Recently I was asked what the difference is between the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan, and the IHM Sisters of Immaculata, Pennsylvania. There’s no easy answer to this, especially since there’s also a third IHM community, the IHM Sisters of Scranton, Pennsylvania, plus the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the original community of one of our IHM founders. So I’m throwing them all into the mix here too!

A little historical context first though — check out an earlier post OSP IHM: Nuns Who Rock in which I wrote about how our co-Founder Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin was originally an OSP Sister and how the IHM congregation became 3 separate communities.

I find it difficult to characterize how we are different because as an IHM Sister, I am overwhelmed (in the good sense) by our shared charism and our connections to one another and to our founders. The 3 IHM communities are like three siblings who were separated when they were young — their early, foundational years were shared, but then they each were in different places and so lived and expressed their original shared experience in different ways. Some of those ways were based on the geography and the Catholic culture in the area, the needs of the people and of the Church in that area, and of course the women whom the Spirit led to be part of that particular community.

So we have both similarities and differences. Honestly, the best way to get a sense of what we are like (similarities and differences) is to be with us. The facts (e.g. this one is in Monroe, this one Philadelphia, etc.) cannot come close to telling the whole story, and ultimately (especially if one is discerning religious life) you can tell which one “fits” you when your heart leaps for joy when you are with them.

The OSP IHM Timeline, a narrative of our histories, can tell the story way better than I can. In it, each community expresses who they are through the various periods (early history, Vatican II period, tody). The OSPIHM Timeline was made back in 2005 by an inter-congregational team that I was blessed to be part of. It’s pretty cool. Just click on the link below!

OSP IHM Timeline

Come and see is an invitation we hear in the Gospels addressed to people who feel an attraction to, people who are drawn by the Gospel and the lifestyle of Jesus. It’s an invitation that the Catholic Church echoes as it invites people to take a personal look at a call to follow Jesus through religious life.

Until you’ve had the opportunity to experience a religious community through individual sisters or brothers, at prayer, in ministry, or by interacting with a group of sisters or brothers, it can be difficult to get a feel for what religious life is like, and also to which particular community you are called.

My IHM community is hosting a “Come and See” weekend for women who are thinking about religious life and are attracted to the IHM life and mission.

“Come and See” Weekend

Date: May 1-3, 2009
Time: Friday 7 p.m. to Sunday 12:30 p.m.
Location: IHM Motherhouse, Monroe, Michigan

There will be opportunities to pray with my IHM nuns, chat with us, learn about us and about discernment, and just hang out with us.

For more information or to register, please contact Sister Mary Bea at 734-240-9820. And as always, feel free to contact me if you have any wonderings.

It seems that almost every religious community that I’ve gotten to know has lived through a fire. Sometimes it’s their motherhouse or a big convent, other times it’s one of their schools or places of ministry. The Monroe IHM Sisters are no exception. In our collective memory is “The Fire”, a blaze that destroyed our college and academy.

Here’s how Sister Amata Miller, IHM, described it in “An Enterprise of Sisterhood: Building the IHM Motherhouse in the 1930s” (Building Sisterhood):

On 3 June 1929, a disastrous fire gutted St. Mary College and Academy in the southeastern Michigan city of Monroe. Though no one was injured, the destruction of the newly renovated building — housing their premier educational institution — was a crushing blow to the IHM congregation. Keeping all-night vigil at the site of the tragedy, and providing sandwiches and coffee to those who had come to help fight the blaze, were the two women who together would lead the IHM congregation through the rebuilding process: Sister Ruth Hankerd, who would become the general superior in 1930, and Sister Miriam Raymo, who would be her partner as congregational treasurer.

Sisters Ruth and Miriam decided to not only rebuild the academy, but to build a new Motherhouse, as the current one (located on the banks of the River Raisin) was a “jerry-built complex” that was “rapidly falling into decay”.

What is amazing about all this, is that this project of rebuilding not one but two major complexes happened in the midst of the Great Depression. Sister Amata notes that the building project was reportedly one of the largest going on in the country at the time with skilled tradesmen coming long distances to work on it. It took the care and remarkable business and financial savvy of Sisters Ruth and Miriam as well as the scrimping and saving of the entire IHM community to make it through those years. Even though it was a difficult period, we never missed a payment.

And the building, though recently renovated, continues to serve us well.

Thanks to our amazing IHM Archivist Donna Westley
for the info and photo!

While in Monroe, Michigan, this past week, I had a chance to take some pictures of the IHM Motherhouse. Sister Jill had also taken some cool photos so I’m including some of hers as well.

Sister Jill poses at the front doors of the IHM Motherhouse

My favorite image and saying posted in the IHM front foyer

Artistic rendering of the first "motherhouse" -- a log cabin by the banks of the River Raisin -- humble beginnings for Mother Theresa and the first sisters

Sister Antoinette Ruedisueli, IHM, in the computer room of the IHM Library

IHM Reading Room

Artwork from our IHM sisters and associates ... there are weekly classes taught by our IHM master artists in a variety of media

"The Back 40" ... this is the land behind the Motherhouse that extends beyond the forested area. Includes Saint Joseph lake and island.

See all of Sister Jill Kress and my photos of the IHM Motherhouse at the official A Nun’s Life Facebook page. You don’t need to be a member of Facebook to see the pictures.

I am home at the IHM Mothership (as our novice Sister Jill likes to call it) in Monroe, Michigan, attending community meetings with my nuns. As the good Sister Servant that I am (our full congregational title is Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), I am helping out at the meetings as the minute taker. It’s great to see so many of my nuns from the Motherhouse and from out on mission. The nuns at the meetings represent our entire congregation — they meet three times a year to lead the congregation, to facilitate our mission, and to tend our community life. During the meetings (each meeting is 4 days long), the reps pray together, study, discuss, reflect, and decide; they also also enjoy hanging out with each other at meals, on walks during the breaks, and at the “pub night” in the evening. It is good nun time. I feel honored to be here.

This morning we are just about ready to begin. I’m waiting for our dear Sister Jill to return from her sex workshop to see how it went! I’m also hoping to take some time to snap some pictures around our Motherhouse to give you a feel for what it’s like around the house.

Please keep my nuns in your prayer.

More later!