2026 Jubilarian Celebrating 70 Years
Sister Brenda was born in Brooklyn, Maryland to Charles and Agnes Hermann, the middle of five children. Because of her father’s work, the family moved frequently before settling in Baltimore, Maryland where she entered first grade. Brenda was active in the Sodality and enjoyed helping the Sisters afterschool. During this time, she felt drawn to religious life, inspired by the belief that a Sister does God’s work.
After high school, she first entered the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and was with them until she came to believe God was calling her elsewhere. This second calling developed gradually, but intensified during her graduate studies in Social Work at Fordham University, where she met the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity and was given the opportunity to travel to and from New York City with them. With the guidance of a spiritual director and the Vicar for Religious of Rockville Centre, NY she began the process of transferring to the MSBT. She often says, “I was a vocation in search of a charism.”
In her early years as an MSBT, Sr. Brenda served in Catholic Charities in Greensburg, PA; Montgomery, AL; and Alexandria-Shreveport, LA. She also served for a year at the national level as a Bernardin Fellow for Social Ministry.
In 1986, Sr. Brenda was assigned to the Trinity Ministries Center in New Jersey, a collaborative venture of the MSBT and the ST priests and brothers. This assignment transformed her understanding of our shared charism and the Cenacle Family. She worked with dioceses across the United States, led clergy retreats, collaborated with the USCCB and partnered with national organizations. The focus of the ministry was on the call of the laity to live as missionaries in everyday life and on strengthening the Pastoral Councils as key discerning bodies in parishes and dioceses.
Sr. Brenda met and worked with Gerald Arbuckle, PhD, the world renowned anthropologist and priest, whose work focused on Refounding. She met the L’Arche communities and worked with them nationally and internationally. These varied works took her to 37 different counties.
In later years, Sr. Brenda served as the first Director of the Missionary Cenacle Family. In this role, she helped develop systems to foster collaboration among its four branches and support its growth as a movement that embraces change. She found the work challenging and formative, offering important lessons about resistance to change.
Sr. Brenda also serves as an adjunct member of the Vincentian Family. She co-authored Developing the Parish as a Community of Service with Loughlan Sofield, ST and Build a Life-Giving Parish: The Gift of Counsel in the Modern World with Msgr. James T. Gaston.
Sr. Brenda’s clearest insight is that our call to develop the laity is not only about teaching, but also about discerning with them how they can be a force for good in everyday life and inspire others to do the same. She is convinced that the MBST charism is profoundly needed today.
Sr. Brenda is deeply grateful for the many meaningful opportunities in ministry over these 70 years as an MSBT, and for all that she has learned from her family, friends, colleagues, the Cenacle Family and the communities in which she has served.