The Pink Sisters

I can't resist writing a few lines about the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, who wear a most beautiful rose-coloured habit which has led to their nickname of 'the Pink Sisters'. It is particularly appropriate to mention them in this Pentecost season because the colour of their habits symbolises the joy of the Holy Spirit. Their vocation is perpetual adoration and intercession for the world - like our Tyburn Sisters, the Benedictine Adorers of the Sacred Heart. Whereas the Tyburn Sisters owe their origins to a French lady, Mother Marie Adele Garnier, the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters were founded in 1896 in Holland by the German diocesan priest St Arnold Janssen, after which they later spread all over the world. I had never heard of St Arnold Janssen (canonised in 2003) but he clearly did a marvellous work in the stimulation of missions and the Adoration Sisters were conceived as offering prayer support for missionaries - which is a lesson in itself. By the way, if you google 'the pink nuns' you will find a delightful picture of the Sisters playing table football - which strikes me as an excellent form of recreation ...