Students at the Partnership’s Our Lady Queen of Angels are used to seeing nuns; the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal live in a convent just behind the school, and each month they lead all the students in Eucharistic meditation and other worship activities. Yet many American children—even Catholic ones—are growing up never having met a consecrated sister.

Mother Clare Matthiass, CFR—Superior General of the religious community near OLQA—is determined to make sure that stories of religious women are as familiar to all children as they are to students at OLQA. To do that, she has begun a children’s book series about Sister Mary Andy, a nun from “A Little Convent in the Big City.” Her first book, The Unsolvable Problem, tells the story of how Sister Mary Andy and her community help make a Fourth of July celebration happen, even though they face some challenges.

EWTN followed Mother Clare to her first reading of the new book in teacher Brianna Sheehy’s second-grade class at OLQA, just before the school year ended last spring.

The story features OLQA Principal Liz Nuzzolese, who shares some of the many ways the sisters support the students at OLQA. And students Mylie and Ilyana provide their feedback on the book. Ilyana reflects, “When I was little, I told my mom that when I grow up, I want to be someone who helps the poor. I didn’t know that was a sister.”

And now, thanks the partnership between OLQA and the Franciscans of the Renewal, as well as Mother Clare’s book, she knows a great deal more about what sisters do.

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