WELCOME

SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH

of Northwestern Pennsylvania

Come to the Waters, is a history of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Northwestern Pennsylvania written by Leonie Shanley, SSJ, and Mary Francis Becker, SSJ, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the Diocese of Erie in 2010. Click here to explore the book.

News

Give Someone a Kindness Card!

| January 25, 2019

Sisters of St. Joseph are introducing “kindness cards” which are small cards given to anyone you see doing an act of kindness. “If we acknowledge and reinforce kindness when we see it, we believe it will foster more kind acts,” said Mary Herrmann, SSJ. “We encourage everyone to use the kindness cards to acknowledge and…

will we welcome the dear neighbor?

| December 3, 2018

The United States Secretary of State,Michael Pompeo, announced on September 9, 2018, that the current administration will set the maximum level of refugees allowed into the United States at 30,000 for 2019. This is the lowest number set in the history of the U.S. refugee admissions program, which was formally created in 1980. “The Trump…

clean energy, clean earth

| November 30, 2018

The U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph recently released a statement opposing the Trump administration’s affordable Clean Energy Rule. In his Encyclical, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis, reminds us of our biblical call to live in right relationship and to cooperate with God’s design for our world. We ask you to join us in…

Maxims — A Modern Take

More than 360 years ago, Father Jean Pierre Médaille, SJ, composed the Maxims of the Little Institute, 100 short sayings to help the first Sisters of St. Joseph grow in virtue. We share them here, along with contemporary translations developed by Susan Wilcox, CSJ, Brentwood, and a group of her students.

MAXIM 12

ORIGINAL

Choose to bear all the evils of time rather than the least of eternity, all the evils of nature rather than the least deprivation of grace, since all kinds of reasons illumined by faith teach you to live according to this truth.

Original Maxim 12
as written by Fr. Médaille

MAXIM 26

ORIGINAL

Seek in everything God's contentment and not anything else, and the better to practice this, remember in the entire living out of your life, in desolation, in sick¬ness, etc., to desire God's greater contentment without giving a thought to your own interests.

Original Maxim 26
as written by Fr. Médaille

MAXIM 54

ORIGINAL

Empty yourself of all human respect and of the least blameworthy concession, and declare, with a generous heart, never to yield in anything that would be against God's will.

Original Maxim 6
as written by Fr. Médaille

MAXIM 81

ORIGINAL

Whatever the virtue you recognize in yourself, never turn away from a true fear of God, conscious that his judgments are unfathomable and that his appraisals are quite different from ours.

Original Maxim 81
as written by Fr. Médaille

Read all Maxims

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