trip to Niagara Falls.
The second picture is of Sister Kathleen “Katie”.
Michelle explains the importance of these Catholic sisters in her life:
The reason I love these nuns is that they really posses the spirit of joy, peace, & hospitality. These sisters make holiness attainable because they really believe that holiness comes from you being “just as you are” (as Merton would say) because you are already holy just by being loved by God. Their arms are always open welcoming me to their home & sharing in their friendship (actually I haven’t meet a nun in their order who isn’t accepting & joyful). They have accepted me through my ups and downs of life and they are so normal & down to earth. For me Silvana & Katie are a symbol of God’s unconditional love & acceptance of me. I’m so thankful that they are in my life!
Thank you, Michelle and Sisters Silvana and Katie!
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Happy belated nun day! I want to encourage all you sisters to post some good photos of yourselves on Flickr.com and other photo sharing sites.
If you search under “nuns” or “nun” on flickr, you will see only nuns in habits. Some of the pictures are stunning, but of course they only capture one portion of the sister population. It’s time to get some other images of nuns into the cultural imagination.
What you say about Sisters Silvana land Katie is oh-so-true! They are lovely, caring women and FSPA is blessed to have them! I thank you and thank them and, of course, God.
Sister J – I could not find the post referenced yesterday – the one in which someone suggested a photo essay showing sisters in the “traditional” habit and sisters in “lay clothes” engaged in prayer, active ministries, etc. So I am responding via this Nun Day about two FSPA sisters because I want to suggest a place to start with the project proposed yesterday.
I lifted this text from the website for the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration:
“Four congregations of Catholic sisters presented ‘Together, Creating a Culture of Peace’ on Saturday, August 1 in La Crosse, Wis. The congregations, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist celebrated the 160th anniversary of their common founding. The Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis-Cameroon, West Africa, joined these communities in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Franciscan Common Venture. FSPA also celebrated the beginning of 132 years of Perpetual Adoration. Opening at the conference was the Peace Women Across the Globe 1000 Women for Peace exhibition.
“Love and forgiveness can heal our world and make a brighter future for our children. Every time we meet someone, it is our opportunity to give love to that person.”
“Peace is not peace unless it is shared. Peace lives on the horizon of a new future. The universe cannot attain peace without us.”
The 1000 Peace Women Across the Globe exhibition opened during the Peace Conference.
“Guideline for peace-making: Remember God first, above all and throughout the process. No peace can be established without an awareness of God.”
The conference closed with Mass that ended with a Cameroonian drum finale.
“It’s time to start coaching. A chronic need is to find women to mentor younger women in peace-making.” Dr. Robert Zuber, United Nations Emergency Peace Service and Global Action to Prevent War
The conference closed with a Peace Mass during which the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis offered the Gospel Procession and Acclamation”.
I am suggesting starting here because the orders are “habited” very differently. The Francsican Sisters of the Eucharist, founded in 1973, wear a gorgeous and traditional Franciscan brown robe with a long, sheer black veil set in the hair, back from the face. FSPA and, from the pictures I could find, Sisters of St Francis of Assisi wear “lay clothing”. Some of the pictures from the event show Tertiary Sisters in traditional African dress. I could not immediately find any photos of the full range of dress worn by these sisters whose foundresses and charisms are shared and whose futures and current ministries and charisms and missions are linked by this affirmative celebration and family reunion.
Again, I love the earlier poster’s idea of breaking down barriers between orders that have been – at least in part – “imagined” and “storied” into being through efforts to determine mission and charism and vitality through a descrition of congregational dress.
There may be images of the celebration by these four sister communities of sisters that roundly defy those imaginings and charisms. Are the orders different? Of course they are. Are their differences unreconcilable as they seek to pursue love of and in God? Apparently not.
Jean
Woops. Typos-above Alert. I meant to write:
“Again, I love the earlier poster’s idea of breaking down barriers ***************************that have been – at least in part – “imagined” and “storied” into being between orders. Barriers imagined and storied into being through simplistic, and often disrespectful, *************************efforts to determine mission and charism and vitality through a descrition of congregational dress.
There may be images of the celebration by these four sister communities of sisters that roundly defy those imaginings and STORIES. Are the orders different? Of course they are. Are their differences unreconcilable as they seek to pursue love of and in God? Apparently not.