In 2020, it was announced that the Bismarck Diocese is home to the very-first public association in the world dedicated to the Montessori method of education.
Bishop Kagan established the Servants of the Children of Light, a Public Association of the Christian Faithful for Women in view of becoming a religious institute of diocesan rite. The new public association is dedicated to contemplative prayer and focused on Catholic Montessori education.
The foundress and first member, Julie Jacobson, serves as a catechist in the atrium at the Christ the King Catholic Montessori School. In 2020, she took the name Sister Chiara Thérèse and received her habit that fall. She took her first vows on Jan. 3, 2021, the Feast of the Epiphany.
Three years later, Jan. 9, again on the Feast of the Epiphany, Bishop Kagan accepted Sr. Chiara Thérèse’s profession of final vows during Mass at Our Lady of Victory Chapel on the campus of St. Mary’s Central High School in Bismarck.
Many changes
There have been many changes for the new public association since its founding.
“We have had many grace-filled moments since 2020,” now known as Mother Chiara Thérèse shared. “The Lord provided a convent property near the Church of St. Joseph's in Mandan in early 2021. We were able to renovate this house through the generosity of many people to make it into a proper convent, with individual rooms, a lovely chapel and a library space for the study.
“In June of 2023, we welcomed our first postulant to the community. This moment was filled with much joy, as the firm roots of the community are being laid. Our apostolate continues at Christ the King Catholic Montessori School in Mandan, especially serving in the atrium (Montessori religious education). We continue to be very grateful for the community and all those that have supported us these past three years.”
To better serve the children and the wider community, Mother Chiara Thérèse completed her AMI Montessori training for the child from birth to three years of age this past May. This training allows her to assist families with young children to prepare their homes to welcome and support this young child.
Sister Chiara Thérèse centered on a grateful heart as her profession of final vows drew closer.
“As I approached my profession of final vows, I thanked Jesus for all He has bestowed on me in preparation for this moment,” she said. “My heart is full of His peace and joy as I anticipate the moment of my gift of self—without reserve—until the end of my life. He is never outdone in generosity, and I cannot help but marvel at the gift of being espoused to the One whom the heavens cannot contain. I reflect often on His great love for all souls, and I desire to give this love to others, especially to the children in which we are called to serve.”
January 6 was a most glorious day not only for the religious community, but for the entire Church.
“I was blessed to lay my life down before the altar where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated, so that I too may become a living offering to God,” she said. “As I was prostrating during the litany of the saints, I was praying for the good people of this Diocese and for the conversion of souls, that this ceremony—so rich in liturgical symbolism and beauty—might strike the hearts of those who have fallen away from Christ and His Church.”
A particular moment during the Mass of profession of final vows struck Mother Chiara Thérèse as significant.
“As the silent moment of the consecration approached during Mass, a young child of but a few months old, was crying. It reminded me that our community was founded in response to this cry of the child, reaching the Heart of God, to send laborers into His vineyard to serve the children of this world,” she shared.
Rite of investiture
On Jan 6, at the same Mass that the foundress of the Servants of the Children of Light professed her final vows, Sr. Lucia Rose entered the novitiate in a ceremony called the investiture. During this ancient rite, each part of the habit is received as a gift and is accompanied with word from the bishop that signified its deep spiritual meaning.
Prior to the investiture ceremony, the new sister assumed a simple postulancy dress and veil and began to live the daily life of the community while further discerning her calling. With the investiture ceremony on Jan. 6, Sr. Lucia Rose entered the two-year formation period in which she desires to conform her life more to that of Christ's. She also assumed the habit and a new religious name.
The first year, or canonical year, of the novitiate is a time of deeper conversion of life, in which the novice engages in more prayer and an intense study to come to know what the Church asks of her as a religious sister. She is given no outside commitments during this first year of novitiate. The second year, or apostolic year, of novitiate allows the novice to slowly re-enter into the apostolic life of the community. In our charism, this is Catholic Montessori education. She will continue her studies, but also come to the Christ the King school more frequently.
After the two-year period of novitiate, the novice professes simple vows for a period of three years (renewable for an additional two). At this time, the sister will begin her AMI Montessori training and formation in the Montessori method. She will enter fully into the apostolate at a Catholic Montessori school. After the duration of simple vows, she will profess her final vows, which bind her to the community for life. She will then continue serving the children in a Catholic Montessori school as a final professed sister.
About Sr. Lucia Rose
Sister Lucia Rose is originally from the suburbs of Minneapolis and grew up attending Holy Family Catholic Church in St. Louis Park, Minn. The second oldest of five children, she attended parochial elementary school through fifth grade, then was homeschooled through the end of high school. In Spring of 2020, she graduated from the University of Mary with a bachelor's degree.
The new sister’s discernment to religious life began when she was teenager.
“With a firm belief that vocations begin in the home, I attribute the beginning of my discernment to a life of prayer fostered within my family's home, within our parish, and the at Catholic school I attended as a child,” Sr. Lucia Rose said. “I became aware of a calling to the religious life while attending a Catholic summer camp as a 14-year-old. Two religious sisters spent the week with us campers, and through the sisters’ talks and conversation with them, I recognized within myself a desire to give myself wholly to the Lord as they had. Two summers later my parish hosted a week-long “nun run,” in which a group of other young ladies and I visited eight convents in nearby states. That trip exposed me to a variety of beautiful charisms lived out by religious sisters and nuns and affirmed my own desire for the consecrated life.”
Her love of the Montessori model of education led her to the Servants of the Children of Light.
“After graduating from the University of Mary, I began teaching at a Catholic Montessori School west of Minneapolis,” sister explained. “Having experienced the beauty of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd during my college years, I was drawn immediately to the Montessori method as practiced within a Catholic Montessori school, integrating the whole of the child's formation—body, mind, and soul. Around this time, I was introduced to what is now my religious community, the Servants of the Children of Light. While visiting the community, I was struck by how normal it felt to live the religious life and that I felt free to be myself, as God had created me to be. I was drawn both to the interior life of the community—the rhythm of prayer, work, and the common life—and the community’s apostolate of Catholic Montessori education. I spent a year working at Christ the King Catholic Montessori School in Mandan while discerning closely with the community and preparing to enter the convent.”
During the investiture ceremony on Jan. 6, Sr. Lucia Rose’s hair was cut, she put on the habit and scapular of the community and received a white novice veil. This marked the beginning of a two-year novitiate, the first of which will be spent within the convent in prayer and study, and the second of which will be a gradual re-entry into the apostolate.
“Sisters do not come ready-made, and so this time of interior formation is a necessary preparation for consecrating one's life fully and freely to God through the profession of the evangelical counsels. Following the two-year novitiate, God-willing, I will profess first vows.”
The Jan. 9 Mass was indeed a special moment for the foundress, Sr. Chiara Therese—who is now referred to as mother—and the young Sr. Lucia Rose.
“As I approached investiture, I am grateful to the Lord for the unmerited gift of a religious vocation and for the opportunity to share with the wider community the outward sign of a radical emptying of self through the reception of the habit,” Sr. Lucia Rose said. “I pray for the grace of receptivity to all that the Lord desires to do on the day of my investiture and as I enter the next stage of religious formation as a novice.”
During the ceremony on January 6th, I was struck by the public witness of both Mother Chiara Thérèse's final vows and my investiture,” Sr. Lucia Rose shared. “The physical presence of so many good people in Our Lady of Victory Chapel served as a reminder that a religious vocation is a gift to the entire Church. From the breathtaking beauty of the chapel and the music to the poignant symbolism within the rite of final vows and investiture, we were blessed to be able to share such a joyous day with so many people who traveled from near and far to be present.”