Servants of God's Love

[LoveZoe11]

Has anyone here discerned with/know them? They seem like a beautiful community. I know there have been a couple of post about them in the past but they all seemed to turn into a habit vs non habit flamewar  

They seem to be heavily charismatic, and I'm not to familiar with the movement. They have great apostolates though and seem to be very joyful and faithful.

[BarbTherese]

I have never discerned with them, but they were a force for good in my previous parish.  I was impressed by the simplicity of their convent, which was simply a house which struck me as almost starkly furnished - simplicity in appearance.  All furnishings did not look new at all.  They only had one small bus type vehicle.  They were very charismatic (charismatic movement) and stuck strictly to what The Church taught.  They were lovely young women and an impressive force for good in our parish.

At the time in our parish, they did not wear traditional type habits, but brown three quarter length skirts with white blouses - no veils.  If memory serves, they worse some sort of small religious pin on their collars of their shirts, but I cannot be sure of this.  Memory not good and my experiences with them now goes back probably 15 years or more.

[BarbTherese]

Memory has now told me that the Sisters in my previous parish were titled "Missionaries of God's Love".  I don't know if it is the same religious order, or a different one.  I've had a quick look at their website and I think they might be different.  I am in Australia incidentally.

[katherineH]

Hi there!

I spoke with their vocation director last year and she was wonderful.  You are right in pointing out that they are charismatic - one of their sisters is a leader in the charismatic renewal and I know that they are regularly involved with Life in the Spirit seminars in Michigan.  They started out as an ecumenical community and all of the Protestant women ended up leaving, and so the remaining Catholic women discerned that they were called to start a religious community.  This is a big reason they don't have a "traditional habit" with a veil.  Ecumenism is an important charism there which I find to be quite unique and beautiful.  They seem to have a very balanced horarium and allow more flexibility than what you might find elsewhere.  Sundays are their days of rest and so each sister sets her own schedule for the day.  There also seems to be a good amount of flexibility with sisters' contact with family members.  Each Saturday night they have a charismatic prayer service with praise and worship, and a time for intercession.  The VD told me that not every sister who enters has experience with the charismatic renewal, but it is an expectation that she will be open to it (since it is the bread and butter of their prayer) and will receive Baptism in the Holy Spirit. I'm fairly involved with the charismatic renewal so if you have any other questions feel free to message me! 

The sisters serve in a variety of diocesan or teaching apostolates.  One of them is a campus minister at the U of Michigan I believe.  They seem to be receiving a good number of vocations, mostly from the Michigan area.  Their formation process sounded very solid and similar to what you might receive elsewhere: study of church documents, theology, extra time for prayer throughout the day, etc.  Overall, they struck me as very "modern" sisters in that they held onto the essential elements of religious life (devotion to prayer, unity with Christ, faithfulness and love towards the Magisterium, etc.) while still engaging the world in a very relevant and new way.  I believe they only need a few more sisters until they reach the next milestone in becoming a fully canonically recognized religious community.  Their VD is very responsive through e-mail so I wouldn't hesitate to contact her!

Katherine 

[NadaTeTurbe]

This kind of habit is very charismatic, the Emmanuel community have the same for their consecrated women. 

Anyway, this is the kind of charismatic community who would interest me !