A message from Salesian Life and Campus Ministry:

“Salesian spirituality is relational. What goes on between persons is the essence of making Jesus live. One finds God precisely through and with persons. Hence, hospitality isn’t about doing something nice or extra for others: it is, in truth, a concrete way of practicing the peace and justice of the Triune God, of being ourselves something of Divine welcoming for others.” –Sister Mary Virginia Schmidt, VHM

As Visitation School focuses on the virtue of hospitality this year, we can look across the river to the Visitation Sisters in North Minneapolis as true models of Salesian hospitality. The Visitation Sisters embody the relational spirit of the Visitation charism. This Friday, October 2, the Sisters celebrate 37 years of monastic life and living contemplatively in their Northside neighborhood. 

The Sisters’ story is one of discernment and responding to a call to live with the economically challenged and marginalized of society. Their "yes" led Sisters Karen, Mary Virginia and Mary Margaret from the Saint Louis monastery to establish a new community in Minnesota with Sister Mary Frances from the Mendota Heights monastery. Unlike 1873, when six Saint Louis Visitation Sisters traveled up the Mississippi by steamship to begin a new Visitation foundation in Saint Paul, the three Saint Louis Sisters packed their car for their 1989 move to Minnesota.

The Sisters' ministry has grown through the years because of the Salesian hospitality they found,  and continue to find, within themselves, and with Saint Jane and Saint Francis as inspiration in their expression of the Visitation order. Our Visitation School community shares in the gift of Living Jesus as we continue to bridge between North Minneapolis and Mendota Heights through service, prayer and Salesian hospitality.