On this day of celebration for IHM Founders Day and for the A Nun’s Life Community surpassing its fundraising goal, we give thanks for you and for the way the Spirit continues to live and move and have being in the world and in us! We welcome as our guest blogger today our dear friend and IHM Sister, Margaret Brennan.

Today we celebrate one hundred and sixty-six years of IHM life… and as we do on each Founder’s Day, we look back to many celebrations of the old story which we learned from our earliest days in the congregation … the frontier community of Monroe, the log cabin, the first women, the zealous young founder – Louis Florent Gillet whose words have given us life and continued existence – “…if I cannot find a religious community I will make one.” And so he did.

When the young Redemptorist missionary visited Baltimore from Monroe, he met Theresa Maxis Duchemin who was searching for a spiritual home in which she could pursue her calling. On November 10, 1845, Louis and Theresa along with Charlotte Martha Schaaf and Therese Renaud formed the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The story of the two founders, like those of many others, was fraught with struggle and challenge that honed and humbled their spirits in the crucibles of suffering and misunderstanding. Yet in the end, they both came to rest in the deep consolation of knowing that a work begun in poverty and obscurity had flourished and taken root.

Today we continue to stand within the charisms of these two founders at another critical juncture in religious life. The over-flowing novitiates of the pre-Vatican era are no more and have given way to another reality, the deep meaning of which has yet to be discovered and discerned.

Women religious such as Sandra Schneiders IHM and Joan Chittister, OSB, among others have written and reflected on this reality. Rather than being discouraged, they have seen in the changing landscape of religious life a new hope, a new direction, and a new understanding of a way of life that has enriched the Church in countless
ways for generations.

We are challenged today to see the working of God’s Providence in our present reality … to find meaning rather than mourning or dispair. We are challenged further to consider the possibility that what lies ahead of us is not something merely to survive but, by the grace of God, something that will truly allow us to flourish.

We offer this Saints Novena in gratitude for the ways God lives and moves and has being in the lives of all the saints who are part of this online community. We give thanks for you and for the gift of God that you are to us and to the world. It is because of people like you that there is this awesome place of hospitality and gospel community. This novena is written by the A Nun’s Life Community.

2 Saints Novena – Theresa Maxis Duchemin and Louis Florent Gillet – by Sister Julie

Reflection: Saints take many forms, canonical and otherwise. In today’s novena we celebrate all the saints who have gone before us “marked with the sign of faith,” those who may not be canonized but who have had a profound influence on our lives. Today we honor two such saints, founders of the religious congregations of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

While general superior of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, Theresa Maxis Duchemin met the Redemptorist missionary Louis Florent Gillet, who was seeking women religious for schools in the still new State of Michigan. After much discernment, Theresa agreed to help Gillet found a new congregation in Monroe. On November 10, 1845, Theresa along with Charlotte Schaaf and Therese Renaud, became  the first members of a new religious community dedicated to education in the frontier land of Michigan.

In January 1846, they opened St. Mary’s Academy in Monroe. As the community and mission grew, Father Gillet was forced to leave and return to Europe in 1847. Though flourishing, the community struggled to deal with Louis’ departure and their struggle worsened with a sudden separation from Theresa. Theresa was caught in the middle of a jurisdictional dispute about the congregation between the bishops of Philadelphia and Detroit. The bishop of Detroit held Theresa responsible, deposed her as General Superior, and sent her to the Pennsylvania foundation, which later became a separate branch of the congregation. Despite these trials, the new community persisted in its Redemptorist spirit of humility, simplicity, and zeal.

Theresa and Louis’s legacy of courage, peace and service to the poor continues in now three IHM congregations of Monroe, Michigan, Immaculata, Pennsylvania, and Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Prayer: We pray that we might tap into God’s gifts to each of us of courage, peace, and service, even when it seems the struggles and trials that we bear are too much. We trust with Theresa and Louis, that God will bring all our efforts to good.

“May the same faith and hope and courage of those loved ones who are ‘dwelling now in Light—yet ever near’ inspire us to continue bravely and earnestly the glorious work so nobly begun.” (Mother Theresa McGivney, IHM, November 10, 1945)

Suggested Reading:

• Paths of Daring, Deeds of Hope: Letters by and about Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin by Sister Margaret Gannon, IHM (Published in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1992)
• Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan (Syracuse University Press, 1995)
• Also, be sure to spend time with the icons of Louis and Theresa by Sister Nancy Lee Smith, IHM, iconographer

Join A Nun’s Life Community for a day of events in honor of All Saints! See the schedule for the day’s events in the sidebar to the right. And please consider participating in A Nun’s Life fundraiser going on now through November 9. We need to raise $10,000 for much needed equipment and supplies. See our fundraiser page for more information. You may be eligible to win a brand-new iPad 2!

Happy IHM Founders Day. Since our congregation’s founding in 1845, the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan have been committed to issues of justice, peace and sustainability. This commitment is rooted in the mission of our founders Louis Florent Gillet and Theresa Maxis Duchemin to respond to the world’s most pressing needs.

