The Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions. From ultramontane origins to a new cosmology. By Rosa Bruno-Jofré. Pp. ix + 373 incl. 43 ills. Toronto–London: University of Toronto Press, 2020. $77. 978 1 4875 0564 6

The pivot around which she shapes her narrative is the familiar process by which the community sought to rediscover the charism of its founder, Euphrasie Barbier, in the light of the injunctions of Perfectae caritatis (1965) to adapt and renew the religious life. The strongest contribution of this study is its analysis of Vatican II-era renewal, particularly the dynamics of change in transnational religious orders, where Canadian sisters (like their American counterparts) considered themselves to be in the vanguard of the drive to make the religious life more relevant to the present day. [...]the Canadian province has wrestled with the reality of an aging sisterhood in which new vocations are rare, developed a woman-centred model of scriptural exegesis, promoted healing workshops and wellness centres, and – perhaps most importantly – undergone an experience of ‘reverse mission’ derived from encounters with sisters from the Global South who share the charism of Euphrasie Barbier.