New religious sisters to serve Dickinson

Bishop David Kagan has announced the opening of a new house for the Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus within the Diocese of Bismarck to serve in Dickinson.

Bishop Kagan made the announcement at a November 6 Mass at Dickinson’s Queen of Peace Parish. The Sisters will establish their house at St. Patrick’s Parish in Dickinson starting this fall to serve all four parishes there including St. Joseph and St. Wenceslaus.

“What began as a discussion with Mother Mary Clare eight years ago now has come to fruition,” said Bishop Kagan. “God has answered our prayers and I am most grateful to Him and to the Handmaids for this wonderful gift to our diocese and the Catholic faithful.”

The Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus were formally established in 2010, in the Diocese of New Ulm, Minn., by Bishop John LeVoir. In accordance with canon 301 of the Code of Canon Law, the bishop formally established the Handmaids as a public association of the faithful in hopes of becoming a religious community of diocesan right. This status allows them to be public witnesses and teach Catholic doctrine “in the name of the Church” while continuing to discover the fullness of this new charism. Eventually, they hope to apply to become a religious community of diocesan right which requires them to have at least forty members, half of which would be in perpetual vows.

Their motherhouse is in the New Ulm Diocese. They have convents in Duluth and Hopkins, Minn. and now Dickinson at the invitation of Bishop Kagan.

“Also, I want to thank Bishop LeVoir for his prayers and support for the Handmaids and his continued guidance,” Bishop Kagan added. “It is a process of discernment of God’s will for the Handmaids and for our diocese and we must be patient since God always works in mysteriously wonderful ways for our spiritual and temporal welfare. I look forward to not only the arrival of the Handmaids in Dickinson and our diocese but to a long and deeply fruitful ministry by them for the love of God and His Church in western North Dakota.”

Mother Mary Clare started the Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus after receiving the founding grace in December of 2006. Through this grace, she was inspired to help answer the need for a feminine consecrated presence in the diocesan life of the Church. 

“Over the last several years, the Lord has blessed us with many beautiful relationships with the priests and people in the Diocese of Bismarck,” said Mother Mary Clare. “He has also given us several wonderful sisters who have strong ties to the diocese. These relationships have been such a source of support and encouragement for our community and such a beautiful experience of the diocesan Church family. Because of these relationships, when we were discerning where the Lord was inviting us to go next, the Bismarck Diocese felt like a natural fit.”

The order’s four-part charism is Marian, diocesan, eucharistic and evangelistic. Simply put, they seek to emulate Mary by being spiritual mothers in the parish. They are a contemplative active community, which means they are deeply dedicated to the Lord in prayer while yet have an active apostolate in the local parish community.

As diocesan sisters, they bring a feminine consecrated presence to the parish family complementing the diocesan priesthood. Alongside the priests and the lay faithful, the Handmaids seek to build the Kingdom of God in the local diocese. Echoing Mary’s fiat, the sisters wish to bring her presence to the local Church by imitating Mary, the mother of God, as handmaid, virgin, bride and mother.

Their very presence attests to their consecration to the Lord as they perform any function needed in the parish. The Handmaids apostolate could include the following: catechesis/faith formation, youth ministry, family life/marriage preparation, liturgy coordination, liturgical music, sacristy work, domestic care of churches and rectories, visitation of the sick and elderly and education in Catholic schools.

“We ask for your prayers for this new house, for all of those who are helping to make it a possibility, and for our sisters who will soon live and serve in the Diocese of Bismarck,” Mother Mary Clare noted. “We also ask that you pray that we remain faithful to our life and to the charism the Lord has entrusted to us. We eagerly look forward to all that the Lord has in store for our community and for the good people of North Dakota and we have great confidence that He will continue to lead us in His ways.”

The Handmaids will be easily recognizable in the Dickinson community by their distinct habit which they designed and made themselves. They wear a black tunic, white scapula and white veil which correlate to a priest’s garments and their parish-centered charism. Habits are worn as a reminder of each woman’s deliberate choice to retreat from the world and focus on God and prayer.