Claiming Sisterhood

National Catholic Sisters Week was celebrated a month ago, for the very first time. I wasn't able to attend the main celebration in St. Paul, MN, but there were celebrations, liturgies, rallies and other events across the nation and lots of attention from media and on social media channels.
There is one phrase that stuck with me from all the events and images, posts and tweets, that the event was about Claiming Sisterhood.
That one brief phrase has echoed with me in the weeks since the celebrations. For me, claiming sisterhood says that we are coming to an understanding of religious life as a reality broader than any one congregation. There is a growing sense of who we are as a movement, that is an umbrella over who we are as individual congregations. The reality between congregations is increasing, even while the reality within is decreasing.
The wordle that I included here is one borrowed from the FCJs. Could it not be so much the same for so many of us in our newly-claimed sisterhood.
As I sit with it, I ask myself: what do I resonate with? What would I add?
The thing about a wordle is that it is not a statement, it is not an assertion. The power of a wordle is in the relationship between the words. Intersubjectivity. So I think the power of sisterhood is being found in the relationships among us, as we realize that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
May we be blessed in our emerging sense of sisterhood.
Peace,
Amy