If it seems like only yesterday that Sister Gianna Maria Solomon professed solemn vows as a Sister of Life, it wasn’t.
It was five years ago.
Some important work has happened since then for the Wilmington native, Padua Academy graduate and former St. John the Beloved parishioner.
She has worked at New York’s St. Andrew’s Çenter, a crisis pregnancy mission, and lived at Visitation Convent, both in Manhattan.
She learned last month that she has been named superior of her convent and mission. She downplays her own role in the community but is effusive in describing the work of her community at St. Andrew’s.
“It’s a mission of accompaniment,” she said of women who come for help. “It’s a woman with immediate fear who knows people won’t support her, she has a feeling of isolation. She decides ‘People who matter to me won’t have room in their life for me or the baby.’ We begin a conversation, allowing her to share, focusing on her desires and dreams.
“We try to be with her in friendship and practical support. We have hundreds of friends who help us. We offer advice in different ways. It’s a mission of interceding for her.”
Sister Gianna Maria, 36, graduated from the Catholic University of America, Washington, in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. Before entering the Sisters of Life in 2010, she worked as a registered nurse at Nemours duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington.
Her brother, Father John Solomon, is pastor of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Ocean City, Md. in the Diocese of Wilmington. She is the fifth of seven children of Michael and Mary Solomon.
Sister Gianna Maria said she is grateful for the confidence her order demonstrated in entrusting her but her overriding message is that she and her sisters and the clients they assist need people to pray for them.
That’s what she asks.
“We have a need for prayers,” she said.
If people want to learn more about the community’s way of accompanying women (not even to necessarily become Co-workers of Life, but just for personal growth), they could watch the Into Life Series the sisters recently helped to put together which is free online (https://intolifeseries.com/).
