"If the love of God really reigns in your heart, it will quickly show itself in the exterior. . . . You will have a tender esteem for your Sisters and for everyone, beholding in them the image of God."

Venerable Catherine McAuley

Religious formation continues throughout a Sister's life, until she meets the Lord definitively in death. The years of perpetual profession pass ordinarily through different stages:

  • from the early years which form the Sister in a progressive sense of her obligation to the life of the evangelical counsels and the vow of service enhancing the Institute through unbounded generosity;
  • through the middle years which foster a greater identification with and response to the concerns of the Institute as a whole;
  • and the mature years when the Sister becomes an example of the legacy of union and charity;
  • to the advanced years when the Sister embraces the misery of humankind together with her own personal diminishments. She prepares for the fullest celebration of the Paschal Mystery in union and charity extending to eternal life.