The Legacy of Catherine Donnelly

We at Novalis offer our congratulations to the Sisters of Service as they celebrate their 90th anniversary this year. This evening the Sisters of Service are hosting a book launch celebrating the life of their founder, Catherine Donnelly. Novalis recently released The Courage to Dare: The Spirituality of Catherine Donnelly, Founder of the Sisters of Service by Kathryn Perry. Join the author, and many of the sisters, at Regis College in Toronto this evening as they celebrate the life and contribution of their founder, and community, to the Church in Canada.

“Emerging from within a tradition of Christian women who have lived prophetically, often publicly calling the Church’s attention to its own need for institutional reform, Catherine’s spiritual legacy consists in so much more than her courageous questioning of institutional practices. Its value continues as she invites us to examine our notions of community development, of the Church’s relation to the world in which it lives, and the importance of the experience of encounter in Christian ministry and missionary work. She invites us to be newly inspired by the story of creation and to find gratitude in our hearts for the gift of nature. She reintroduces us to those strong biblical themes that speak of the human quest for liberation and salvation. She asks us to situate ourselves realistically within a world that is both blessed and broken, experiencing solidarity with one another in genuine friendship that calls every one of us to both accountability and forgiveness.”

-From The Courage to Dare: The Spirituality of Catherine Donnelly, Founder of the Sisters of Service by Kathryn Perry. © 2013 Novalis Publishing Inc.