By Jay Sorgi
for the Register
On September 12, 1976, a woman now known as Mother Joan Paul joined two others in entering a religious order that didn’t even have a name yet.
A half-century later, the 31 members of the Lincoln-based order with the name School Sisters of Christ the King can light 50 birthday candles on a cake to celebrate how God has used them to bring light to young people about Christ’s kingdom.
“We didn’t know what habit we were going to wear. When we first came as postulants, Bishop said, ‘Just go and learn how to be a sister,’” Mother Joan Paul said about the order started by late Lincoln Bishop Glennon Patrick Flavin.
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Courtesy photos
The name happened in April 1977. The sisters wanted to be called the “Sisters of the Eucharist.” But Bishop Flavin had other ideas for an order laser-focused on diocesan education and teaching children about the love-filled reign of a Savior who came to the world like a child.
“We’ve come to see that He is King as the little baby in the crib,” Mother Joan Paul said. “We have devotion to the Christmas crib and the nativity. He just draws people to him as this loving little baby. He’s the King in the crib. King in the Eucharist. He’s King on the cross. King in majesty. King in heaven.”
The order had its first three members. It had a name seven months later, and a charism described as “joyful fidelity to Christ the King.” But just like Mother Joan Paul had to learn to be a sister, the School Sisters of Christ the King had to learn to be an order.
Thankfully, the Philadelphia-based Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, otherwise known as the IHMs, were able to step in and assist in teaching the Lincoln-based sisters to become educators.
“I think at that time they had like 1,300 teaching sisters. It was just this huge community and they had one single apostolate, and that was Catholic education,” said Sister Marie Caritas.
“(Bishop Flavin) asked Mother Mary Claudia, I.H.M. if she would be willing to take our young women, train them as religious sisters in Philadelphia, and send them back to Nebraska. That’s a big ask of a community to do that, but she agreed to do that.”
The IHMs took in the School Sisters of Christ the King as part of their training, including the second class in 1977, which included Sister Anne Joelle.
“I thought, ‘Sure, get a free flight, come out and see Philly. I came out, and like that, I just was in love. This is where I knew God wanted me to be,” she said.
“Our initial formation was here as a postulant and novices, and we were so blessed that we were able to teach a year.”
Sister Mary Clare additionally took in a year of training-by-doing in Philadelphia’s Catholic school classrooms, which filled the sisters with moments of genuine brotherly love.
“We’d walk down the street, and all the kids knew who you were. They would all wave to you,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘I feel like I’m in small-town Nebraska, and here I’m in the middle of Philadelphia.’”
Today’s sisters celebrated 50 years with their mid-July trip east to Philadelphia and a week with their IHM cohorts.
Just like the late 1970s, the School Sisters of Christ the King’s charism of joy could be easily seen waterfalling out of them as they prayed and celebrated together at the IHM motherhouse in Malvern, Pa., just like it does on a daily basis in their ministries of education, prayer and community.
“Joy comes to us so much through our community,” Sister Maura Therese said. “Each sister that has come has just brought beautiful gifts with her, and God has specially chosen those of us to be together.”
That includes a sister whose mission involves teaching young people the truth evoked by the name the original sisters wanted to use, said Sister Marie Caritas, who serves as principal at Blessed Sacrament School in Lincoln.
“Bishop Flavin’s goal for our diocese was to build a strong apostolic laity. He was convinced that you had to have good Catholic schools for that to happen, and to have good Catholic schools, you needed priests and religious in the schools,” she said. “He just really felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to start his own community.”
That community may not be as big as their cohorts in sisterhood, the IHMs, but they are thriving in Lincoln as they help young people meet, encounter and know their King and Brother in the Lord Jesus.
“I keep coming to that total belonging to Christ the King as being the heart,” said Sister Marie Jacqueline, an Iowa native who also learned her holy trade in big-city Philadelphia.
“Total belonging to Christ the King, that’s what we want the children to know.”
