About us
We are the Eastern American Area of the Institute of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. We are on a mission to know and love God, and make God known and loved.
The RSHM Eastern American Area is part of an international congregation of women religious. Our diverse ministries work to promote fullness of life and dignity for all whom we serve. We welcome collaboration with those who share our vision. Currently, sisters in the Eastern American Area serve people in New York, Virginia and Florida; as well as in Italy, France and England.
Where we are
Founded in 1849 in Béziers, France, by Father Jean Gailhac and Mother St. Jean Pelissier Cure, from our earliest days we traveled to other countries, making internationality one of our greatest gifts. Today, our mission is carried out in Brazil, Colombia, East Timor, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Mozambique, Portugal, Scotland, the United States, Wales, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In the Eastern American Area, our sisters live and minister in New York, Viriginia, and Florida, and internationally in England, France, and Italy.
What we do
Inspired by our founders’ commitment to the education of young girls and to meeting the needs of marginalized women and children, our ministries throughout our history have always evolved in response to the needs of the times. Today, sisters in the Eastern American Area, work in education, social and legal services, spirituality and pastoral work, actions for justice, and present as an NGO at the United Nations.
Our mission
Periodically, we develop statements that express the relationship of our mission to the reality in which we live and which further elucidate who we are:
Mission Statement (1990)
We, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, an international apostolic institute of women religious, are called to share in the life-giving mission of Jesus Christ.
The challenge of the gospel and the spirit of faith and zeal which marked our founders, and our founding sisters, urges to respond to the needs of our time and to work with others in action for evangelical justice. At the same time we place ourselves and our resources at the service of those who are most in need of justice, especially women and children, enabling the powerless, the deprived, the marginalized, the voiceless to work effectively for their own development and liberation.
We are called to be community, to know and celebrate God’s love for us and to make that love known to others.
Mary is our model as we seek to be open to the Spirit, to center our lives in Jesus Christ, to be women of prayer and compassion, and to give authentic and joyful witness to the values of the gospel wherever we are.
General Chapter vision statement (2019)
We are called to listen to the heartbeat of Jesus Christ, whom we encounter personally and as community in every dimension of our lives, and to be women of passion and compassion, impelled to go out to announce the Good News.
We are eager to live out our charism with resilience in the critical times of our Church and world today wherever we are, and to discern our way forward, conscious of emerging challenges, our own Institute reality, and diversity of cultures and gifts.
We are ready to risk the new and the unknown. Aware of our interconnectedness with all creation, we proclaim “fullness of life for all” through the integrity of our lives, our relationships with one another, all peoples, and our planet.
We want to reveal the tenderness of God as we seek to respond to the cries of those on the margins and the Earth.
We collaborate with others as we journey together – women of prophetic hope who proclaim that all have a place in our “common home.”
