Bishop leads annual summer gathering

MENDHAM  The Diocese hosted its annual summer gathering for new religious, those discerning religious life and vocation directors at Mallinckrodt Convent, Motherhouse of the Sisters of Christian Charity, here Aug. 25. Nearly 100 new religious and discerners, both men and women, attended the day that started with the celebration of Mass by Bishop Serratelli. After the Mass, the Bishop gave a teaching on religious vocations to young women and men currently in the discernment process or who are in their first years of religious life.

Sister of Christian Charity Joan Daniel Healy, diocesan chancellor/delegate for religious, coordinated the annual diocesan event. Diverse in religious charisms, cultures and ages, the evening allowed the religious to pray together and receive a sense of support from one another. Following Mass and prayer, the Bishop engaged the religious and discerners with their questions about vocations. Afterward, the gathering headed outdoors where the religious enjoyed a picnic and some lawn games of badminton and volleyball on the bucolic grounds of the Sisters of Christian Charity’s Motherhouse.

Participating in the evening, were men religious from the Benedictines at St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown and Trinitarians at the Shrine of St. Joseph in Stirling. Women religious orders participating were the Salesian Sisters, Franciscan Sisters of St. Elizabeth, Vocationist Sisters, the Little Sisters of the Poor, Sisters of Christian Charity, Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburg, the Religious Teachers Filippini and discerners from Casa Guadalupe in Clifton. Several of the sisters who attended belong to international orders studying at Assumption College for Sisters in Denville.