The 63rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations will be observed Sunday, April 26, 2026. This is the Fourth Sunday of Easter, also known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The purpose of this day is to publicly fulfill the Lord’s instruction to, “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest” (Mt 9:38; Lk 10:2). Please pray that...Read more

For the past few years, scientists on the Nun Study research team have been investigating a protein in the brain called TMEM106B which sometimes forms tiny thread-like clumps, called fibrils, inside brain cells. These fibrils, found especially in older adults and people with Alzheimer’s disease or memory problems, may interfere with how brain cells stay healthy and communicate with one...Read more

Where there is no peace and harmony, there the blessing of the Lord vanishes. – SSND Foundress Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger. The School Sisters of Notre Dame’s Atlantic-Midwest and Central Pacific Provinces have joined a broad coalition of Christian and ecumenical faith organizations in calling on Congress to oppose any supplemental appropriations that would fund a war with Iran....Read more

In 1964, Sister Sara Jean Donegan and Sister Gloria List graduated from the Marquette School of Dentistry. The two opened a dental clinic at the SSND convent in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, where they performed basic dentistry for sisters. At a recent talk given to sisters living at Trinity Woods in Milwaukee, SSND North America Archives Director Michele Levandoski got a...Read more

The way scientists study the brain is changing — and Dr. Margaret Flanagan, who directs the Nun Study, is helping lead the transformation with the help of brain tissue contributions by more than 600 School Sisters of Notre Dame. For more than a century, pathologists have relied on microscopes and glass slides to examine brain tissue and uncover the causes...Read more

Click here for the SSND Atlantic-Midwest Province Lenten Reflections The following Lenten reflections, prepared by the SSND North American Vocation Team, are based on You Are Sent, the Constitution of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. (Print PDF) For more information, please contact sisters@ssnd.org or hermanas@ssnd.org. The Lenten season brings us the opportunity to look more carefully at our life...Read more

“What would the Church be without religious sisters and consecrated laywomen? The Church cannot be understood without them.” ~Pope Francis, February 2022 February 2 is the World Day for Consecrated Life, instituted in 1997 by Pope Saint John Paul II. This celebration is attached to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord which is also known as Candlemas Day;...Read more

By Jesús Leyva, Director of Communications for the National Religious Vocation Conference Reprinted with permission from the NRVC Catalyst blog.  As we take a moment to reflect on the significance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I realize that he has been a hero of mine since I was ten. It’s hard to believe that I first learned about him...Read more

As Lizbeth Reyes-Hernandez began planning for her senior year at SSND-sponsored Mount Mary University (MMU), her advisor suggested the SSND North American Archives as a possibility for an internship. A history major, Lizbeth had focused on Latin American and Indigenous communities and was very interested in women in leadership—an integral part of her experience at MMU. “The first oral history...Read more

In 1990, 678 School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) from what are now the Atlantic-Midwest and Central Pacific Provinces volunteered to participate in a study on aging, Alzheimer’s, and related dementias. To take part in the study, the sisters agreed to periodic cognitive and physical assessments throughout the rest of their lives as well as brain donation at death. The...Read more