I attended St. Bernard’s School in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and came to know the Presentations Sisters. While I felt called to vowed life in seventh or eighth grade, I didn’t talk to anyone but God about it. When I finally told my father I wanted to be a sister, he was very happy as he used to run errands for the sisters when he was a young boy. My mother wanted me to go to college, but I have been fortunate to have attended several colleges since I entered.
As the daughter of a public school teacher, I have always valued education. I love learning and studying! For over 20 years I taught in elementary schools, then served as a principal before beginning parish ministry. After earning a degree in liturgy and theology, I was one of the first women to be allowed to be a director of religious education in a parish. The Presentation Sisters were also the first group that was consecrated as special ministers of the Eucharist.
We had a confessor at the convent in my younger years and he was a Catholic Worker priest who had marched with Martin Luther King. He was probably the first person to open my eyes to the plight of homeless people. This seed was planted for a time when I would be called to serve those in need.
I enjoyed my time in parish ministry and served in St Mary’s Parish, Shrewsbury, and St. Boniface Parish, Lunenburg, before being called to St. Anne’s Parish, Shrewsbury. St. Anne’s offered me an opportunity to minister in a new way as the people were not from an affluent background. I was dealing with something different than in my past ministries and I became a woman of the streets, ministering to homeless people, for 20 years.
After retiring, I stayed engaged in parish ministry, presenting children’s Mass and helping with the Eucharist. I moved back to Leominster for a short time before the sisters moved to Notre Dame du Lac in Worcester, which is five minutes from where I previously ministered. I was delighted to come back and now volunteer at St. Christopher House several times a month. Here I offer a general communion service and added devotion service in the dementia unit.
As long as I have the spirituality and intelligence, I am grateful to God that I can continue this ministry. I also do a great deal of writing to those who are homebound, sick and elderly.
My prayer life is at the center of all that I do. I feel very strongly that when I tell someone I will pray for them that I should do that. I try to say all four mysteries of the rosary every day. At this time in my life, it is a blessings to have this deep and grounding faith life.