Bon Voyage, Sister Mary Catharine!

“Pin the Nun on the Corpus Christi Monastery!”

Last week, we held a farewell party for Sr. Mary Catharine, who traveled to New York a few days later to begin a term of office as prioress at Corpus Christi Monastery in the Bronx, New York. While typically the prioress of a monastery is elected from among the sisters of the monastery, our constitutions permit monasteries to elect a nun from another monastery in a process known as postulation (from the Latin word postulare, to ask). The postulated nun becomes a member of the new monastery for the duration of her term of office (3 years), then returns to her home monastery. The approval from the Holy See finally arrived, and we prepared to say goodbye.

We played a fun game where each sister was blindfolded and had to tape a paper nun to a map of New York, aiming to land on the Bronx monastery. In the end it was a tie between Sr Mary Catharine and Sr. Rebecca!

It was a time of both joy and of sadness as we celebrated what Sister has meant to us as a part of our community and the mission of service God has in store for her, and tried not to think too much about how we will miss her over the next three years. She will remain close in our hearts and in our prayers as she joins our sisters in the Bronx.