Who We Are
We are women of many cultures, drawn together to walk with people at the margins and to care for our common home.
An Intercultural Way of Life
For years we have lived and served together across countries and languages, at home and in mission around the world. Those differences shape not just who we are, but how we see everything. As we are transformed by one another, we begin to live the one earth community we hope for, and we carry it wherever we go.
Sr. Ngoc-Ha Pham · Vietnam
Sr. Magreth Mkenda · Tanzania
Sr. Ann Hayden · United States
Sr. Sue Rech · United States
“God is the motive power, the source and the object of our love. If it were not for this, do you think for one moment that we could live together in harmony and peace? We know that we could not.”
— Mother Mary Joseph, our founder
How We Live and Serve
Our work takes many forms. We stand for peace, walk with people forced from home, and care for the Earth we share. But the way we go about it never changes.
We work alongside people.
In villages, refugee camps, and beyond, we come with open hands, not answers. We listen, look for the gifts already there, and follow the community’s lead, so those gifts can grow, and the whole community with them.
We’re contemplatives in action.
We come to understand a place slowly, through prayer and daily life among its people, until we become part of it. What we see, we act on. We are attentive to the signs of the times and go where we are needed most.
We’re changed by the people we serve.
The people we walk with and the cultures we enter transform us as much as we hope to be of service. We carry what we learn home, and we’re never quite the same.
We meet it all with joy.
There’s an unrestrained joy in this life. We meet the world with wonder, awake to what is sacred in people and in creation.
What we believe
We believe every person and Earth itself are meant to flourish, together, in one earth community. This is God’s mission, not ours alone, and it belongs to everyone.
Meet Our Sisters
Leadership Team
Heritage
One woman’s calling grew into more than a century of mission. Meet Mother Mary Joseph and the beginning of a story that is still unfolding.
Your gift reaches people at the margins, in every place we serve.
