TORONTO - During his visit last month to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, Pope Francis described women religious as “women of strength” who work on the “frontlines in the proclamation of the Gospel.”

Eagle River, Alaska, is a wilderness paradise with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and clear rivers. In the 1970s it was a remote town where the closest grocery store was an hour’s drive on a partially paved road. It was the ideal location to inspire a young woman to pursue a career in wildlife biology.

EDMONTON - When Mary Truong first met the Sisters of Providence, her heart leapt.

EDMONTON - When Sr. Madeleine Prince was growing up in the hamlet of Delmas, Sask., the word “providence” came up often.

TORONTO - Sr. Helen Kluke doesn’t believe in mistakes, only in new creations.

If you’re going to preach in the modern world you need powerful language. The Missionaries of the Precious Blood have had that power incorporated into their very name for the last 200 years. From “blood brothers” to “Bloody Sunday,” “the blood of the Lamb” to “blood libel,” the 600 priests and brothers who call themselves Precious Bloods have the most arresting imagery in the entire story of human salvation as their calling card.

Vowed life is a mystery, but only in the Catholic sense. There’s no mystery in the vows themselves. Poverty, chastity and obedience are pretty straightforward — no money, no sex, no turning your back on the demands of the community.

It is often said that a religious sister never truly retires, and Sr. Mary Ann Maxwell is living proof.

The Canadian member of the Sisters of Charity of Immaculate Conception spent her first 37 years as a nun working as both a teacher and principalin the Catholic school system, from which she had just graduated. 

Sr. Susan Kidd said the need for consecrated life in the world hasn’t changed, but she admits there was a time when the religious were more visible and it was easier to connect with a sister.

Approximately 800 km northwest of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories is Fort Good Hope, a remote, mostly First Nations community through which the mighty Mackenzie River flows on its way to the Arctic Ocean.