Community at St. Rosalia's, Pittsburgh, PA, early 1900s

Community at Shalom House, Scranton, PA, 2005

How are the lives of sisters today different from the lives of sisters in the past?

For those who lived part of their life prior to the Second Vatican Council, the lives of sisters may seem quite different today. Throughout history religious life has always been shaped according to the needs of the culture it was serving. From the late 1800s to the 1960s, for example, women religious were particularly attentive to the needs of immigrants. At a time when no systems were in place for education or healthcare, sisters were pioneers in seeing and creating ways to meet urgent needs. The lifestyle of women’s congregations was structured to enable the sisters to establish and maintain educational and healthcare institutions. Today while still active in healthcare and educational ministries, we also respond to many other needs that cry out for attention and care. What may differ is that communities and individual sisters now take more responsibility for determining how they need to structure their lives to best respond to the needs.

The essence of religious life has remained the same throughout history, but some of the externals have changed and these are often what are most noticeable to the public. Prior to Vatican II, for example, most sisters wore habits and were therefore more easily recognizable to the public than we often are today. Now, rather than rely on our external appearance, we challenge ourselves to let what we say, what we do, what we stand for and what we model by our choices give witness to who we are as women religious.