Daughters of Charity invite singles to discern a vocation

Intermountain Catholic

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Single Catholic women who may be discerning a call to religious life are invited to a brunch with the Daughters of Charity on March 11. Courtesy photo/Daughters of Charity

BOUNTIFUL — The Daughters of Charity will host a brunch is for single, Catholic women aged 18 to 40 who are discerning life choices.

The Nun Brunch will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday March 11 at the Saint Olaf Sisters’ Home. The event will include a prayer service, brunch with the sisters, socializing, sharing of the sisters’ stories, and a question and answer period. "We want these women to get to know who the Daughters of Charity are and what we do in our various ministries," said Daughter of Charity Sister Germaine Sarrazin. "We want them to see our home, to see how we live and get to know us. We would like to encourage women interested in joining our community or some other community, and open up the possibility of religious vocations for women."

Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac founded the Daughters of Charity in 1633, and were dedicated to serving the poor. "We minister almost exclusively to the poor in hospitals, orphanages, prisons, schools, parishes and in other countries," Sr. Germaine said. "There are also Daughters of Charity in Haiti working to rebuild communities following the recent earthquake, and sisters in Kenya working on the Dream Project, educating people with AIDS."

St. Vincent de Paul went through uncertain periods in his own life, said Daughter of Charity Sister Cecilia Van Zandt. "He went through suffering of a trial to his faith, and out of that he came to be convinced that the way for him to get to God was to devote his life to the service of the poor," she said. "Our ministry flows through his conviction."

There are two Daughters of Charity provinces: one in Los Altos Hills, Calif.; the other in St. Louis, Mo., which arose when the provinces from New York, Evansville, Ind., Emmitsburg, Md., and St. Louis recently merged.

The ministries in Utah include helping women and children and poor families. For example, Daughter of Charity Sister Stella Marie Zahner coordinates the Special Needs Program that gives monies to minorities and single parents with children who wish to attend Catholic schools.

Daughter of Charity Sister Marie Nguyen organized Give Me A Chance in Ogden, which teaches low-income women the skills of sewing, embroidering and quilting. These women have the opportunity to produce merchandise to earn money for themselves and their families.

Sr. Germaine is the sister moderator for the Ladies of Charity, a lay group of women that provides food, clothing, furniture and household items to people in need through the Center of Hope. She also tutors students at Kearns-Saint Ann School as well as two Burmese refugee families.

Sr. Cecilia recently retired from assisting Sr. Stella Marie with the Special Needs program, and now is the bookkeeper for the Sisters’ Home and the Sisters’ Council and has other duties in the Sisters’ home.

Three of the four sisters are retired school teachers, of which two were principals.

"The Daughters of Charity in the provinces also are nurses, social workers, doctors, lawyers and business managers," Sr. Cecelia said. "Women can be whatever they want to be. If women don’t have the education, it’s given to them to do their ministry."

St. Vincent and St. Louise stressed that the sisters get an education, added Sr. Germaine. "We serve the poor with humility, simplicity, charity, kindness and compassion," she said. "Vincent said the poor are our lords and masters and taught us to see Christ in the poor."