Help us remember our Sisters by sharing a story about a Sister who touched your life, or making a gift in their honor.
Sister Chabanel, a member of Notre Dame community, Waterdown, Ontario passed away peacefully on August 8, 2022 at the age of 96 and in the 72th year of her religious profession. She grew up on the family farm near Salt Lake, Saskatchewan. She recalls driving to school over the prairie roads, especially through the crisp, frosty air of winter, in an open sleigh.
After 30 years as an elementary school teacher, Sister Zita continued using her teaching skills with catechetical classes for children attending public school in Kitchener, Ontario and as parish coordinator of weekly religion classes in Cloverdale, British Columbia. In Wilkie and Unity, Saskatchewan, she lead Bible study groups and visited the elderly and those in nursing homes.
“Sometimes there are no adequate verbal answers to the hard life and death questions patients and families ask," said Sister Rita about her work as a hospital chaplain. "The most a chaplain can do is express the healing presence of a compassionate God who hears our cry and is present in a warm embrace, silence, and tears.”
In death, we say our ultimate human yes to God. Trusting in God’s power to bring us to the fullness of life, we conclude our earthly life with an act of worship: in the action of death we proclaim God as God, and ourselves as God’s creatures. We are called by God and sent by the community; we go in joy!
- You Are Sent, Constitution of the School Sisters of Notre Dame
