The Sisters of Bon Secours USA, a congregation of Catholic women headquartered in Maryland, expanded its Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry to Richmond, Virginia. The ministry supports recent college graduates who commit to a year of living in community together and volunteering full time within the Bon Secours Health System.
“We have had such a wonderful experience with the Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry program in Baltimore over the past 19 years and have talked often about expanding that experience into other areas. It is very exciting to see that dream coming to reality with the introduction of BSVM in Richmond and specifically connected with Richmond Community Hospital. The Sisters of Bon Secours couldn’t be more proud of the volunteer ministry overall and this expansion,” said Sister Rose Marie Jasinski, country leader of the Sisters of Bon Secours USA.
Now, with two locations, the community and mission of Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry is expanding. Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry, which started in West Baltimore in 1999, now supports volunteers in East Richmond through a year of spiritual growth. In addition to growing spiritually, volunteers commit to learn through service with others, develop community, live simply and practice God’s justice.
Volunteers will serve with Bon Secours Richmond Community Hospital’s emergency room and patient advocacy team, a neighborhood and nutrition center and on a mobile health clinic. Community life as a Bon Secours Ministry volunteer includes common meals, weekly morning reflection, weekly contemplative prayer and dialogue, seasonal retreats and spiritual direction.
“We are so pleased and excited to welcome our Bon Secours Ministry volunteers to Richmond,” said Sister Anne Marie Mack, senior vice president of sponsorship for Bon Secours Health System in Richmond. “We look forward to their sharing in our charism and sharing their gifts and talents with those Church Hill community members who they will be ministering to. We wholeheartedly support them as they answer the call they have received to be of service.”
Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry Director Shannon Curran said, “Pope Francis calls us to move from being spectators of suffering to compassionately responding to suffering, a call that the Sisters of Bon Secours echo with Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry. As they join in the sisters’ commitment to justice in radical solidarity with the poor, the suffering and those most in need, Bon Secours Ministry volunteers respond to this call. Responding in radical solidarity leads volunteers to a pivotal year of profound spiritual growth.”
The Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours, a religious congregation of Roman Catholic women founded in Paris in 1824, brings compassion, healing and liberation to those it serves, especially those who are sick, suffering, poor or dying. Whether in health care, education or social services, in hospitals, senior care facilities, clinics or parishes, in towns and cities or isolated villages, Bon Secours responds to a universal need: to provide to all who suffer a reason to live and a reason to hope. The Sisters of Bon Secours USA is headquartered in Marriottsville, Maryland. (http://bonsecours.us)
