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Sisters Of Life Offer Prayer, Action For Life

Before she joined the Sisters of Life, Sr. Veronica Mary was a nurse, and often worked in labor and delivery.

“Witnessing the birth of a child was never routine to me,” she told the women at the October 14 Catholic Women’s Fellowship dinner in Edgewood.

“I never failed to get choked up.  During the final pushes, there was an electricity in the air— you feel like everything in heaven and earth is waiting!”

Motherhood is participating in the creative hand of God, said Sister Veronica.  As women, “We’re made to love more than men, because we’re physically built to bear children.

“By our very nature as women, we are all nurturers; we are all called to motherhood, whether physical or spiritual motherhood.”

Sister Veronica, who entered religious life “a little later in life,” was a nurse in the Air Force, then returned to her home state of Connecticut to work mainly as a cardiac nurse.

One day she heard a priest give an impressive sermon on abortion.  “I had always been pro-life,” she recalls, “but I was touched in a powerful way by our Lord.  I think God was saying to me, ‘What are you doing?’” to further the cause of  life.

In 1999 she entered the Sisters of Life, founded eight years earlier by John Cardinal O’Connor, Archbishop of New York.

“He had been praying to have insight from the Holy Spirit,” said Sister:  “What was it that was missing from the pro-life movement?  Could it be a community of women dedicated to the pro-life cause?”

The Sisters of Life, based in New York, now has 47 members consecrated for the protection and enhancement of the sacredness of all human life through prayer and apostolic works.

Beginning with retreat work, their activities have expanded to include a post-abortion healing ministry, a home for women with crisis pregnancies, and a Human Life Issues Research Library.

Recently, the order opened a 100-bed retreat house in Connecticut, a gift from the Knights of Columbus, to be used for post-abortion and informational retreats.

But, Sister Veronica emphasized, “Our most important work is prayer.  We pray four hours a day for life, and for a change in the culture.”

There was a time in her life, she said, “when I thought, the more I got done, the better.  But there was no time for prayer.”

She finally realized that prayer and contemplation are crucial to spiritual growth.

“Jesus said, ‘Blessed is he who hears the word of God and observes it.’  But do we really want to hear it?  God just can’t get through!  He is talking to us constantly, but do we ever stop talking long enough to hear Him?”

Through Scripture, silence, meditation and mental prayer, we can reach “that deeper bond that Jesus wants for us:  to know Him, love Him and serve Him.  Then we will be blessed,” said Sister.

The Sisters of Life website is www.sistersoflife.org.

For more information on the Catholic Women’s Fellowship, phone Maria Bredehoeft, 410-592-2160, or Laraine Harkins, 410-679-3231.