Twice a week, more than 20 religious sisters hailing from at least four different Latin American and Asian countries gather on the eighth floor of the Archdiocesan Catholic Center for three hours of English language instruction from fellow religious.

They're students in the RIPPLE program --- Religious in Partnership Providing Language Education --- made possible by semi-retired sisters using their teaching background to help younger religious working in the U.S. improve their English language skills.

"It's kind of a village effort," said Notre Dame Sister Anncarla Costello, archdiocesan vicar for women religious. Three years ago after starting her job as vicar, she decided to expand an English language program for immigrant religious sisters begun by her predecessor, the late Holy Names Sister Mary Faith Clarke.

The students, natives of Columbia, El Salvador, Korea and Mexico, attend English language tutoring sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the ACC and receive follow-up instructional visits at their respective convents from the volunteer teachers.

"Once you're a teacher, you're a teacher all your life," said Holy Cross Sister Jane Chantal Method, 77, who started her ministry as an elementary school teacher. After ten years as an educator, she switched to nursing and recently completed 25 years as a missionary in Ghana.

Sister Method answered Sister Costello's appeal for volunteers to help run RIPPLE's twice weekly English lab, spearheading efforts to get a $4,000 grant for the program from her religious community. The money went toward the purchase of two new laptops, two used desktops, a computer software language program and English textbooks for all the students.

"What I find fascinating about the sisters [is that] they're all so eager to learn," said Sister Method. She co-directs the Tuesday/Thursday lab with Holy Names Sister Jean Morningstar, 74, a former elementary school teacher who's semi-retired from her work as a graphic artist.

On a recent Thursday, Sister Morningstar listened to Missionaries of Jesus Crucified Sister Virginia Sandoval, 47, one of eight fellow MJC Mexican native RIPPLE participants, as she read from an English language children's Bible.

"This class is very good for me. It's important because my reading is better," said Sister Sandoval, who teaches religious education at St. Malachy Church in South Los Angeles. "I need to learn English to help people who don't speak Spanish," she added.

A second year RIPPLE student, Sister Sandoval likes her "very patient teachers" as well as the English computer programs, reading books and songs-on-tape. As encouraged by the teachers, who also include Holy Names Sister Elise Hanrahan and Nora Igual, she listens to 15 minutes of English radio or television daily and also recites English prayers with her community.

"I think [the students'] biggest challenge is that their work and living situation is [usually conducted] in their own language. You don't learn a new language unless you use it," said Sister Method, who drives weekly to the MJC convent in South Los Angeles to tutor the sisters.

"We're fortunate the teachers are willing to go to the convents since it makes it easier for [the students] because sometimes the transportation is just so difficult," said Sister Costello. Those students who have taken part in the immersion program at English speaking convents --- one for a month at Maryknoll's convent in Monrovia and another for several days at the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet --- have benefited greatly from the experience.

"Both of these sisters came back with such confidence," said Sister Costello. Since anticipated changes in U.S. immigration law will likely require English proficiency, she noted, RIPPLE provides a safe and comfortable environment for the sisters to improve their English.

Sister Morningstar plans to continue tutoring "as long as they need me and I'm able to do it." Sister Method feels likewise. "We don't retire. We just change positions," she said, adding, "I wish I had [even] more time to do this."

More than 38,000 U.S. Catholic religious are past age 70, many of them still in ministry. The weekend of Dec. 8-9, parishioners will be able to express their thanks for retired religious women and men's decades of service by contributing to parish collections for the 2007 Retirement Fund for Religious appeal, coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.