About the Sisters News

The 2024 Winter Cross Currents have been sent out and are coming to mailboxes near you! Read the online version here, or sign up to receive one in the mail.

In this edition of our Lenten YLBG series on how our food choices affect our health and the planet's health, we will focus on animal consumption and our health.

Water Snapshot #5

March 14, 2024

The Sisters go where the need is greatest. At many remote villages in Africa, our Sisters live, teach and minister in areas where electricity is a scarce commodity and clean drinking water is non-existent. People can live without electricity, but life without clean water is impossible. The water crisis in Africa is a critical public health concern.

Plastic in the ocean

We invite you to confess the sin of racism, privately and communally. As we move through this lenten season of conversion, we invite you to follow some of the "racial examination of conscience: written by Mark Schmidt, the director of the Respect of Life/Social Justice Office of the Archdiocese of Dubuque.

In this edition of our Lenten YLBG series on how our food choices affect our health and the health of the planet, we will focus on animal agriculture and water use.

Catholic Sisters Week is celebrated nationwide in the United States, coordinated by the Communicators for Women Religious. From March 8th to the 14th, we dedicate this week to magnify the impact of women religious. At the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, we celebrate by sharing the stories of the Sisters' work and life in the US and throughout the world.

We invite you to watch the interview with Sister Mary Johnson, SNDdeN, Superior General of the Sisters de Notre Dame de Namur at the joint UISG-USG meeting (November 22-24, 2023), published by the UISG Internatioanal Union Superiors General in Rome.

Using solar panels, villagers in Kitenda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, can power the systems that filter and clean their water. The Clean Water for Life project helps fund these materials.

Water Snapshot #4

March 7, 2024

Our Lenten series on the Clean Water for Life project continues this week with a closer look at the three priorities for work being coordinated by the Sisters where they live and serve at remote locations in Africa.

You likely have heard of the situation facing Annunciation House, an organization of 5 migrant help centers in El Paso, Texas. Sister Rebecca Trujillo, SNDdeN, volunteers in one of these centers each week. They are currently under threat of shut down from the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who is accusing the centers of Human Trafficking.

Statement on the prosecution of Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas

The Ohio Province of The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur join the call of Bishop Mark Seitz in expressing our solidarity with Annunciation House in El Paso Texas, which is the target of prosecution by Texas State Attorney General, Ken Paxton. The US immigration system has been insufficient for decades and the US-Mexico border is chaotic at best. The US has failed to provide a safe system for those seeking asylum.

Animal agriculture in the US: cows lined up in a cage eating hay

In this edition of our Lenten YLBG series on how our food choices affect our health and the planet's health, we will focus on animal agriculture and two greenhouse gasses – Carbon Dioxide and Methane.

Photo of people holding candles with increasingly blurry background with a text that said, this is how all will know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another. Then  it says John 3:15.

If you have not yet tried reading the daily readings during Lent, I encourage you to begin or end your day filling your mind with God’s word. As I suggested last month, this is one way to help keep you grounded in who Jesus is and what he does. You can have the gospel sent to your email or you can read it online at usccb.org

The Christians for Ceasefire collaboration, in which Mercy Justice Team, Franciscan Action Network, Pax Christi USA, and Maryknoll OGC, among others, are taking part, is calling for Lenten prayer and action for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Village men and women are actively engaged in improving their living conditions. Health is a top concern which can be addressed with clean water.

Water Snapshot #3

February 29, 2024

If you have been following along with our Clean Water for Life series, you know that clean water is the key to a healthy life. Today, we’d like you to know more about one of the areas where our Sisters live and work to bring health and hope to the world.

Lenten Appeal

"This Lent ..."

February 27, 2024

This Lent, please join me and all our Sisters as we seek to be Jesus to others even in the smallest ways. Let us go out of our way to do so, out of our routine, out of our comfort zone. The opportunities are there, if only we look.

Cattle ranching in Para, Brazil

Let us pray for an end to the waste and desecration of God's creation, For access to the fruits of creation to be shared equally among all people, And for communities and nations to find sustenance in the fruits of the earth and the water God has given us.

Water Snapshot #2

February 22, 2024

During week two of the 2024 Lenten season, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur invite you to learn more about our work here in Cincinnati that impacts developing countries throughout Africa.

We were asked to call Congress about the FOREST Act a few weeks ago. The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas has provided a follow-up opportunity to either THANK or CALL OUT our Congresspersons for their decision to sponsor or not respond to the FOREST Act.

I ask for you a year overflowing with the graces and blessings of heaven for your spiritual progress; then good health for the accomplishment of God's will. St. Julie Billiart.

A spoonful of microplastics

Save the Date! In celebration of Earth Day 2024, the Plastics Advocacy committee of the Dorothy Stang Initiative will host Laudato Si’: Spirituality and Action on Saturday, April 20 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Amiens.

During the 2024 Lenten season, we hope you will take a moment to learn about the work of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to provide clean water in Africa.

2024 Lenten Video Message

February 14, 2024

Today, we invite you to watch this 2024 Lenten Video Message from Sister Marilyn Kerber, SNDdeN. "How will you and I stand by Jesus this Lent? How do we minister to others? Do we accompany people in their pain? Do we stand by people in their pain? We can participate in traditional practices. We can attend the Way of the Cross. Make a point to participate in the triduum services." The Sisters will pray for you and your family throughout this Lenten season.

O glorious advocate and protector, St. Valentine, look with pity upon our wants, hear our requests, attend to our prayers, relieve by your intercession, the miseries under which we labor, and obtain for us the divine blessing, that we may be found worthy to join you in praising the Almighty for all eternity, through the merits of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen