Jubilee booklet, Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province, 2008

Abstract

Jubilee

1 Jubilee 2008 To the Jubilarians 2 Dear Jubilarians, As a child, you probably experienced your Mother or Father calling you. Maybe you remember how the music of your name was a signal to leave your game and friends and to head home for supper or bed, or to join the family in an adventure. Perhaps you remember the classroom experience when a teacher called your name to acknowledge your waving hand. You knew that you could speak what was in your mind -- a correct answer or a kernel of truth for a class discussion. Our Jubilee theme, “I have called you by name; you are mine,” may lead to recollections of what happened when you entered the Providence novitiate. Or you may remember when the celebrant called a name at your profession liturgy, and you stepped forward to make your vows, identifying yourself as you said for the first time, “I …, in religion Sister…, wishing to consecrate myself to God and to become a servant of the poor, willingly…” “I have called you by name.” People in diverse and ordinary circumstances could say that about you, but what we celebrate in your Jubilee is a rare and personal naming, as your baptism was. It is an acknowledgement that years ago – 25, 50, or even 85 years ago -- God called you to a new way of life, that you responded to with your whole self. It’s also remembering the years that you and God have lived a mystery of “you are mine” that has become a gift for many in your ministry and community life. This call and mystery, your vocation as a Sister of Providence, is a lifetime gift from God and you to the Church, a gift from God and you to poor and suffering people. Lately it has become clearer to us in our Providence community that your call and response is a gift from God and you to Earth and all who live here. Joining in your Jubilee, we sisters of Mother Joseph Province are happy to celebrate your gift in faith, to see in it a reason for hope, and to thank God with love! We also pray very specially that God’s call and your response may continue to bring to the Church, the poor, and the Earth an echo of your Jubilee joy and a way to peace. Lovingly in Providence, Sisters of Providence are Catholic women of faith who respond to the needs of the poor and vulnerable through education, parish ministry, health care, community service and support, housing, prison ministry, pastoral care, spiritual direction and retreats, and foreign missions. Mother Joseph Province encompasses Alaska, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Washington and El Salvador. Margaret C. Botch, SP Provincial Superior Mother Joseph Province Jubilee 2008 Greetings to the Jubilarians 34 Five years ago, when Sister Jane Dufault celebrated 80 years as a Sister of Providence, she took great delight in being able “to walk all over the place.” Today, at 103 years old, she is no longer ambulatory but even that cannot steal her smile and her delight in living. When a favorite nurse makes her rounds, a beaming Sister Jane grabs a hand and follows along in her wheelchair. This sister, born Aurora Dufault in Gaspe in the Province of Quebec in 1905, has captured many hearts in the now 85 years that she has been a member of the religious community. Her father was American born and never lived in Canada, and her mother became ill and died when Aurora was just 2. She and her beloved older sister, Marie Amadee, were sent to live with their grandmother while a brother remained with their father. Marie Amadee, five years older, had entered the Sisters of Providence at the age of 19. When Jane turned 18 in 1923, she followed in her sister’s footsteps, entering the novitiate of the Sisters of Providence at the old motherhouse in Montreal. She took Sister Jeanne Dufault as her name in religion when she made first profession in 1924. Sister Marie Amadee died in 1991 at the age of 91. Jane Dufault, SP Dear Sister Jubilarians of 2008, Happy and most blessed Jubilee! Your Jubilee theme, I have called you by name; you are mine, has been an invitation to me to pray with each of you and with each of your names. This brief reflection is the fruit of my prayer and carries with it my gratitude and my warmest congratulations. It seems to me that your Jubilee celebrates the ongoing dance of love in each of your lives as Sisters of Providence. There is the movement of God’s personal love in the unfolding story of your lives and God’s continuing call to each of you down through the years. Your Jubilee celebrates the mystery of God’s love for you and the “etching of your name on the divine palms.” (May I have this Dance? J. Ruff) Jubilee also celebrates the corresponding movement of your free response to the action of divine love in your lives as Sisters of Providence. It celebrates your love, confidence and faith in the God who has been with you in joyful moments and who has never let you go in times of darkness. How amazing and wonderful it is to realize that the same God who created the entire universe knows each one of you personally, calls each of you by your name and says to you, You are mine. Sister Jane was assigned to the former St. Ignatius Province in 1925, so she headed West to minister to God’s people in a land that was still rugged. Her task was made even more difficult because she would have to learn to speak English to communicate. From then until she retired in 1975, Sister Jane served in a variety of ministries in institutions, primarily in hospital settings, in nursing, in the kitchen, whatever was needed. She served at St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged, Spokane; Mary Immaculate School in DeSmet, Idaho; and Holy Family, Columbus and St. Patrick hospitals in Montana. In later years, she was receptionist at Mount St. Joseph, Spokane, and assistant in the chapel and archives. To ponder your lives is to reflect on the story of religious-apostolic life in our times. In a wide variety of ministries and community life experiences, spanning pre-and post-Vatican II years, your lives give witness to the dynamic presence of God’s love and to the transformative power of that love in you and, through you, in the Church and in the world. Thank you for sharing years of Providence community life with us. Thank you for years of loving service to God’s people, for your countless actions on behalf of justice, peace, healing and reconciliation. Thank you for believing that Providence is alive and active in our world and for sharing your faith in a multitude of loving and compassionate responses to the needs of our times. Though small in stature, Sister Jane has an enormous heart that is full of special love for everyone and everything she meets. Sisters have fond memories of her love for the horses and a black lab named Panda at the hospital in St. Ignatius, Mont., and her daily devotion to hoisting an American flag bigger than she was outside Mount St. Joseph in all kinds of weather. This is what I see for you as you celebrate your Jubilee: God will rejoice over you with happy song… God will dance with shouts of joy as on a day of festival. (Zeph 3:18) Sister Jane’s words on her 80th Jubilee were a window into her unique character: “If I hope for anything, it is that I will give myself more and more to Him. I don’t desire much for myself, but did I reach what He has put down for me?” Lovingly in Providence, Kathryn Rutan, SP General Superior 4 TÑÉáàÉÄ|v UÄxáá|Çz Pope Benedict XVI, as a pledge of divine favor, bestows the apostolic blessing upon: Gabrielle Nguyen, SP Susanne Hartung, SP Patricia Hauser, SP Charlene Hudon, SP Pauline Lemaire, SP Therese Multz, SP Dona Taylor, SP Mary Clare Boland, SP Dolores Ellwart, SP Jeannette Parent, SP Alice St. Hilaire, SP Julie Ziocchi, SP Loretta Marie Marceau, SP Jeanne Parent, SP Pauline Higgins, SP Marguerite O’Connor, SP Jane Dufault, SP on the occasion of their Jubilee of profession. ARCHBISHOP OSCAR RIZZATO ROME, ITALY32 Jubilee 2008 There is a special joy in marking her 75th year as a Sister of Providence as the University of Great Falls is celebrating its 75th anniversary, Sister Marguerite O’Connor says with a twinkle in her eye. Her favorite ministry was 24 years as registrar at the then College of Great Falls, and she recalls how the Sisters kept the institution alive. “We supported it with personnel and made sacrifices; and we poured money into it as much as possible. It thrills me to no end that it’s thriving,” says Sister Marguerite, who earned the first Emilie Gamelin Award for service to the college. Born Nellie Marguerite O’Connor in Missoula, Mont., the 10th child, she graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in 1932. “I asked the principal about nurse’s training and she said, ‘The novitiate first and nurse’s training second,’ so I entered the novitiate in Seattle,” Sister Marguerite recalls. She professed first vows in 1934 and earned a two-year diploma from the College of Great Falls that same year. Later she would earn bachelor’s degrees in education and social studies at CGF, as well as a master’s degree in English from Seattle University. She actually was fearful of nurse’s training, so she was relieved to be assigned to teach. Her 34 years in teaching and administration in elementary and secondary schools took her to Glasgow, Roundup, Great Falls and Missoula, Mont., as well as Sprague, Wash., and Wallace, Idaho. She taught primary grades, then upper grades and later served as principal. After leaving the classroom, Sister Marguerite spent four years as a member of the formation team. “I was not always too sure of what I was doing, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy being a member of the team,” she says. “We met with women who were discerning at a time when there was more interest in religious life. There was no formal ‘Come and See,’ no stays with the Sisters, but we would travel and meet as many women as possible.” One of her fond memories since her golden Jubilee in 1983 was the Credo program of spiritual renewal for priests and religious at Gonzaga University. “We had a relaxing year to take six courses on religious topics,” she says. “We did not receive credit but there were no exams, and we had the finest teachers.” Before retiring in March 2003, Sister Marguerite was librarian at Mount St. Joseph, Spokane, helping Sisters make reading choices. Today she still is helping wherever she can at The Mount, “some days more than others.” She is grateful for this relaxing time of life and for a very low-key celebration of this Jubilee. Marguerite O’Connor, SP f|áàxÜ YÜtÇv|á ]xÜÉÅx Jubilee 2008 6 This year, Sister Gabrielle Nguyen celebrates 25 years of religious life. She entered the Congregation of Mary Queen in 1982 at the age of 20, and last September she completed her transfer of perpetual vows to the Sisters of Providence. “I belong to God for all of my life,” she says. Born in South Vietnam in 1962, she was the second oldest of 10 children. Family members farmed, raising vegetables and chickens for food and pigs to sell. As an 11-year-old Catholic school student, Gabrielle felt drawn to religious life to teach children, but she would later discover that her true passion was to work with the elderly. The family escaped to the United States in 1975, settling first in a refugee camp at Fort Chaffee, Ark., and then moving to wherever they could find sponsors, eventually settling in Dallas, Texas. Gabrielle entered the Congregation of Mary Queen in Springfield, Mo., and professed final vows in 1991. Certified as an LPN, she served in ministry in nursing homes and as a community health nurse in the Vietnamese Center in St. Louis. When Sisters AnnMary Vu and Lang Tran attended a transfer workshop in St. Louis, as did Providence Sisters JoAnn Showalter and Marilyn Charette, they visited Sister Lang’s aunt at the Congregation of Mary Queen. At that time Sister Gabrielle was able to visit with them and later she was invited to contact the Sisters of Providence vocation team. A year later, Gabrielle accepted an invitation to “Come and See” the Sisters of Providence for three to six months. She came to Spokane in February 2004 to explore whether this community would be right for her, and then began a three-year transfer process the following July. “I visited with sisters in Spokane, Yakima, Portland and Seattle,” Sister Gabrielle recalls. “At first it was lonely because I was learning to adapt to a new culture and also was learning to express myself in English.” She describes, for example, thinking something is very funny based on your own culture and experience, but finding that others you share it with just don’t get it. “When they don’t respond, you withdraw a little bit,” she explains. Also different across cultures is the way of relating to friends and family, as well as the shared responsibility for cooking when living in community. Vietnamese cooks marinate with all kinds of ingredients, not just salt and pepper, for example. “Sometimes the smell is not good,” she laughs, “but the taste is.” Gabrielle Nguyen, SP In every life, there are defining moments. Sister Pauline Higgins began her life with one such moment, her birth in 1914 as half of the second set of twins born to Louis and Hannah Higgins in little Sunnyside, Wash. There were six children in the Higgins family. Pauline, whose twin was named Paul, became a Sister of Providence in 1932. Four years earlier, another of the Higgins family twins, her older sister, Margaret, had entered the novitiate. “Perhaps it was her prayers that helped me get there,” Pauline said in an autobiography written at her entrance. Pauline Higgins, SP f|áàxÜ _Éâ|á Éy à{x UÄxááxw ftvÜtÅxÇà Louis Higgins’ occupation was diversified farming, and the family moved from Sunnyside to the Yakima Valley and to Toppenish as he farmed, shared produce and consulted with other farmers. One of Sister Pauline’s cherished memories of her mother is her taking five of her children by train all the way to Indiana to meet their grandparents. She described with awe “the picture of my mother with four babies tripping at her heels and another in her arms as she hurried through the crowds at the largest railroad center in the world (Chicago). … I love to recall it and each time my admiration for my mother’s undaunted courage increases.” After graduation from St. Joseph Academy in Yakima, Pauline entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Providence in Seattle. Her first ministry assignment was teaching seventh grade at Providence Academy in Vancouver, Wash. She was sent to St. Catherine College, St. Paul, Minn., to complete a bachelor’s degree, specializing in language and English plus home economics. Sister Pauline was always either teaching or learning, and sometimes both. Her summers were spent studying at the College of Great Falls, University of St. Louis, University of Notre Dame, University of Washington and Seattle University. Sister Pauline taught a variety of subjects or served as assistant librarian or debate coach in high schools in Burbank, Calif., Vancouver, Yakima, Walla Walla and Seattle, Wash., and in Fairbanks, Alaska, and surrounding villages. The latter location was the site of her favorite ministry and another defining moment: teaching in Alaska’s bush with Indian families or on the tundra with Eskimo families. She published a book in 1999 that included her experiences there entitled “Providence in Alaska: Sisters of Providence Education Ministry in Alaska, 1902-1978.” Sister Pauline’s other ministry assignments included formation team member, vocation director, candidate director and Eucharistic minister for parish shut-ins. But it was as a teacher that she truly flourished. “To have touched but one life and to have helped it flower is reason enough to spend a lifetime in the classroom,” she has said. Today she is retired and resides at St. Joseph Residence, Seattle. 30 Jubilee 2008 “I learned to just go along and observe,” Sister Gabrielle says. “Like Jesus says, ‘come and see.’” What she observed was a community flexible enough to be willing to “let you be who you are.” That means not just serving in ministry but also having the freedom to take a class for physical health and to do volunteer work where you can fill a need. “That means a lot to me,” she says. “You are a sister; your presence brings light.” One of the things she has loved most about getting to know the Sisters of Providence is the women who have become her role models and inspiration, chief among them foundress Blessed Emilie Gamelin, Mother Joseph and Mother Bernarda Morin. “I am drawn to Mother Gamelin’s compassionate heart. She loved the poor and all people, even the social outcasts, and she acted on it. Her spirit is still with the sisters nowadays.” There is no shortage of role models, past and present, in this community, Sister Gabrielle suggests. Top of her list are Sister Claudia McMillan, for her gentle way of listening without criticism; Sister M. Michelle Holland, for her deep spirituality and words of wisdom; Sister Marie Emmeline Ladd, for her courage and energy as a pioneer nurse midwife; Provincial Superior Margaret Botch, who lives “a deep spiritual life of prayer” seasoned with a hearty sense of humor; and General Superior Kathryn “Kitsy” Rutan, who brings joy and wisdom and “takes away all fear.” Sister Gabrielle has another year of part-time classes at Spokane Community College to become an RN. Her studies are intense, but she manages to squeeze in some gardening, reading and preparing for the annual Bloomsday run. She looks forward to graduation and then hopes to work with sisters in the fourth-floor infirmary at Mount St. Joseph, Spokane, and to volunteer for hospice. “I am doing God’s ministry and mission, picking up what Jesus did,” she says. “I can’t do everything, but I am a nurse. I can bring God’s healing to the suffering and the sick to give them joy and comfort. Without God’s grace and help I could not do this.” She plans a simple Jubilee celebration with family members, including many of her nine brothers and sisters who live in Texas. She is able to make a home visit once a year, but has found a second family with the Sisters of Providence, especially her housemates, Sisters Lily May Emert, Annette Seubert, Sue Orlowski and Margarita Hernandez. She still is in contact with old friends in her former community and sends them cards on feast days. “I will never forget the Congregation of Mary Queen,” Sister Gabrielle says. “I appreciate what they did for me and I learned a lot from them, too.” Becoming a Sister of Providence has been a tradition among Sister Jeanne Parent’s female relatives. The religious community has embraced about nine Parent family members, including aunts, cousins and three others from her immediate family -- Isabelle, Gilberte and Gabrielle. “I feel the Lord has given our family a special grace,” Sister Jeanne has said. Incredibly, nearly every step of her journey in religious life she has been accompanied by a family member. Two now deceased aunts, Sister Crescence and Mother Pascal, former provincial superior of St. Ignatius Province, were especially helpful along the way. Jeanne Parent, SP f|áàxÜ ctâÄ ]ÉáxÑ{ Jeanne was born the eldest of 12 children of Adrien and Cecile Brillant Parent at Rimouski, Quebec, in 1908. At the age of 7, her family moved to a farm at Roxton Falls, near Montreal, where she grew up. As a young adult, one Christmas she came home from her job working as a housekeeper and her sister Isabelle, two years younger, said she was planning to enter the Sisters of Providence with a cousin. “I never thought I would enter. I never even thought about it,” Sister Jeanne has said. “Then, when I was making a retreat, I was told I had a vocation.” She prayed about it and discussed it with Isabelle, then entered in 1937. While learning English, Sister Jeanne was assigned to Mount St. Vincent to help in the infirmary, and then to Providence Medical Center in Portland to learn bookkeeping. She would remain in ministry in Portland for 30 years, including 10 years in the purchasing department at St. Vincent Hospital, where her aunt Sister Crescence trained her to work in the business office. She was responsible for repairs and purchasing at St. Mary Hospital, Astoria, Ore., from 1961 to 1968, and she helped with sisters’ budgets while working in the treasurer’s office at Providence Heights, in Issaquah, Wash., from 1970 to 1974. Sister Jeanne then returned to St. Vincent Hospital, where she spent 20 years as receptionist, welcoming and assisting patients, their families, visitors and staff members. She saw her role as helping people be comfortable and less apprehensive and took Blessed Emilie Gamelin as her model. “Her faith in Providence never wavered, and she was so committed in her work for others, especially the poor,” Sister Jeanne would say of the foundress of the Sisters of Providence. Among her life’s many memorable moments was her 50-year Jubilee celebration in 1988, which drew more than 100 family members for a liturgy and banquet to celebrate two golden anniversaries – her Jubilee and the 50th wedding anniversary of her brother and his wife. Sister Jeanne retired in 1997 and resides at St. Joseph Residence, Seattle. Jubilee 2008 28 I was born Ida Mae Marceau in 1914 in Missoula, Mont., to a family of six boys and five girls. I was the ninth child of the eleven. Today my legal name is Loretta Marie and I have a niece named Sister Ida Mae. I celebrated my golden Jubilee in 1988, my diamond Jubilee in 1998, and now my ruby Jubilee in 2008. I entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Providence in Seattle in 1938. Since then I have been learning what it means to be a Sister of Providence. It has been a blessing and a privilege to have been called to be a Sister of Providence in the Catholic Church, to proclaim the mysteries of Our Mother of Sorrows who participated in the life and death of Jesus. Founded by Mother Emilie Gamelin in Montreal, our mission calls us to find Jesus in those who suffer and, by compassionate love, to respond to the urgent needs of those we have the privilege to serve, especially the poor. Joan Chittister, OSB, an internationally known author and prophet, predicts that religious life in the future will be more “what we are, instead of what we do. To be leaven, rather than simply a labor force.” I graduated from Sacred Heart Academy, University of Great Falls, and Kinman Business University. I also have taken religious studies at Gonzaga University, advanced studies at Indiana University and have attended several other colleges and accounting institutes. My long career in finance and financial management has taken me to various institutions in the former St. Ignatius Province. My ministry assignments included Columbus Hospital, Great Falls, Mont., 1940-44; St. Patrick Hospital, Missoula, Mont., 1944-49; Sacred Heart Medical Center, Spokane, 1949-60.; Provincial Administration, 1961-74 and 1981-87; St. Mary Medical Center, Walla Walla, Wash., 1974-76; and University of Great Falls, Mont., 1977-81. My final ministry was creating a development program that raised just short of $2 million in a decade. Over the years I have received numerous academic honors such as Fellow of the National Hospital Management Association (HFMA), of which I am a life member and a former national president. Together with Mr. Clarence (Joe) Legel, former executive treasurer of Sacred Heart Medical Center and another HFMA president, I published several articles on hospital finance and financial management. We also provided workshops for hospital financial personnel with the assistance of secretary Elaine Mertens, who helped prepare the materials, and Pat Draper, who kept the office going while we were