What does a Sister at a Parish do?

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Nelka

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I don’t know a huge amount about nuns but there is one at one of our churches, she seems to only be at this one church which is run by the same priests as the other main church.

What does she do in her day to day life? Does she assist the priest? Visit the sick? She must be 60+.

Thanks.
 
Why don’t you ask her? Nuns are people too. In these days when convents are becoming a thing of the past, she probably has a job to support herself and is no different from the rest of us, except that she has consecrated herself to Our Lord.
 
In my Parish the Nun is the Pastoral Associate. She assist the Pastor with the administrative operations of the Parish.
 
What can she do? She can perform any ministry in the parish, as delegated by the pastor, that does not require a priest or deacon. In addition, she gives witness by her life in community and religious vows, that laity, and most priests and deacons, could not give.

What does she do? You need to ask her. Also, she may have other ministries outside the parish, also.
 
Nelka said:
I’m guessing she can give out Communion but anything else in the Mass? Read the Gospel?
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She can do anything else any other layman can do. Being a religious does not give her any special office in the Mass. She could do the first or second reading, be a cantor, or serve as an EMHC. She cannot read the Gospel or preform a homily since only clergy may read and preach.

Its important to remember that religious are not clergy. Just as there are religious and secular clergy, there are religious and secular layman. Nuns, sisters, and unordained brothers are all religious layman and are restricted from tasks that a reserved to the clergy.
 
The title of this thread is correct but there is some inaccuracy in the discussion. Sisters seen working at parishes are 95% likely not to be nuns at all. Nuns are cloistered, monastic. Female religious who are seen out in the world doing apostolic work are sisters, not nuns.

There are five Carmelite sisters at my parish and they do all kinds of work. They primarily run the Religious Education department. They handle registrations and payments and curriculum development and sacramental recording and all kinds of administrative duties. They also do standard office work when the receptionist is unavailable, for example during lunch breaks. They assist many of the Spanish-speaking ministries such as Guadalupanos and Familias de Cristo. They help in the kitchen by cutting vegetables and preparing food whenever there is a parish event.

Liturgically, they attend just about every Mass. They serve as EMHCs and Communion-plate holders of last resort when there are not enough lay ministers to serve. They can usually be seen making announcements about Religious Education or punching the students’ Mass attendance cards or otherwise making themselves useful before and after Mass.

The sisters have been in our parish for about four or five years. In that time they have become indispensible. They are well-respected and admired by all the parishioners. I can’t think of a better vocation for a woman than becoming a sister or nun and building up the Body of Christ with their own feminine genius.
 
At my parish, we have a sister who is the pastoral admin and director of religious education/faith formation. We have a priest who is a sacramental minister only as he also works at the diocesan offices.

The sister handles the day to day stuff, also she will go a few times a week sometimes to visit home bound / hospitalized parishioners; makes funeral arrangements including getting a priest to go to the funeral home and for the Mass then the burial; when the kids/youth have religious education – to check on the classes & teachers - periodically/talk with them as needed ; handles much of the sacramental prep/RCIA (and sometimes with lay minister help) ; attends the various council/commission meetings, etc. Some days, she is at the parish 12 to 14 hours in a day at times. She attends all 3 weekend Masses, and all holy day ones, funerals, and the Wednesday 12 noon one too.
 
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