NOTRE DAME
ASSOCIATES

• Associates are women and men who live the Gospel in the spirit of St. Julie Billiart.

• United with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in prayer and service, Associates share the same vision and goals.

• Associates are bonded to the Congregation through ongoing communication centered around growth in the spirituality and mission of Notre Dame.

• Association is international and open to women and men of all cultures, aged eighteen and over.

 

• We collaborate with the Sisters and other Associates in making known in our time that God is good.

• We live the Gospel Message.

• We experience growth through prayer, with a deep trust in God and a love for Mary, woman of prayer.

• We build the Kingdom of God within families, parishes, and communities in a spirit of joy and confidence.

 

• "We feel welcomed in living out side-by-side the charism of St. Julie individually and collaboratively with the Sisters."

• "Julie gives a wonderful model to us for openness to the Spirit, reading both the signs of the time and the movement, or call, of God."

• "Our lives as faith-filled, compassionate, loving and caring Christian women who desire to proclaim God’s goodness in all aspects of our lives have been so enriched, challenged and inspired by this program."

• "The Associate Program nourishes me spiritually. It feeds a deep inner hunger I have to grow and live out the charism of St. Julie."

• "I love to evangelize. I draw strength from being with people who share my values."

• "I am able to exchange ideas, prayers, hopes and dreams with people who believe in the Gospel as I do."

 

MISSION STATEMENT

Through the needs of our world, God summons us as Associates of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to spread everywhere the Gospel message as expressed by St. Julie Billiart, "How good is the good God."

• We choose to collaborate with the Sisters of Notre Dame in living the Gospel in the spirit of St. Julie, integrating that spirit into our different ways of life.

• The spirit of St. Julie is one of simplicity, obedience and charity. We respond to God’s will with a special concern for "the poor in the most abandoned places" in their struggle for adequate means to sustain human life and dignity.

• We respond to God’s call to holiness and wholeness by openness to the good God in the deepening of our spiritual growth and sharing in the works of the people of God.

• Associates and Sisters support, affirm and pray for one another. We communicate with each other personally and as a community.

 

NOTRE DAME HERITAGE

The Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur was founded in France in 1804 by St. Julie Billiart for the instruction of poor children.

St. Julie called the first Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to respond to the needs of their time - to educate, to care for the poor, to spread God’s word. Today we are called to meet those same needs. We continue to be inspired by the challenge St. Julie issued two centuries ago - "If not us, then who?"

Since the 1970s, the mission of the Sisters of Notre Dame has been extended to the laity through invitation to association. Those who desire to share in the spirituality and the mission of the Sisters are welcomed as Associates. Together, Associates and Sisters grow in their ability to discern and bring the Good News of God’s saving love into their contemporary reality.