away. I retired in 2003 and am living at Mount St. Joseph, Spokane, with other retired Sisters. In this year of Jubilee, I am grateful for this relaxing time for prayer and preparing, not for death, but for eternal life. Loretta Marie Marceau, SP Sister Susanne Hartung is celebrating this year, more than her 50-year Jubilee as a Sister of Providence. She never expected to see this golden Jubilee when she was diagnosed 10 years ago with a severe illness and given five years to live. “I am celebrating all of the people who have been a part of my life and have brought me to this point,” she explains. “No way would I have gotten here by myself. I am full of gratitude that I was given these extra years to continue to do what I love, as a Sister of Providence.” Susanne Hartung, SP f|áàxÜ ]ÉxÄ Like her mother Helen, Susanne was born in Portland, Ore. Her father Al emigrated from Austria as a child. The youngest of six children, Susanne grew up with a deep desire to work within the ministries of the Church. She dreamed of joining the Maryknoll missionaries and working in an orphanage in China, but she realized there was no money to fly to New York for an interview. The advice of a priest to try something closer to home led her to think about the Sisters of Providence, her mother’s employers at St. Vincent Hospital. Susanne’s senior year after-school job tending 3-year-olds at Providence Portland Child Center let her get to know the sisters for herself. “I fell in love with their spirit, their passion and enthusiasm,” she recalls. She entered the religious community in 1957 at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, making first profession in 1959. Never fond of rules, Susanne found herself in the midst of Vatican II changes. “One of my closest friends left,” she says. “I had to ask myself, ‘Why am I staying?’ I went back to why I entered. This was not an experiment; it was the life I chose.” For those who stayed, there was a relaxation of rules, a new modified habit and then no required habit at all, first-time budgets for sisters and new ways of educating sisters for ministry. Sister Susanne, among the first sisters enrolled in the new College of Sister Formation, prepared for a teaching career with a bachelor’s degree in science, later followed by master’s degrees in psychology and counseling. She also has done doctoral studies in theology and ethics at the University of Louvain in Belgium. For 25 years she taught in Catholic high schools in Vancouver, Seattle and Olympia, Wash.; Anchorage, Alaska; and Burbank, Calif. She was a full-time counselor and campus minister at Providence High School in Burbank, and then returned to the Northwest as academic director at Catholic Eastside High School in Bellevue, Wash. Along the 10 Jubilee 2008 way, she showed her students the world, and how the poor struggle to live in it. She accompanied students to Tijuana, Mexico, to visit orphanages, jails and homes of the poor, and then later to Europe, the British Isles, China, Japan and South America to broaden their horizons and perspectives. “I never thought I would leave teaching,” Sister Susanne says, “but there was a community need for me to go into health care, and I didn’t know I would love it so much.” She began her second career in health-care mission and ethics in 1987. It took her to Providence Seattle Medical Center (now Swedish) for 18 years, to Providence Health System’s Ministry Leadership Formation program, and to her current role as chief Mission Integration officer for the Washington/Montana region. “Making a difference in the lives of the poor and the vulnerable, that is my passion,” she says. “My work with our executive team in Ministry Leadership Formation has given me the opportunity to experience this same passion in our leadership. Our health-care ministry will continue to be a strong ministry of the Church because of this passion and education. Providence will always be concerned for the poor and the vulnerable.” Clearly, she feels blessed to be a Sister of Providence. “It has been one opportunity after another. God’s call is evident in so many ways. I have been gifted daily.” The medical diagnosis a decade ago might have been considered a burden, but it was really a treasure, she insists. “I look at life very differently. I don’t get wrapped up in minutiae.” She never takes a day for granted and never wants to miss an opportunity to serve another. “I will keep doing what I’m doing,” she declares. “I think I will always be a teacher or educator. No matter what my role is, I want to be of service…” Retirement is not part of her future. Sister Susanne comes from a very large family, “another community for me,” with one brother and two sisters, plus 22 nieces and nephews, “all of them married with two or three children.” That makes about 75 present for every occasion, including her Jubilee celebration. “Every single one of them is very special and I take great joy in their accomplishments.” All are practitioners of a family culture of giving service to those in need. Also in the family tradition, Sister Susanne is an avid skier. That gives her one important goal, she says with a broad smile: “to be old enough so I no longer have to pay for a ski ticket at Mount Bachelor.” 