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Sister professes vows in preparation of new Native American community

Sister professes vows in preparation of new Native American community - (13-01-2014)

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Photo: Sister Clissene Lewis (left) is a newly professed religious sister of Little Servants of the Cross, a community she is founding. She is joined by Father Matthias Crehan, OFM and Sister Pascaline Coff, a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration who served as her spiritual adviser during her two-year novitiate.

Sister Clissene Lewis, LSC, a friend of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration’s community in Tucson, Ariz., has achieved another milestone on her journey to form a new religious community.

Having completed the second year of her novitiate on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12, 2013, Sister Clissene offered private, temporary vows to God and exchanged the white veil of a novice for the brown veil of a professed member of the Little Servants of the Cross.

The Eucharist was celebrated by her confessor, Father Matt Crehan, OFM, at the Benedictine Sisters’ monastery in Tucson. 

Sister Clissene has been called to form a new religious community called Little Servants of the Cross, which is dedicated to serving Native American people. Her works fall under the direction of Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix who suggested the Benedictine Sisters help guide her in her formation.

Belonging to the Yavapai, Apache and Pima Nations, Sister Clissene resides at Fort McDowell. During the coming year, her primary goal is to share the joy of evangelization as well as to spread the good news about the birth of this new religious community for her Native American people.  

Sister Clissene’s busy schedule is filled with invitations for parish missions, vocation talks and retreats in New Mexico, Arizona, North Dakota and Montana. 

She has also been asked to give a Native American Workshop in July for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Fargo, N.D., prior to the annual Kateri Tekakwitha Conference. She asks for our prayerful support for all her endeavors.