Popular Social Media Religious Sister Miriam Announces Public Discernment of a New Catholic Religious Community
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Popular Catholic speaker, author, and podcaster Sister Miriam James Heidland, SOLT, announced on September 21, 2026, that she is entering a period of public discernment to establish a new religious community called Friends of the Bridegroom.
Listen to Sr. Miriam :
FULL TEXT Message from Sr. Miriam James Heidland, S.O.L.T
After several years of private discernment, I would like to announce to you with great reverence and care that, with the blessing of my religious community the Sisters of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) and the Archbishop of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, his Excellency Jeffrey S. Grob, I am officially entering into a time of public discernment of the foundation of a new religious community, Friends of the Bridegroom. The pathway here has been richly blessed by the wisdom and guidance of my spiritual director, my superiors, the competent ecclesiastical authorities, and so many dear friends and advisors. As many of you know, my years of work in the area of healing, as well as my work with religious sisters, general superiors, bishops, and priests have allowed me to see and experience the need and ache for the ongoing healing and renewal of our clergy and religious sisters. For the past three years, I have served as the Executive Director of Friends of the Bridegroom with Fr. John Burns. Friends of the Bridegroom is an apostolate that seeks to renew the Church through the renewal of religious life and the priesthood. It has been a profoundly blessed time, and the Lord has continually stirred a desire in all of us in the apostolate to discern the foundation of a new community of priests, religious sisters, and laity who would work toward this important renewal.During this time of public discernment, the Friends of the Bridegroom ministry and my public activities connected with this discernment will remain under the pastoral care and oversight of Archbishop Jeffrey Grob, Archbishop of Milwaukee. I am deeply grateful for his willingness to accompany and guide this discernment during this important time.
I am truly grateful for the support of so many people over the years and I continue to count on your prayers and support as we discern this very important step. During this time of public discernment, I remain a Sister of good standing with SOLT and will continue to wear the SOLT Sisters habit.
Once again, I extend my tremendous gratitude to Sister Mary Aloysius of Jesus, SOLT General Sister Servant, her General Council, and Archbishop Jeffrey Grob.
Please pray for the renewal of the priesthood and religious life.
After several years of private discernment, I would like to announce to you with great reverence and care that, with the blessing of my religious community the Sisters of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) and the Archbishop of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, his Excellency Jeffrey S. Grob, I am officially entering into a time of public discernment of the foundation of a new religious community, Friends of the Bridegroom. The pathway here has been richly blessed by the wisdom and guidance of my spiritual director, my superiors, the competent ecclesiastical authorities, and so many dear friends and advisors. As many of you know, my years of work in the area of healing, as well as my work with religious sisters, general superiors, bishops, and priests have allowed me to see and experience the need and ache for the ongoing healing and renewal of our clergy and religious sisters. For the past three years, I have served as the Executive Director of Friends of the Bridegroom with Fr. John Burns. Friends of the Bridegroom is an apostolate that seeks to renew the Church through the renewal of religious life and the priesthood. It has been a profoundly blessed time, and the Lord has continually stirred a desire in all of us in the apostolate to discern the foundation of a new community of priests, religious sisters, and laity who would work toward this important renewal.During this time of public discernment, the Friends of the Bridegroom ministry and my public activities connected with this discernment will remain under the pastoral care and oversight of Archbishop Jeffrey Grob, Archbishop of Milwaukee. I am deeply grateful for his willingness to accompany and guide this discernment during this important time.
I am truly grateful for the support of so many people over the years and I continue to count on your prayers and support as we discern this very important step. During this time of public discernment, I remain a Sister of good standing with SOLT and will continue to wear the SOLT Sisters habit.
Once again, I extend my tremendous gratitude to Sister Mary Aloysius of Jesus, SOLT General Sister Servant, her General Council, and Archbishop Jeffrey Grob.
Please pray for the renewal of the priesthood and religious life.
What is Friends of the Bridegroom - At a Glance
The Problem: The diminishment of women’s religious life has led to vast operational shifts in the ecclesial landscape, many of which have led to a more function-driven, business-minded notion of the
Church. Concurrently, a crisis in priestly and religious identity has reduced our understanding of the consecrated states to a functional level; we understand priests and religious more by what they do than
who they are to the Lord and to the world. In turn, vocations have declined dramatically, further compounding the shift to a bureaucratic understanding of the Church. As we drift from the full truth of our God-given identity, both the Church and her members are metaphorically wounded.
