Penampang lass takes final vows as Augustinian sister

CUMBRIA, England – Penampang lass Sister Florence Suimin took her solemn vows as a member of the Order of St Augustine of Hippo on Pentecost Sunday 4 June 2017.

The event took place at Boarbank Hall chapel, Allithwaite Grange-over-sands Cumbria England in the presence of her religious family as well as her family members.

In his homily, Bishop Michael G Campbell OSA of Lancaster said,

Sister Florence, by offering yourself to the Lord today through final religious profession, you are responding to a particular gift of grace, to a charism from the Holy Spirit, given to you for your own personal sanctification and for the benefit of the whole Church. Congratulations on responding so generously to Christ’s call to follow him as an Augustinian sister, though as St Augustine himself would remind us, we first need God’s grace to respond to God’s grace!

By your profession of vows today you are witnessing eloquently to the primacy of charity, for your life as a religious will be in the service of others, especially the sick, the frail, and those burdened in any way. A ministry of this kind, we are told, is a ministry offered to the Master himself. You will have been taught, Sister Florence, of the importance of the community as an Augustinian sister, and the central place of the common life. St Augustine notes in his rule that when we put the interests of others first, then we can be sure that we are making progress in the spiritual life. A religious community is a powerful witness to the ideal of the Christian life, and your contribution to that cannot be underestimated.

Born on 4 Sept 1957 in Kg Totoikon Ramayah Penampang, Sister Florence entered the Augustinian Order in England on 4 May 2011.  She made her first profession on 11 Feb 2014.  Currently, her community has 12 Augustinian Sisters and two Benedictines.