26 Julie Ziocchi, SP f|áàxÜ `tÜç [|ÄàÜâwx Sister Julie Ziocchi lives out the quote of St. Vincent de Paul, “When you no longer burn with love, others will die of the cold.” Her sincere love of people and her joyful zest for life are evident. Born in Melrose Park, Ill., she was fifth-youngest of Louisa and Frank’s 13 children. After her mother’s death, Julie and six siblings were entrusted to the care of the Sisters of Providence in Des Plaines, Ill., beginning a near lifelong bond to the religious community. Sister Julie entered the Sisters of Providence in 1947 at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, and professed first vows in 1949. She accepted her new name in religion, Sister Mary Hiltrude, with a little reluctance. “I never heard of the name and had trouble remembering it,” she laughed. “I was happy when we began using our legal names again.” Her first assignment was to teach third grade at St. Joseph School in Yakima – the beginning of a 20-year teaching ministry. Her first principal, Sister Blanche Dufault, introduced her to the teaching profession. “Because of her training, teaching was always something I enjoyed and I wanted to be the best teacher that I could be,” Sister Julie says. Next came St. Finbar School in Burbank, Calif., where she taught primary grades, then was assistant principal followed by principal. Contemplating a ministry change, it wasn’t long before Sister Julie found herself at the reception desk at Providence Child Center. A few months later she began supporting Sister Barbara Schamber as executive secretary and vice principal at Providence Montessori and Emily schools. “It was a delight to spend eight years working with Sister Barbara,” says Sister Julie. “She appreciated my educational and administrative experience and trusted my abilities, and I also enjoyed working with faculty who constantly demonstrated their deep love and concern for children.” In 1986, Sister Julie became the first representative and chaplain at the newly acquired Providence Milwaukie Hospital, her last active ministry. “It was an immensely rewarding and grace-filled time in my life. As I brought the compassion and comfort of Jesus to people, I was enriched by their love and concern for others.” As Sister Julie celebrates this Jubilee, she remains active as a member of the Providence Child Center Foundation board and as sister representative at Providence Milwaukie Hospital. She also visits patients, supports friends and families in need of comfort, and serves in a local soup kitchen. With a big smile she says, “The fact that I have reached this milestone means everything to me – time to reflect, pray, to appreciate all that the last 60 years have brought me. I am thankful for this time to reminisce on a life filled with joy and grace.” When Sister Patricia Hauser entered the Sisters of Providence in 1957, she told her family, “Don’t touch my things. I might be back in two weeks, their choice or mine.” She obviously had strong doubts about her ability to live religious life. However, she had been going through a long spiritual search and the call was strong. She bargained with God, saying, “You got me here. You have to make sure I stay.” She stayed for the next 50 years. Considering that early reluctance, she now feels it is truly a milestone to be celebrated. Patricia Hauser, SP f|áàxÜ V{Ü|áà|tÇt She was born in Madison, Wisc., the eldest of four children. Because of her mother’s ill health, the family moved to Bellingham, Wash., to be with her mother’s parents when Patricia was 10 years old. She grew up there, attending Catholic grade school and public high school. When she was in high school, their family became the first foster home in Bellingham. Over time, they offered temporary care for some 115 foster children of all ages. Many of these children were not only deprived but often abused or delinquent. This experience taught her a deep understanding and compassion for the poor that has motivated the rest of her life and ministry. She decided to pursue an education in social work. She attended Western Washington College (now University) and obtained her degree with a major in sociology/anthropology and a minor in psychology. She continued to live at home to help with the children, also working at various jobs to pay her college fees. It was during her time in college that she learned of the Sisters of Providence. It was after much prayer and soul searching that she entered the novitiate in 1957 after her graduation. After her first vows, she was assigned to teaching. She was a teacher for six years and finished her teaching courses through the Sister Formation program. She taught in Seattle and Vancouver, Wash., and in Sun Valley, Calif. She was approved to pursue her master’s degree in social work. With a partial stipend from Catholic Charities in Yakima, she attended the University of Washington graduate program. As part of her internship, she worked at the state welfare program in Spokane. She also volunteered at a drop-in center on Skid Road in Seattle. She laughingly asserts that this was an education of its own! 12 Jubilee 2008 During this time, she was appointed to be on the first Formation Team for the Sisters of Providence and subsequently served for five years. She found this to be a pivotal time in her experience of community and in working closely with other women. Surely, too, it was an historic movement in the community and part of the changing perspectives on religious life. While still being part of the Formation Team, she worked at Catholic Charities doing individual counseling and supervision of foster homes. It was during this time that her supervisor subcontracted her services to Sundown M Ranch, a newly opened alcoholism treatment center. The following year, she was employed there as an addictions counselor. In later years, she returned to the ranch as a part-time chaplain. Last year she was given the James Oldham Award “in appreciation of your pioneering spirit in alcoholism and chemical dependency treatment.” Other ministries have included alcoholism education and outreach for the Diocese of Juneau, Alaska. She spent a winter in one of the Native villages, experiencing the hardships of village living and of persons trying to live sober lives. While there she was pleased to be adopted into the Raven clan and given a name by a Tlingit family. Sister Patricia later served as the second director for Sojourner Place, a Providence-sponsored housing ministry for homeless single women that surely met an unmet need that was given little attention at the time. Next she worked for eight years as a psychotherapist for the House of