Southern Nebraska Register
The Serra Club of Lincoln had the opportunity to gift surplus funds to several religious communities serving within the Lincoln Diocese this year.
The mission of the Serrans is to promote and pray for vocations.
Brother David is common servant of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist, a Franciscan order whose mission is reverent devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist. Jesus is the Eucharistic King whom the Knights have pledged to serve. Mother Angelica founded the male religious community July 25, 1998.
“It was she who gave our fledgling community its primary mission,” Brother David said. “Mother Angelica’s life of dedication to adoring Our Lord naturally spilled over into her founding of the Knights, and we are blessed to be carrying on her mission and legacy.”
Sister Mary Regina Yen Phuong Le is local superior for the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Mercy.
The Sisters offer pre-school education at the convent in Lincoln, and they have sisters who teach in elementary schools and a sister who teaches at Pius X High School in Lincoln. The community was established by decree of Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz as a diocesan congregation in Lincoln May 4, 1999. They trace their roots to their mother community, the Congregation of Mary, Queen of the World in the Archdiocese of Saigon, Vietnam (now Ho Chi Minh City).
Sister Mary Cecilia is local superior for Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, popularly known as the “Pink Sisters” because of the color of their habit. They are a contemplative branch, founded by St. Arnold Janssen December 8, 1896 in Steyl, Holland. Currently, there are 22 Holy Spirit Adoration convents located in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, India, Indonesia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland, Slovakia, Togo, and the United States. The Sisters are celebrating their 50th year in the Lincoln Diocese this September.
The Sisters of the Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Monastery, known as “Carmelite Sisters” devote their lives to prayer, and strive to live a life hidden with Christ, and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The primary mission of this Carmelite Order is to pray and offer oblation for the Church and the world. The use of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and Divine Office sets this monastery apart and their observance of the Rule and Constitutions is part of an unbroken tradition stretching back from Mexico to Spain to Mount Carmel itself in the Holy Land. “Carmel” literally means “Garden of God.”
Jim Wathen, president of the Serra Club of Lincoln, presented each of these religious, as well as Father Robert Matya, representing the Newman Center, with checks on behalf of the Serra Club of Lincoln in the amount of $1,000 each to help with their work in the Lincoln Diocese.
The Newman Center fosters vocations as well, through evangelization and spiritual formation provided to college students.
“This endeavor aligns well with the Serra mission to foster vocations, and to pray daily for new vocations and perseverance of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life,” Wathen said.
The Serra Club of Lincoln was formally affiliated with Serra International in 1955. The founding Serrans chose as the organization’s patron Father Junípero Serra. Now named Saint Junípero Serra by the Church, Father Serra was an 18th-century Franciscan missionary to Mexico who was influential in creating missions there.