In order to create a more just, peaceful and sustainable world, the IHM community promotes peace and non-violence; solidarity with the materially poor; economic justice and the development of an ecological consciousness.

Our IHM Justice, Peace, and Sustainability Office has created a short video highlighting how IHMs are working in these areas. We invite you to watch this video and to share the link with your friends. The video is on YouTube and also on our IHM website.

We also encourage you explore our Justice Peace and Sustainability pages on the IHM website. There you will find a variety of pages on topics ranging from Haiti to human trafficking, climate change to the consistent ethic of life.  Each page includes a description of the issue, stories of IHMs in action, prayer materials, resources and recommended actions you can take to act in solidarity with IHM Sisters and Associates.

Many thanks to Sarah and Nancy in our IHM Justice, Peace, and Sustainability Office for their care and ministry!

* * *

Read the past 4 years of IHM Founders Day posts at aNunsLife.org!

* * *

Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

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

A Nun’s Life is pleased to welcome Sister Margaret Brennan, IHM, as a guest blogger today. Sister Margaret is the first IHM Sister that I ever met, and it is through her that I recognized my call to religious life.

“… the lily of my heart”

The date was the eighth of December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Dressed in white uniforms, white stockings, white gloves, and a light blue chiffon shoulder sash, the whole student body processed with lilies which were placed before the altar of Mary in the Sacred Heart Convent Chapel. “Oh Mary, I give thee the lily of my heart. Be thou its guardian forever.” Each year for all my twelve years at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, I, along with my three sisters and all of our classmates knelt to place our lilies, symbols of our dedication and innocence, to Mary. Later as a student at IHM Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan, vested now in academic cap and gown but still with lily in hand, I once again placed a flower at Mary’s altar.

On July 1, 1945 I entered the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters in Monroe Michigan. Once again I knelt before Mary’s altar as a postulant – but alas! with no lily in hand..

The Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary took root in 1845. It was co-founded by Louis Florent Gillet, a Redemptorist missionary, and Theresa Maxis Duchemin a former Oblate Sister of Providence. On May 12, 1846, the bishops of the United States formally decreed the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, as Patroness of the United States. A year later, on December 8th, 1847, the title of the IHM Community was changed from Sisters of Providence to Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the original habit from black to “sky blue.”

Each year on this Feast of Mary, IHM Sisters, now having grown into three religious congregations, solemnly renew their vows. For many years best habits and veils were worn (the scent of the cedar closets mingled with that of the lilies!).  Today, while the blue habit for the most part has disappeared, the dedication to Mary as model and type of the Church remains strong and vibrant. Commitment to the meaning and message of her liberating song on behalf of the poor and oppressed fuels a dynamic integration of prayer and commitment.

O Mary, I give you the lily of my heart. Be thou its guardian forever.

Sister Margaret Brennan, IHM, is a theologian and travels the country giving talks and retreats on a variety of topics and persons in Catholic theology and spirituality.

This past weekend I had the honor of being part of a gathering of the Oblate Sisters of Providence and the 3 Immaculate Heart of Mary congregations (Monroe, Scranton, Immaculata). We met at the Immaculata Motherhouse in Pennsylvania. From Chicago this should be a mere 2 hour flight. But due to mechanical problems, our plane was delayed 7 hours (yes, 7 hours). It was pretty bad, but I actually got along quite well as I had Teresa of Avila‘s Life with me. So aside from the increasingly irate grumblings of fellow passengers, I had a rather nice time. It was like spending the day with a dear friend. We conversed, shared our experiences of prayer and of God, and had nasty airport food. Good times! (Well, except for the last thing … and fyi, Teresa may be a Doctor of the Church, but not so great at helping me with Sudoku.)

When I finally made it into Philadelphia, my dear friend Mary Anne (Immaculata IHM) picked me up and we headed to the motherhouse. Most of the other nuns we were meeting with had already gone to bed after cheering on the Phillies to victory over the Nationals. But they saved dinner for us and we chatted with a couple sisters before heading to bed. In the morning I went for a walk. Our founder Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin is buried at Immaculata, and so I went to the cemetery to spend some time at her grave and at the grave of a dear IHM. When I returned to the motherhouse, I got ready for Mass and was thrilled to see the sisters from my Monroe congregation and the other 3 congregations. This is a group that I met with last year (here’s my post about that gathering and the history that binds our 4 congregations together). As with the last gathering, this one was joyful, prayerful, and so thoughtful. These women are just amazing. I am in awe as I experience the Spirit moving among us.

After being out and about in the world and being involved in my ministry, it was so nice to be “home” among sisters. There is a certain energy, a certain spirit that exists “whenever two or more are gathered” (to be biblical). These women are truly family to me and just being with them lifts my spirit, encourages me on the journey, and helps me be present to God who is always with us. I wish I could better articulate what this experience is like but words ellude me.

Teresa of Avila seemed to be with us that weekend too. I ran into some beautiful paintings of her at the motherhouse. I’ll have to share with you some of her writing especially on religious life. Stay tuned!