Affirmation in Montara, Calif., an in-patient treatment center for clergy and religious women. As part of this ministry, she spent a year at Heronbrook House, an affiliate program in England. She feels that this was as much an intercultural experience as it was in living in a Native village in Alaska. She returned to Montara as assistant director and psychotherapist. Sister Patricia has also had “the blessing and privilege” to minister to persons with HIV/AIDS and the disabled at Providence House in Oakland, Calif. This was early on in the treatment of HIV and it often became hospice work as so many in those days were coping with the anxieties of imminent death and dying. In the midst of this very active life, she continued to seek out opportunities for solitude and contemplative prayer. She also continued with her interests in Eastern cultures and religions. As part of these involvements, she was delighted with the opportunity to travel in India for six months, traveling and living in various ashrams, both Christian and Sufi. Today, Sister Patricia lives in Forks, Wash. Initially, she went there to spend a year in solitude and prayer. Now, she balances the solitude with a ministry as part-time patient visitor and on-call chaplain for a hospice program. She continues her interests in spirituality and does some spiritual direction for a few women. Sister Alice St. Hilaire, proud of her roots as a Yakima Valley farm girl, points out the Wapato, Wash., farmhouse where she grew up and identifies the growing crops. There is nowhere she would rather be. She was born during the Depression at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Yakima, oldest of eight children. She was educated by the Sisters of Providence at St. Joseph Academy, as were her mother and grandmother. After graduation, she stayed on the farm for a year and a half and then entered the community in Seattle in November 1947. Her sister Lucy entered the following July. “Lucy and I are a year apart,” Sister Alice says. “We grew up the best of friends and we still are.” Sister Alice made first vows in 1949 and taught primary grades and music in Missoula, Mont., Walla Walla, Wash., Fairbanks, Alaska, and Seattle, and then she taught philosophy at the College of Sister Formation of Seattle University at Providence Heights and on the university’s downtown campus. She was chosen for the first Formation Team, served on the Provincial Council and at Providence Hospitality House, and also frequently was an “ad hoc” director for a sister of temporary vows. She began to realize what a “doer” she is. “I was surprised by my readiness to take on whatever presents itself.” Sister Alice returned to the Yakima Valley in 1990 to become her mother’s caregiver and remained there for two years after her death. In 2004 she was honored for her lifelong commitment to formation ministry by the National Religious Formation Conference at its 50th jubilee. Today, Sister Alice’s primary work is threefold: She is mentoring Sister Suzette Bautista as she prepares for transfer of vows into the Providence community, she provides spiritual direction, and she is part of a team that offers Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life (SEEL). She also co-chairs the diocesan vocation committee, gives an occasional talk, participates in faith sharing with her local community, and sometimes visits with her siblings. Sister Alice has seen many changes in religious life. One positive is “real discernment in selections of leadership and circular decision making about really important matters,” like the blending of the former St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart provinces. “We really did take time to pray and hear the Holy Spirit speak through one another. It wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly good.” Of this Jubilee, she says: “I am celebrating that God called me into this life and has been faithful all 60 years. That is reason to be very grateful. I don’t foresee the future except that changes will continue, but I trust in it, however it will be, because I trust God.” Alice St. Hilaire, SP f|áàxÜ `tÜç ZxÉÜzxààt Jubilee 2008 24 Sister Jeannette Parent entered the Sisters of Providence not once but twice. The first time was July 1942 at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, with her twin, Annette. Four months later, plagued by eye trouble, Jeannette left the postulancy without even saying goodbye. She re-entered the religious community five years later, rejoining Sister Annette, who remains her close companion at Mount St. Joseph, Spokane. Jeannette was born in 1922 in Baker, Mont., one of 11 children of French-Canadian parents from Quebec. French was spoken at home, but she learned English at a small country school. When the family moved to Springdale, Wash., she attended Mary Walker School, followed by Marycliff High School, Spokane, and her senior year at St. Joseph Academy, Sprague, Wash., graduating in 1940. In 1949 Sister Jeannette made first vows at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, taking Sister Blasius as her name in religion. She made final vows in 1952. Her education included LPN training at St. Peter Hospital, Olympia, and clinical pastoral education (CPE) preparation at Sacred Heart Medical Center, Spokane. Assigned to Sacred Heart Province after profession, she was eager to go off someplace, but was disappointed to be assigned to the sisters’ infirmary at Mount St. Vincent. Two years later she was a patient visitor at St. Vincent Hospital, Portland, then at Providence Hospital, Seattle. After nurse’s training she served as an LPN at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle; at St. Mary Hospital, Astoria, Ore.; then at Providence Hospital, Everett. In 1972 she asked to be reassigned from Sacred Heart Province to St. Ignatius Province to help care for her parents. She then served in ministry at St. Clare Hospital, Fort Benton, Mont., then