CEREMONY HELD — Bishop Jeffrey Monforton presided at the June 30 ceremony where, from left, sisters Maria Clare Smith, Rita Clare Yoches and Miriam O'Callaghan made their perpetual profession of vows. -- Contributed

TORONTO — Three sisters with the Franciscan Sisters, Third Order Regular of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother made their perpetual profession of vows on June 30 at Father of Mercy Chapel in Toronto at the community’s motherhouse.

Bishop Jeffrey Monforton of the Diocese of Steubenville presided at the ceremony for sisters Miriam O’Callaghan, Maria Clare Smith and Rita Clare Yoches

During the first part of the ceremony, each sister wore a white cape over her habit, symbolizing a wedding garment that also serves as a reminder of Baptism, and a bridal crown of red and white roses. Mother Mary Ann, the Reverend Mother of the community, gave each sister a ring during the ceremony as a sign that she is a bride of Christ.

Sisters Miriam worked in Dublin as a qualified accountant and tax consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers, until she left the firm in January 2005 and moved to Ohio where she began to attend theology classes at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

“Through prayer, I really felt that God was calling me to this new and ‘immense country’ (Isaiah 34:17) to seek Him out in this new adventure,” she wrote.

In Steubenville, she was exposed to young, joyful and fulfilled religious men and women, and was drawn to pray often before Eucharistic adoration. Finally she met the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R.

“I realized with amazement how God had been placing their charisms on my heart before I even met them,” she wrote. “In particular, I loved the way that they see themselves at the foot of the cross with Our Lady.”

Sister Miriam entered the community in August 2007 and made her first profession of vows in 2010. She has worked in the community’s finance office, served at Greccio Mission House in Gaming, Austria, with Franciscan University’s study abroad program and coordinated ministry and altar bread for the community. This year she will continue her work as the vocations coordinator, a ministry she began in 2017.

In the spring of 2005, Sister Maria Clare was studying abroad in Europe with Franciscan University and had the opportunity to pray at the hospital where Pope St. John Paul II was dying.

She wrote, “It was during this encounter with the Pope that Christ gave me a great desire to give my life for the Church just as John Paul was giving his whole life to it. This was a turning point for me. Jesus broke through and gave me the courage to discern this call.”

After graduating from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in theology and catechetics, she taught religion at Guerin Catholic High School in Noblesville, Ind., from 2007 to 2008. She entered the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R. in August 2008 and made her first profession of vows in 2011. She has served as the altar bread coordinator, hospitality coordinator and as a campus minister in Gaming, Austria for Franciscan University. This year she will continue living and working at Heart of Mary House of Prayer and Service in downtown Steubenville, serving the poor through ministries at the diocesan thrift store and emergency food bank, Samaritan House. She also coordinates LAMP, a bimonthly soup kitchen.

Sister Rita Clare grew up in Dearborn Heights, Mich., and had a full-ride scholarship to the University of Detroit-Mercy to play Division I basketball. She graduated in 2001 with a bachelor of science degree in sports medicine and certification as an athletic trainer and strength and conditioning coach.

In 2002, she became the assistant director at a training center. From 2003 to 2006, she was a fullback for the Detroit Demolition women’s professional football team, which won the national championship each of those years. During this time, she returned to the sacrament of confession and on a pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy, began to feel a call to religious life.

She made her first profession of vows in 2012. Since then, she lived for five years at Heart of Mary House of Prayer and Service in downtown Steubenville. This coming year, she will continue her work as a campus minister at Florida State University in Tallahassee, an assignment she began a year ago.