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(right) Left to right: Passionist Sisters Laurie-Ann Templeton, Joanne Fahey, MaryAnn Strain, Rosemary Traynor,Bernadette Hughes, Jeannette McDonald and Eileen Fucito at Dedication of Retreat Center, September 18,2006. The Sisters of the Cross and Passion (Passionists) are a branch of the larger Passionist family founded by St. Paul of the Cross in the eighteenth century. Identification with Christ in the mystery of His passion, death and resurrection is at the heart of our vocation. The experience of the passion in our own lives enables us to express the compassion of Christ towards others. We wear a heart-shaped sign imprinted with the words "The Passion of Jesus Christ." The Cross of Jesus surmounts the sign; nails of the crucifixion underscore the words. The sign keeps in our memory the great and constant life-giving love God has poured out for all of us. In a vision granted to him in 1720 when he was nineteen years old, Paul of the Cross saw himself clothed in a black tunic on which was a white cross with the nails under it. From this vision evolved the Passionist sign treasured symbol of our charism and community. In the course of Paul's lifetime the sign took its present form: three words and three nails enclosed in a white heart surmounted by a cross. The words signify the "Passion of Jesus Christ." The nails remind us of the sufferings of Jesus and of all who are one with Him on Calvary. The heart, in association with the cross, proclaims that the cross is the great manifestation of God's love. The sign calls Passionists throughout the world, sisters, brothers, priests, nuns, lay associates, to keep the memory of the Passion alive in their own hearts and to witness to its meaning and power through their words and lives.
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