Laudato Si’ and Community Resilience & Empowerment By Sister Judith Herold Goal 7 of Laudato Si’—Community Resilience & Empowerment—emphasizes community involvement and action aimed at caring for our common home. It asks each of us to organize and activate our communities to work toward solutions to the ecological crisis we all face. This goal reminds us that, although our responsibilities...Read more

By Sister Mary Heather MacKinnon The Season of Creation – What is it and how did it begin? The Season of Creation is a theological and liturgical time designated to celebrate our human relationship with all of creation. It is now a global and ecumenical movement that began in 1989 when Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I declared September 1 as a...Read more

By Sister Helen Galadima The Laudato Si’ Action Platform, Goal One: Cry of the Earth holds a special place in the lives of the School Sisters of Notre Dame Province of Africa and the entire congregation. We become a Laudato Si’ congregation the moment we commit ourselves to the seven-year goals of Laudato Si’. In Laudato Si’, the concept of...Read more

By Sister Kathy Schmittgens “The Response to the Cry of the Poor is a call to promote eco-justice, aware that we are called to defend human life from conception to death, and all forms of life on Earth. Actions could include projects to promote solidarity, with special attention given to vulnerable groups such as indigenous communities, refugees, migrants, and children...Read more

By Ethel Howley, SSND Something is afoot in our world and also in the Universe. There is a growing sense that the networks involving ecology, economics, politics, and technology are all interconnected. At the same time, Laudato Si’ is calling everyone to explore our common home and respond to both the cry of the earth and to the cry of...Read more

From May 21 to 28, we celebrate Laudato Si’ Week 2023! This year’s guiding theme is “Hope for the Earth. Hope for humanity.” What is Laudato Si’ Week? Laudato Si’ Week began as a way to celebrate the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ papal encyclical letter, “Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home.” Since then, the annual celebration has...Read more

Each year on May 9, School Sisters of Notre Dame celebrate the feast day of our foundress, Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger, who died on this day in 1879. A woman of faith, longing for the oneness for which Jesus Christ was sent and ever seeking God’s will, Blessed Theresa founded the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Bavaria in...Read more

By Sister Catherine “Missy” Gugerty It was near perfect timing! I arrived just as the shuttle bus came rolling onto the campus filled with excited children ranging in age from 8–12 years old from an outreach center in an economically depressed area of Baltimore. The bus came to a stop at one of my favorite spots on campus – an...Read more

March 8-14, 2023 For 52 weeks a year, School Sisters of Notre Dame and all women religious give public witness to Christ through a diversity of ministerial works such as teaching, pastoral care, health care, retreat and spirituality programs, and a multitude of other outreach efforts. They often work on the frontlines of global change, striving to improve various aspects...Read more

Click here for the SSND Atlantic-Midwest Province Integral Ecology Lenten Fast. The following Lenten reflections, prepared by the SSND North American Vocation Team, are based on You Are Sent, the Constitution of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. (Print PDF) For more information, please contact sisters@ssnd.org or hermanas@ssnd.org. The Lenten season brings us the opportunity to look more carefully at...Read more