By Catholic Philly Staff Report • Posted August 14, 2023

The I.H.M. Sisters (Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary) celebrated the joy of religious life and the gift of new life with religious ceremonies of First Religious Profession and Initiation into the Religious Life the weekend of Aug. 5 – 6. The celebrations took place at the I.H.M. Motherhouse, Villa Maria House of Studies, in Malvern, PA.

Megan Capurso was received into the I.H.M. Congregation Aug. 5 as a novice in the Rite of Initiation into Religious Life. The entrance into the novitiate marks a woman’s formal introduction to religious life.

At the private ceremony, Sister Mary Ellen Tennity welcomed Megan, gave her a copy of the Constitutions of the I.H.M. Congregation, and pronounced her religious name: Sister M. Megan Elizabeth.

Sister Megan Elizabeth is the daughter of Peter and Maureen Capurso, from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Shrub Oak, NY. She is a graduate of Lakeland Sr. High School and Boston College School of Theology and Ministry where she earned a MA of Divinity.

Sister Megan Elizabeth entered the I.H.M. Congregation as a postulant in September 2022 and has spent the last year learning about religious life while living in the I.H.M. formative community, taking part in all aspects of community life including private and communal prayers, daily living of community life and participation in the mission of the I.H.M. Sisters. Her Postulate mission experiences have been in Campus Ministry at Villa Maria High School in Malvern, PA and Our Lady of Lourdes Regional School, Kulpmont, PA.

As a first year, or canonical novice, Sister Megan Elizabeth will take part in classes related to prayer and theology. In the second year of her novitiate, she will learn more about the mission of the I.H.M. Congregation, and how to actively participate in it.

On Aug. 6, Sister M. Alexis Karen Reavill professed first vows within the Rite of First Religious Profession. The Rite of First Religious Profession of Vows was celebrated within the Eucharistic Liturgy with Reverend Monsignor Joseph T. Marino presiding at the liturgy and delivering the homily.

During the Rite of Religious Profession, Sister Alexis Karen professed vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and received a black veil and a ring, two symbols of her consecration to God. Sister Mary Ellen Tennity, I.H.M., General Superior, received the vows in the name of the Catholic Church for the Congregation.

Sister Alexis Karen is the daughter of David Reavill and the late Karen McDonald Reavill, from Immaculate Conception in Douglassville, PA. She is a graduate of Immaculata University where she earned a degree in Music Education. After her first profession of vows, she will begin her apostolic mission as fourth grade teacher at St. James School in Falls Church, VA.

The I.H.M. Congregation has served throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia since 1858.