Sisterly Acts: Women religious serve community in many ways

By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
May 17, 2007

Some women spend their entire lives caring for and teaching children, but they aren’t mothers.

They’re women religious who dedicate their lives to serving the Church through school and parish-based education, perpetual adoration and ministries such as health care.

One of the more than 200 sisters serving the Phoenix Diocese recently answered God’s call to follow Him by making her final vows. Several others will do so this summer even though few seriously considered sisterhood for themselves growing up.

“How do you know you’re called? There’s a lot of peace,” said Sr. Augustine Marie, a Poor Clare sister who made perpetual vows in February and now lives with other nuns in Black Canyon City.

She loved kids, but was involved with vocation work in the late ’90s and began spending more time in adoration. With the help of a spiritual director, Sr. Augustine Marie realized she’d fallen in love with the Lord.

Sr. Mary Magdalene, a Dominican Sister of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, had a similar feeling.

“My heart was more attracted than it ever had been to any guy,” she said of her calling to follow Christ through a religious vocation.

For a friend and fellow teacher, things were a bit different.

“Everything was good in my life. There was just something that needed change,” Sr. Mary David, SMME, said. “I was restless.”

She had fleeting thoughts of joining the religious life in elementary school and college, but it wasn’t until Sr. Mary David was in eucharistic adoration during a retreat for women in discernment that she said the calling hit her like a ton of bricks.

Both sisters began their formation process in 1999 and will make final vows next month.

Faithful educators

They continued teaching during part of their eight-year formation. Only now, they stand before their students in a white, multi-layered habit and black veil. It’s standard dress for the religious order.

“Many of the younger sisters prefer to wear a habit,” said Sr. Jean Steffes, CSA, chancellor and director of the diocesan Office of Religious.

Sr. Jean noted that women are starting to join religious orders at younger ages. The average age of this order of sisters devoted to Mary and the Eucharist is 28.

Four of the sisters — including Sr. Mary Magdalene and Sr. Mary David — moved into the convent at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish last year on a mission to teach diocesan students. Most women in religious life teach in parishes or schools or fill other campus-related positions.

“What makes us different from other communities is we really imbibe that spirit of John Paul II,” said Sr. Martin Thérèse, SMME, who was attracted to the 10-year-old order seven years ago by its “realness.”

It was founded in response to the late pope’s call for the renewal of religious foundations that would embody the graces of the new evangelization of the third millennium Church.

“We don’t fit a mold. You can still be who you are,” said Sr. Martin Thérèse.

At the same time, the nuns grow as a community. They weave Liturgy of the Hours, Mass, spiritual readings and chores around mission work. They also make time for the rosary and silent meditation.

The young women enjoy evening recreation, too, which deepens their fellowship. Activities vary from basketball to a walk or casual talk like friends often do, to indoor games.

“Our favorite right now is ‘Catch Phrase,’” Sr. Martin Thérèse admitted.

Agents of Healing

Other women in religious life focus on being agents of healing through nursing care or simply being with the sick to uplift them like the late Mother Teresa did. Sr. Bernadette LeTourneau, SNDdeN, does both, although a habit is not required.

For the last five years, she has worked with parishioners at St. Steven in Sun Lakes. She considers herself a connector among parish ministries, but her title is parish nurse.

As head of the health ministry, she also connects churchgoers with the health- and senior-oriented resources they need within the community.

She ensures homebound Catholics have a ride to Mass and a bed to rest in if they feel weak during Mass. She regularly runs blood pressure clinics after the weekly liturgy, too.

“Even if we catch one person that needs tending to, then it’s worth it,” Sr. Bernadette said. Once, that person was herself.

Like any nurse, Sr. Bernadette also visits the sick. It was that mission of aiding the less fortunate and the religious community’s spirituality that led her to join the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur eight years ago. She will make final vows this summer.

“Their charism is to share the goodness of God with the poor in the most abandoned places,” Sr. Bernadette said.

She described the fit with the religious community as “just right.” Sr. Bernadette recalls a group of sisters planting the seed for her vocation during childhood when the women shared their mission story with her about working in Central America.

Although she didn’t seriously consider sisterhood until her late 30s, Sr. Bernadette now wants to brush up on her nursing and Spanish skills so she can serve abroad.

Perpetual Adoration

Sisters in other orders, such as the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Black Canyon City, lead a contemplative life rather than one active in a parish or social service ministry. They are an enclosed, cloistered community devoted to praying for Catholics throughout the diocese.

Poor Clare Sister Augustine Marie said the order is inspired by the Gospel story of the 10 lepers cured by the Lord.

“We are supposed to be sort of like that one leper who thanks the Lord for those who don’t,” she said.

Sr. Augustine Marie joined the five desert sisters in February, two weeks after making her final vows in Alabama. She never saw herself as a contemplative nun, but trusted in the Lord.

“He knows best what is going to fulfill us,” she said. The Poor Clare sister thought about joining a community of sisters in New York who work with unwed pregnant moms because she loves children, but felt at peace and at home with the Poor Clares.

The sisters dedicate their life to perpetual eucharistic adoration, although the desert cloister doesn’t have enough sisters to make that a reality. They rotate their time before the Blessed Sacrament throughout the day and hold one all-night adoration session per week.

When they’re not in the prayer chapel, the sisters share chores such as sewing their brown habits, writing thank you letters to donors, cooking, making rosary bracelets for the public or working on the cloister’s Web site. They also hold movie and game nights on the weekend.

Although they lead a hidden life, Poor Clare Sister Jeanette Marie, a novice in the community, said it’s rewarding and humbling because their work helps the universal Church through their prayer.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said religious life plays a vital role in the Church’s mission of handing on the Gospel.

“Consecrated virginity, in particular, reminds the rest of Christ’s followers of the call to follow Him with a pure and undivided heart,” he said.

25 sisters celebrate major milestones in religious life

More than two dozen women are celebrating major achievements in ministry this year:

70 Years

Sr. Teresita Ryan, IBVM

65 Years

Sr. Rachel Doerfler, CSA

Sr.  Georgene Faust, SDS

60 Years

Sr. Alma Bill, OLVM

Sr. Rose Marie Deibel, SNDdeN

Sr. Irene Eckerman, OP

Sr. Bernadette Mehal, OP

Sr. Consiglio Scanlan, IBVM

55 Years

Sr. Kathleen Dorman, SC

Sr. Mary Thomas Fullem, IBVM

Sr. Noreen McGinley, OSM

Sr. Dolores Slosar, OP

Sr. Barbarann Webster, OSF

Sr. Roman Wagner, OP

50 Years

Sr. Sharon Aalbers, SSND

Sr. Loretto Downing, IBVM

Sr. Mary Norbert Long, SC

Sr. Mary Ann Mahoney, IHM

Sr. Mary Rachel Torrez, RSM

Br. Mario Vasquez, OFM

40  Years

Sr. Marilyn Bever, CSA

Sr. Jean Steffes, CSA

Sr. Lynn Winsor, BVM

35 Years

Sr. Christi Ann Laudolff, CSA

Sr. Maria Olivia Pacheco, SNDdeN