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October 2, 2023I was taught by the Presentation Sisters in St. John’s High School in Goshen, New York. During my junior and senior years in high school I thought about religious life but waited one year after high school graduation before entering.
My early years as a Presentation sister were filled with newness and enthusiasm for my ministry as a teacher. The second half of the 1960s coincided with the implementation of Vatican II and the renewal taking place within the Catholic Church. As I was experiencing the newness of vowed life, many changes were occurring within consecrated religious life. This included modifying the religious habits and allowing for more occasions to visit with family. The newfound “freedom” following Vatican II was both exciting and challenging. So many new opportunities were now being offered for spiritual, communal and ministerial growth.
I served as teacher and principal for 17 years before directing the initial formation program for the congregation. In the early 1990’s, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, I found a new challenge working for a nonprofit agency in New York City that provided housing, medical care and early childhood education for disabled infants and toddlers born to drug-addicted mothers. Though I had no prior social work experience, I quickly learned from my peers how to work with parents who were desperate not to lose their children and to keep them safe. I found temporary foster homes for the children and supervised their care with the foster family while I met with the parents (mostly mothers) who struggled to develop their parenting skills so they could one day be reunited with their child.
After ministering as director of religious education for 15 years in the Bronx, I was elected to congregational leadership, where I served for 12 years.
Now retired from active ministry, I find inspiration in my new ministry as congregational archivist. I am physically surrounded by documents highlighting the history of the sisters who first came from Ireland to St. Michael’s Parish in Manhattan in 1874 and the many stories and annals written by and about the courageous, prayerful, wise and dedicated women, both living and deceased, who followed God’s call to vowed religious life as Presentation sisters and have been filled with Nano Nagle’s spirit of love and compassion ever since.
The blessings of community life are abundant and include the wonderful relationships I have developed over the years – years filled with joys, challenges and many surprises along the way. Each experience has been a gift. My heart is filled with gratitude to God for my vocation and for the many opportunities I’ve had to walk alongside my sisters who are on fire for mission, committing ourselves to act for and with the poor and oppressed in our world, no matter where we are, and always remembering to care for Earth.
