On September 29th of 1869 a small band of women, five Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth and a young music teacher named Rosa V. Kelly, climbed aboard the Missouri Pacific Railway and headed off to the faraway Rocky Mountains.

The Sisters came in response to an urgent request by Jesuit Missionary Father Pierre DeSmet, who deeply desired the presence of religious women to provide for the education of Indian children and white settlers, ministry to the sick and dying and aid for widows and orphans.

The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth joined a number of religious communities that entered the great Northwest and introduced an air of compassion and ministry in the Wild West that embodied and made incarnate the tender compassion of Jesus Christ.

A stressful and difficult eight-day rail and coach ride carried them to the settlement of Helena, where, according to historic records, “no home was ready to receive them.”

But after gaining their bearings, this small community of the Sisters became a dynamo for mission activity and outreach to the settlers of the Helena valley.

Within one year “the Sisters had opened St. Vincent Academy for Girls, a boys’ day school and St. John’s Hospital, signaling the beginning of a strong, permanent Catholic community in Helena.”

From 1869 to the present moment, the people of the Diocese of Helena have been the beneficiaries of 140 years of health, education and charitable ministry, which mirrors exactly the development of the Church in Western Montana. The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth were seemingly ubiquitous: In Helena, Butte, Anaconda, Virginia City, Walkerville, Hamilton, Browning, Shelby, Harlowton, White Sulphur Springs, and Deer Lodge, the Sisters established educational institutions, grade schools and high schools, hospitals and orphanages, and ministries of outreach, flowing from their deeply held values that are rooted in the hearts of St. Vincent de Paul and Mother Xavier Ross.

In a deeply touching keynote address delivered on the occasion of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth sesquicentennial, Sister Regina Betchtel offered keen insights into the mind and mission of the SCL Community. Her address, entitled Three Good Words for 150 Years, emphasized the community’s call to conversion, contemplation and courage.

Conversion, wrote Sister Betchtel, “calls us to one new horizon after another.” In the case of this community, this has been spelled out as “successful ministries, abundant vocations, and earned the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth respect in many fields.”

Contemplation requires, as your own Constitution describes the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth community, “entering ever-more deeply into the mystery of love,” and therefore entering more deeply into the mystery of Jesus Christ. Contemplation requires the constant cultivation of a spirit of prayer, which is the wellspring of apostolic love.

So too, courage demands, in the words of Mother Xavier Ross, that the community “pause, to look back and see by what straight or twisting ways (we) have arrived at the place we find ourselves.”

The experience of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth in the Diocese of Helena prompts me to offer three more companion virtues born in the heart of Montana, virtues that have allowed the Community to thrive and flourish amidst and among the faithful people of Western Montana. To the virtues of conversion, contemplation and courage, I add compassion, conviction and creativity.

Compassion has placed the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Community in deep communion with all people, especially with those who suffer and are poor, both materially and spiritually. Compassion is the capacity to suffer with and embrace in love “all who labor and are burdened,” and the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Community has been for us the hands, heart and mind of Christ amidst the people they have come to serve.

Conviction is the capacity to keep the eyes of the heart fixed on Christ, both in good times and in bad. This conviction has served the Community well wherever they have gone and will serve them well into a future that is veiled before their eyes. The wisdom of your Constitution says without apology “we believe the depth of our apostolic ministry and lived community is directly related to the depth of our prayer life.” Clearly, conviction flows from the heart of deep communion with the Lord, Jesus and with one another.

And finally, the virtue of creativity is providing the Community with new, fresh and innovative paths to provide loving presence and service to the Church in ways unimagined in years prior. Pastoral ministry in parishes, hospitals and educational institutions, prophetic and sensitive awareness to environmental stewardship, global solidarity with the poor, the care and preservation of historic archives, the holy ordering of local churches through Chancery ministry, prophetic presence to persons on death row, selfless ministry to the native American peoples – these are but a few manifestations of ways the Holy Spirit is prompting the Community to go forth and bear fruit.

For 140 years the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth have been a trusted and invaluable presence to the people of Montana, a community that continues to “read the signs of the times” and provide generous pastoral presence to our people, without counting the cost. On this, the sesquicentennial year of the Community, we celebrate with the Community in a spirit of jubilee and gratitude.

The Diocese of Helena opens wide its doors and hearts to the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, grateful for the past and open to exploring new ways with the Community to embrace Christ, Who is ever in our midst as One Who serves.

Bishop Thomas delivered this homily during the Evening Prayer at the Cathedral of St. Helena on Oct. 9, which was a celebration of two major anniversaries for the order: the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth and the 140th anniversary of their continuous presence in Montana next Oct. 10.

• Photographs of the Evening Prayer