Responding with courage and personal sacrifice to the call of Christ in the Church, our foundresses lived out their desire to become women of prayer, community and service
SSMO Constitutions, Article 1
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! Enjoy a few photos from the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon during the Christmas and New Year seasons.
Blessings,
Sr. Charlene
Meet our Jubilee Sisters
We are celebrating the Jubilee of several Sisters in 2025.
Sr. Theresa Hathaway – 75 years
Sister Theresa Hathaway was born in 1933 in Cushing, Oklahoma. Her one sister is also a Sister of St. Mary of Oregon, Sister Mary Ann Hathaway. Sister Theresa entered the SSMO in 1950 and graduated from St. Mary of the Valley. Throughout her teaching years, she earned a teaching degree and librarian certification. Sister Theresa has served as a teacher, principal, secretary and librarian at St. Mary of the Valley in Beaverton; St. Agatha, Our Lady of Sorrows and Holy Cross in Portland; St. John the Baptist in Milwaukie; St. Boniface in Sublimity; Visitation in Verboort; and St. Francis in Roy.
Sister Theresa served as director of the Motherhouse library. She has shared her talent for crafts by embroidering designs on dish towels and today makes rosaries to promote the daily recitation of the rosary throughout the world.
Visit Sister Theresa’s bio page to learn more about her inspiring journey.
Discernment Opportunities
Vocation Events for January
The SSMO Vocation Committee will be in Oregon and Utah this month.
Check out our events page for specific dates and locations.
If you happen to be where we are, please join us.
Please pray for our safe travels.
Thank you.
Questions:
After discernment with a community, what are the stages of integration into the Community?
Visit Five Formation Steps to learn more about the intentional and patient transition into religious life.
You should visit the Community as many times as possible, making each stay longer as you begin to discover more and more about the vision, spirit, ministry, and prayer life of the Sisters.
Each Community will have a variation on the timing of the stages from introduction, getting acquainted, requesting to enter, and beginning the paperwork.
In time, you will have a sense of whether or not to begin the application process which includes gathering information and data about yourself, such as certification of reception of Sacraments of Initiation; autobiography, physical/dental exams, behavioral assessment, education transcripts, and letters of recommendation.
Did you Know?
Interesting facts about members who are entering religious life:
Myths about Religious Life:
Myth: Entering religious life is a last resort.
Fact: Although having a peer group of people close in age is important to younger members, the evidence shows that 93% of newer members prefer to live in community with people of different ages. In addition, newer members also show a preference for living with people of different cultures and people who do different ministries.
*Sources: National Religious Vocation Conference and “VISION” magazine
Quotations from the Saints
Everyone who breathes…has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random;…God sees every one of us; He creates every soul,…for a purpose.
St. John Neumann
“Let us make best use of the fleeting moments. They will not return.”
St. Marianne Cope of Molokai
“My dear Sisters, allow me to recommend to you the care of the poor in our houses, as well as those without. Take good care of them; have no fear of them; assist them and receive them. Then you will no regrets. Do not say: Ah! this does not concern me, let others see to them.
My sisters, whatever concerns the poor is always our affair.”
Saintly Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, SP