Theological Framework: As a remedy to the Church’s current ailment, Friends of the Bridegroom approaches the principal vocational states – marriage, priesthood, and consecrated life – according to an ecosystemic, nuptial eschatology:
- An ecosystemic understanding of the relationships between the principal vocational states; the flourishing of one contributes to the wellbeing of the others, a principle which invites a deeper solicitude of each for all.
- A nuptial lens for understanding the New Covenant call of God; each vocational state is
called to a particular and distinct witness to the love of Christ and the Church.
- An eschatological finality for orienting the relationships across these vocational states and for
uniting their vision for the revealed final end of all creation, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.
Goals: Friends of the Bridegroom fosters renewal in the Church via a fuller grasp of this framework;
here, “renewal” signifies a paradigm shift into living the full truth of personal and ecclesial identity.
We place special emphasis on the importance of the eschatological sign of celibacy. We thus aim to help the members of the Church understand the revelatory importance of the celibate witness, to duly value its place in the Church, and to assist the healing, renewal, and expansion of its presence.
A Movement guides the renewal. The movement is advanced by a community of priests, sisters, and laypeople who abide as the Bridegroom’s friends and who labor for the renewal of the Bride, the Church, according to the Vision and Charism.
Vision: To restore the family of God, such that members of each of the principal vocational states understand themselves and their relations to one another in light of humanity’s call to enter into the Wedding Feast.
Charism/Mission: The mission of Friends of the Bridegroom is the healing and renewal of the Church through the healing and renewal of the priesthood and religious life.
Apostolate: The mission manifests in two related apostolic activities - healing and vocations.
- Healing: To help restore deep, identity-level confidence in the sacred call of God given to priests and consecrated persons, and especially to help them understand the power of their witness to the joy of a life given entirely to God.
- Vocations: To foster a culture of vocations, especially of women to consecrated life, to help restore the imbalanced ecosystem and to ensure that the weight of the natural world does not conduce to a forgetfulness of ultimate matters.
The Problem: The diminishment of women’s religious life has led to vast operational shifts in the ecclesial landscape, many of which have led to a more function-driven, business-minded notion of the
Church. Concurrently, a crisis in priestly and religious identity has reduced our understanding of the consecrated states to a functional level; we understand priests and religious more by what they do than
who they are to the Lord and to the world. In turn, vocations have declined dramatically, further compounding the shift to a bureaucratic understanding of the Church. As we drift from the full truth of our God-given identity, both the Church and her members are metaphorically wounded.
Theological Framework: As a remedy to the Church’s current ailment, Friends of the Bridegroom approaches the principal vocational states – marriage, priesthood, and consecrated life – according to an ecosystemic, nuptial eschatology:
- An ecosystemic understanding of the relationships between the principal vocational states; the flourishing of one contributes to the wellbeing of the others, a principle which invites a deeper solicitude of each for all.
- A nuptial lens for understanding the New Covenant call of God; each vocational state is
called to a particular and distinct witness to the love of Christ and the Church.
- An eschatological finality for orienting the relationships across these vocational states and for
uniting their vision for the revealed final end of all creation, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.
Goals: Friends of the Bridegroom fosters renewal in the Church via a fuller grasp of this framework;
here, “renewal” signifies a paradigm shift into living the full truth of personal and ecclesial identity.
We place special emphasis on the importance of the eschatological sign of celibacy. We thus aim to help the members of the Church understand the revelatory importance of the celibate witness, to duly value its place in the Church, and to assist the healing, renewal, and expansion of its presence.
A Movement guides the renewal. The movement is advanced by a community of priests, sisters, and laypeople who abide as the Bridegroom’s friends and who labor for the renewal of the Bride, the Church, according to the Vision and Charism.
Vision: To restore the family of God, such that members of each of the principal vocational states understand themselves and their relations to one another in light of humanity’s call to enter into the Wedding Feast.
Charism/Mission: The mission of Friends of the Bridegroom is the healing and renewal of the Church through the healing and renewal of the priesthood and religious life.
Apostolate: The mission manifests in two related apostolic activities - healing and vocations.
- Healing: To help restore deep, identity-level confidence in the sacred call of God given to priests and consecrated persons, and especially to help them understand the power of their witness to the joy of a life given entirely to God.
- Vocations: To foster a culture of vocations, especially of women to consecrated life, to help restore the imbalanced ecosystem and to ensure that the weight of the natural world does not conduce to a forgetfulness of ultimate matters.
Sources - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/63140f0257fb333b0a3e3363/t/6aa32ddff0022e75773c7e2e/1789079007912/FOB+At+a+Glance+%281%29.pdf
https://www.renewreligious.org/community-faqs
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