24-Aug-12 - Seven Benedictine College students enter religious order

Seven women who attended Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., recently took their final vows in Illinois as Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George.

Although not all of them graduated from the school, "they are all Ravens," said vocations director Sister M. Consolata.

On Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, thirteen women made their final profession as religious sisters, surrounded by family and friends at St. Mary's Parish in Alton, Ill.

In addition, three sisters made their first profession of vows and two women were received into the novitiate.

The event took place at a Mass presided over by Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., who urged the sisters in his homily to pursue sainthood.

The ceremony was concelebrated by Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, and four bishops, as well as several dozen priests.

"It was a beautiful way to share the consecration and covenant with my family and friends present and to show them how much it means to me," said Sister Mary George Brown, who graduated from Benedictine College in 2005.

"It was a day overwhelmed with grace that was indescribable," she said. "I turned my heart over to the One Who created it forever."

Founded in 1869 in the German village of Thuine, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George now serve the poor and needy on five continents.

The sisters - whose order currently has some 1600 members - offer healthcare, childcare and education to those in need. They also care for retired priests and for the households of several bishops throughout the country, including the Papal Nunciature in Washington, D.C.

Seven of the sisters who took their final vows on Aug. 15 had attended Benedictine College, as members of the classes of 2005-2011.

Four of the sisters graduated from Benedictine before joining the order, while three others started their education at the college but left before graduation and entered the convent.

A member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George in Illinois told EWTN News that while the order does not have a community in the small Kansas city where the Catholic college is located, sisters from the order have attended the school.

Benedictine College describes itself as "a community of faith and scholarship" that "promotes the growing involvement of religious and laity in the Church's ministries."

Among the school's faith-centered activities are vocation fairs and events throughout the year. Since the year 2000, nearly 90 Benedictine alumni have pursued vocations to the priesthood or religious life.

Graduates from Benedictine College's 2012 class are currently serving in various religious ministries throughout the country, including LifeTeen, Christ in the City and the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.

Other graduates from last year's class have entered the seminaries in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Tulsa.

Dr. Frank Kessler, a Benedictine College professor who was present at the Aug. 15 ceremony, said that the group sang the school's fight song after the service.

The Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George expressed gratitude for the new vocations.

"We give thanks for the gift of thirteen Sisters offering their lives forever to the Lord in perpetual profession," said the sisters on their website. "May their hearts always remain open to all the Lord wants to give them."

Read more: http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php?id=6034#ixzz24TNEZlFB

Source: http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=120990

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