News

We are happy to be a part of the fourth annual Meet Our Sisters Tour during National Vocation Awareness Week (NVAW) November 6-12, 2022. The “tour” highlights the life, mission and ministries of Catholic sisters living and serving throughout Illinois. Learn more here. School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) were founded in 1833 in Bavaria by Blessed Theresa of Jesus...Read more

All women discerning religious life with the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) take a slightly different path depending on their personal inner journey, profession and the structure of her home province. One program that remains the same for all SSND is the novitiate – the heart and center of initial formation. Once a woman completes the affiliation and postulancy...Read more

October is American Archives Month, which was created to promote the value of archives and the importance of archivists. People often have misconceptions about what an archive is, and what archivists do. The public seems to have an image of archivists sitting in rooms pouring over old, dusty documents that they keep away from the public eye. Nothing could be...Read more

Discovering God’s will for your life – your vocation – is a process. It is not just one decision, but a collection of decisions that leads to peace and joy in your heart. God wants you to be happy! Listening for God’s voice in the big and small moments of life, we hear God’s invitation to use our gifts and...Read more

The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) North American Archives staff was awarded with the 2022 Governor’s Award for Archival Achievement from the Wisconsin Historical Society during an award presentation on October 4. Read about the award at wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS16797. The SSND North American Archives is the repository of historical documents for the congregation in North America. Located at Mount Mary University...Read more

The feast day of St. Francis of Assisi is celebrated on October 4. St. Francis is the patron saint of animals and ecology because of his love for all creatures. For this feast day, we share with you a prayer resource for “Blessing of Pets,” created by Sister Gen Cassani. O God, in your creativity and gracious love all living...Read more

A special video messageThe School Sisters of Notre Dame was founded by Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger in Bavaria on October 24, 1833. To mark this momentous occasion, the congregation celebrates Foundation Day every year on this day. In the 189 years since, sisters have established residences, schools and missions in countries all over the world, working to build community...Read more

Written by Sister Carol Datz About 18 years ago, I attended the Icon Retreat at Enders Island in Mystic, Connecticut. We were led in the process by instructors from the Prosopon School of Iconography in New York City. They follow the Russian Byzantine tradition. Icons are rich in symbolism. They are windows into the divine. Western art portrays spiritual events...Read more

By Grace Avila, Assistant Archivist Beginnings are not without their challenges. When School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) founded missions at parish schools, they would never know what type of situation they were getting into. The sisters could be warmly received by the community, met with open hostility or every other possibility in between. Opening missions in states with an...Read more

The Sonoran Desert, nestled in the southeast corner of Arizona, is a challenging environment of blistering hot days and chilly nights, mountainous terrain and dangerous animals. These obstacles make for a perilous journey for migrants, who are often unprepared for such hazards as they make their way towards the U.S.-Mexico border. Tragically, since the year 2000, nearly 4,000 men, women,...Read more