We, the Home Mission Sisters of America, popularly known as the Glenmary Sisters, are Catholic Religious Sisters dedicated to ministry to the poor and forgotten people in rural areas of Southern United States.  We serve in rural areas where there are less than 2% Catholics. “…we are ministering to the overlooked and forgotten…our quest for the neglected and forgotten takes us out beyond the boundaries of where the Church is at present established."  (William Howard Bishop, May 1948)

 

We work with people who “don’t know our Church…and don’t know the work of our Sisters.  Many suspect and oppose us…In this, we resemble Christ and the Apostles…’He came unto His own and His own received Him not’…  The Apostles faced indifferent and hostile people.”  (William Howard Bishop, July 1945)

 

We serve the poor in our society.  We work with people in the rural South, who lack fundamentals such as education, housing, food, health, and security.  We walk with those who suffer because of race…immigration status…addictions…lack of education…and other discrimination.  As Glenmary Sisters, we build upon a rich legacy.  Our founding charism calls us to be the Presence of the Catholic Church in the rural South.  Responding to this call, we recognize our own need for ongoing conversion to the radical living out of the gospel.

 

 

 

“Our Glenmary spirituality involves Christian activity founded in and formed by a deep life of prayer and trust in the Holy Trinity.”  (Constitution 25)

 

The most important aspect of the Sisters’ missionary life is a combination of prayer, sacrifice, and Christ like presence.  Prayer and work are the two essentials that lead to the very core of the Gospel…love of God and love of one’s neighbor.  Whenever possible, we join others in the area for the Church’s Liturgy of the Eucharist.  Daily we pray the Liturgy of the Hours in the morning and evening.  We spend at least one hour of private prayer and spiritual reading.  We make an annual retreat as well as a monthly day of renewal.

 

The Glenmary Sisters have a strong sense of community.  Guadalupe House in Owensboro, Kentucky serves as a gathering place for community days, days of community reflections and celebrations when the Sisters come together.  Our daily lives are rooted in smaller rural communities where we minister to the poor and underprivileged.  Our presence to one another in community sustains and enables us to continue to be God’s presence in our mission areas.  “The purpose of community life is to keep us daily, hourly, in communion with God so that we may…work for Him in the field he has chosen for us by knowing and doing his will.” 
(William Howard Bishop, October 1947)