The Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, also known as Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, or simply Holy Spirit Sisters (SSpS Latin: Servae Spiritus Sancti) are an official "religious congregation" within the Catholic Church, with members (after some years) making a vowed commitment to the loving service of God and their sisters and brothers in need around the world. They are an international group of women numbering approximately 4,000 members in 38 countries around the world. The congregation was founded by Saint Arnold Janssen in 1889 in Steyl, Holland.. Arnold Janssen selected Maria Helena Stollenwerk (1852-1900) and Hendrina Stenmanns, called Mother Josepha (1852-1903) as first leaders in the young congregation and granted them the title of co-foundresses. Helena Stollenwerk became also the Co-Foundress of the Congregation Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration.
This community of religious women is rooted in the Trinitarian spirituality:"Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they, in collaboration with dedicated laity and clergy, live and proclaim the Gospel of God’s love, justice, and peace. In dialogue with people of diverse cultures and traditions, they minister and journey together promoting human dignity and life-giving relationships."
The Holy Spirit Sisters share the love of God through a variety of ministries. They have a common call to mission, being ever ready to go wherever they are needed. They remain open to the Spirit in themselves and in other cultures and peoples. They live in community where they share its supports as well as challenges.
Read more about Missionary Sisters Servants Of The Holy Spirit: History, Mission and Ministry, Formation, Founder, Literature
Famous quotes containing the words holy spirit, missionary, sisters, servants, holy and/or spirit:
“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 1:18,19.
“The missionary is no longer a man, a conscience. He is a corpse, in the hands of a confraternity, without family, without love, without any of the sentiments that are dear to us.... Emasculated, in a sense, by his vow of chastity, he offers us the distressing spectacle of a man deformed and impotent or engaged in a stupid and useless struggle with the sacred needs of the flesh, a struggle which, seven times out of ten, leads him to sodomy, the gallows, or prison.”
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
“The quickness with which all the “stuff” from childhood can reduce adult siblings to kids again underscores the strong and complex connections between brothers and sisters.... It doesn’t seem to matter how much time has elapsed or how far we’ve traveled. Our brothers and sisters bring us face to face with our former selves and remind us how intricately bound up we are in each other’s lives.”
—Jane Mersky Leder (20th century)
“The prosecution of [Warren] Hastings, though he should escape at last, must have good effect. It will alarm the servants of the Company in India, that they may not always plunder with impunity, but that there may be a retrospect; and it will show them that even bribes of diamonds to the Crown may not secure them from prosecution.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“For them it’s out-of-date and outmoded to perform miracles; teaching the people is too like hard work, interpreting the holy scriptures is for schoolmen and praying is a waste of time; to shed tears is weak and womanish, to be needy is degrading; to suffer defeat is a disgrace and hardly fitting for one who scarcely permits the greatest of kings to kiss the toes of his sacred feet; and finally, death is an unattractive prospect, and dying on a cross would be an ignominious end.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“This spirit of mob-law is becoming as great an evil as a servile war.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)