On Sunday I will travel up to northern Connecticut to celebrate the Jubilee Mass for New Canaan-born Sister Lorraine Tiani and several other sisters. Sister Lorraine is a religious Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who has served the Church as a sister for 50 years! Her story has its roots in Saint Aloysius parish and school, and I am delighted to share her story in this week’s column. 
Sister Lorraine Tiani, SNDdeN was born and raised in New Canaan, Connecticut, where she grew up in a large extended Italian family that nurtured her values of service and community. She first met the Sisters of Notre Dame at age six when her parents enrolled her in St. Aloysius School, followed by Central Catholic High School in Norwalk, Connecticut. She continued her education with the Sisters and received her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Emmanuel College in Boston. She also discovered her propensity for languages, which she would put to good use in her later ministries.
Inspired by her father’s example of service as a policeman and stories of him working with high school students and her mother’s work for nearly 50 years in the New Canaan Library and as a caregiver, Sister Lorraine felt a calling to religious life. She began to consider a vocation to religious life in high school, with an assignment to choose and write about a scripture passage, leading her to research and learn about women who committed to giving their lives to others. She remembers the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur always being joyful in school.
Sister Lorraine‘s love for the poor resulted from her involvement in a summer service project in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky during her novitiate. After her first profession of vows, Sister Lorraine taught Grades K-3 at St. Justin School in Hartford, Connecticut, where she discovered the beauty of the Jamaican culture in the children and parents.
Sister Lorraine’s ministry has been diverse and impactful. She was called to minister internationally with the Sisters of Not re Dame in the Italian Unit in Rome, Italy. She left her home soil in Connecticut to teach at the Istituto Giulia Billiart, one of Rome’s most culturally diverse neighborhoods.
In Rome, Sister Lorraine met Sisters of Notre Dame from all around the globe. “Rome was my favorite mission. I went there as a young person and spent the bulk of my most fruitful years there, and it had the most influence on who I’ve become as a religious and a woman,” she reflects.
Reflecting on her 50 years of service, Sister Lorraine is grateful for her call to live a life of service with her Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Associates and colleagues. “This has been a blessing because it’s supported me in living out the gospel.”
Her favorite quote from St. Julie Billiart, the foundress of the sisters, is: “We must have great courage in the century in which we live. Great souls are needed, having the interests of God at heart. But we can’t do that, we can’t give what we haven’t got if we are not filled with the Good God. And if we aren’t, then we can’t let our fullness overflow into the hearts of those who come to us.”
Please join me in praying for Sister Lorraine and the other sisters in her community who are celebrating anniversaries of generous service to the Church and the world. And please pray that women and men called to religious life will respond as generously as Sister Lorraine has. Congratulations, Sister Lorraine; your Saint Aloysius family is so proud of you!
Welcome to the Saint Aloysius! Our parish was founded in 1896 to serve the Catholic families that were settling in the greater New Canaan area.