Charity, With Every Breath

Preface: In the summer of 2024, the Sisters of Charity celebrated the 175th anniversary of their foundation. Throughout the year leading up to the celebration, an ongoing project was initiated: the sisters, their relatives, colleagues and former students received a weekly email highlighting the profiles of sisters or missions that had made a difference. By the end of this project, a sense of the breadth, depth and length of this group’s commitment was available on paper, on the congregation’s website and on Facebook. However, the true legacy of this congregation of women religious is not easily captured because it does not lie solely in writings, or buildings, or good works or teachings, or acts of courage or compassion. It resides in all these things but more importantly in the relationships and memories built up by these 2,500 sisters over nearly two centuries in many parts of the world. As we begin to write, there are 154 sisters and their average age is 84.4. Over 60% live in our two retirement residences. These numbers change quickly but the mission has not changed since it was articulated by Elizabeth Seton in 1809: to honour Jesus through loving service to those who live in poverty. The current congregational symbol reflecting this call was adopted in 1980. The elements of the cross, basin and towel identify our desire to live as disciples of Jesus, whose example of redemptive love and humble service continues to direct us in changing times. Our jubilee celebration had a poignant component to it because of an earlier choice we had made. At the conclusion of our 2020 Chapter, the delegates, after a process of discernment which included contemplative conversations and personal prayer, were at last ready to say that our congregation was coming to completion. We needed to prepare for this by doing the work required for that dissolution to happen, while at the same time as affirmed in the 2020 Chapter's Statement, “giving joyful witness to love with every breath.” This prompted the leadership team to consider whether there would be value in gathering the stories of this ending time as seen from its members’ point of view. All along our journey, we have been mindful of documenting new ventures, as verification of God’s blessing and providential care. Our most recent history book, Steadfast Charity, covered the story up to 2002. This book documents the stories of the ending time. The stories point to the continuing presence of God with the Sisters of Charity in this transition time and the courage and steadfastness these women have in living into completion. It is also a time to be remembered and cherished. The book has been divided into sections covering the terms of office of our congregational leadership teams and undertaken by writers with different experiences, perspectives and styles of writing. The writing of Steadfast Charity began in 2007, and it was published in 2019. Now, within a very short time, we are looking at the ending of our congregation and turning the page on this chapter, on the style of apostolic religious life as lived out by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Halifax. For close to 2,000 years, religious life in Christianity has been constantly changing and finding new expressions. From the days of the desert mothers and fathers to cloistered monasteries, to contemplative communities, to apostolic and non-canonical associations the life keeps evolving. Whatever shape the next form of religious life takes, we believe that it is part of the future yet to be made clear. What was the experience of our sisters during these last 25 years and why tell the story? There are many times in our life when we feel we don’t have enough, enough money, enough time, enough creativity. This perspective highlights scarcity thinking. On the contrary, the place in which we find ourselves is often enough. It is exactly where abundance is found. In the gospel story of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus takes pity on the crowd that have been following him all day and asks the disciples to get food for them. They are baffled. Where can we ever find enough bread in this place (where no one lives) to feed such a crowd? They do find food: five loaves and two fish. This food looks like a little but turns out to be plenty. In fact, at the end of the meal the disciples gather the fragments into twelve baskets so that nothing is wasted. So, it is with endings. At the completion of a project, an institution, a life, who expects to find bread in a deserted place? Who expects there will be baskets of food left over? Because of our experience with so many extraordinary women, we do. With confidence, we begin our task bolstered by that deep commitment to live fully each moment that remains. This book, Charity, With Every Breath: A History of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul: 2002–2026, tells that story. Within these last 24 years of our congregation, are there any stories to tell? Yes, of course. If there are relationships, there are stories to tell! If there are humans involved, there are memory and imagination. In addition to the interactions among people, all stories are told in the context of the world from which they spring. The rapid pace of change in the world, in our own countries, in our Church and in our consciousness lays the groundwork for an adventure even more surprising than the one that begins with four sisters, in 1849, traveling from New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia, a port city in another country.