Mount St. Joseph sisters’ infirmary and St. Joseph Care Center, Spokane. Retired since 1995, Sister Jeannette continued to be an active volunteer for several years. “All my ministries were important to me,” she says, adding that she especially loved time spent caring for the babies at St. Thomas Child Care in Great Falls and at a Spanish day care center in Walla Walla. Sixty years have flown by, she says, adding that she has been happy most of the time. Even the changes wrought by Vatican II did not faze her. In fact, she loved being able to understand the Mass better and no longer having to worry about keeping her habit cleaned and ironed. Sister Jeannette looks forward to celebrating her Jubilee with relatives, including her sister. Annette may have entered the religious community first, but Jeannette claims to have been born in the hospital 15 minutes earlier. “I made the way for her.” Jeannette Parent, SP f|áàxÜ UÄtá|âá Charlene Hudon was born in 1937 in Ellensburg, Wash., the fourth child and first girl born to Charlie and Mickie Hudon. It was the end of the Depression and the family moved to Yakima, Tumwater, back to Yakima and finally to Wapato, Wash., where her father bought an apple orchard. Despite a strong, feminine role model in her mother and the birth of a sister in 1942, Charlene followed the example of her three brothers and became a tomboy. She could play football, ride a horse, shoot a gun and work alongside the best of them. Charlene Hudon, SP f|áàxÜ V{tÜÄxÇx `tÜ|x Charlene met the Sisters of Providence in the first and second grades at St. Michael’s School in Olympia. When her father got 60 acres in Wapato, fruit country, Charlene first met Hispanics working in the orchards with their children. In her senior year of high school at St. Joseph’s Academy, Yakima, Sister Mary Gleason was her homeroom and religion teacher. “She would call my classmates aside and ask if they thought about being a sister, but not me,” Sister Charlene recalls. She describes herself as “mischievous and in trouble a lot,” like the time she took a camera that squirted water and asked Sister Jean Marie, the principal, if she could take her picture. That was the young woman who graduated in 1955 and entered the religious community that summer. “I said my friends are going and I should, too. It really threw everybody into a tizzy.” She entered the novitiate at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, but less than six months later she was back at home. She needed to experience more of life and to grow up a bit. A very good bowler, she thought she would “bowl, marry and have at least six boys.” She learned dental assisting from a dentist who took her under his wing and she dated, “but I came home with an empty feeling,” she recalls. For a year and a half she tried to figure it out. On the last day of a Novena of Grace at a retreat, she made a decision to try the convent again, “and immediately there was calm and peace.” Charlene returned to Mount St. Vincent in 1957. Still she struggled in the religious community, but she made it to first profession in 1960. Her class spent a year in Everett, and then was in the first group that moved into Providence Heights in Issaquah, Wash. She continued studies begun at Seattle University and with several summers of 14 Jubilee 2008 education at Gonzaga University in Spokane in between, she graduated from Seattle U in 1963. One year after making final vows she began teaching. Assigned to teach first grade in Sun Valley, Calif., she was relieved to be sent instead to St. Finbar in Burbank, Calif., to teach second grade, as she had in her practice teaching. Sister Charlene taught for nine years in schools in the former Sacred Heart Province, and then spent five years teaching physical education at Providence High School in Burbank. Seeking a change, she became a physical therapist assistant for the next 11 years, working with the elderly at Mount St. Vincent. During this period of time she also saw firsthand the needs of immigrant farm workers. In 1987 she went to Maryknoll Language Institute in Bolivia for five months to study Spanish. In 1988 she moved to Mount Vernon, Wash., to teach ESL at Skagit Valley College and remained here for 16 years. With her teaching background and abilities, all she needed to teach English as a Second Language was to get ESL certification from Seattle University. She worked with Hispanic, Russian and Ukrainian adults not only in tutoring but also in helping them prepare for citizenship, accompanying them to the Immigration Office and attending weddings, baptisms and funerals. The pull of social justice issues has been strong throughout her adult life. While participating in “Witness for Peace” on two trips to Nicaragua she became interested in Central American culture. She also went to Mexico for two weeks to explore the international factories (Maquilas) on the U.S./Mexico border. Sister Charlene has provided hot meals through a Seattle program and has been a resident team member at Providence Hospitality House, a transitional shelter for women. In recent years, combating the illegal trafficking of women and children has become a passion, as has reclaiming the Earth. Sister Charlene is a member of Providence Peace Community, which includes Sisters of Providence, former SPs and dedicated laywomen. It is a very life giving, supportive group that has the goal of promoting non-violence through peaceful means. Sister Charlene loves life and enjoys fun and relaxation, including camping, fishing, gardening, and especially rooting for her late mother’s favorite team, the Seattle Mariners. She reflects on this 50th Jubilee year with the words from Isaiah 61: “Yahweh has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken and to proclaim liberty to captives.” She credits the Sisters of Providence with her personal growth and the grace of God to keep her heart and hands open to the call of Providence. Born in 1929 in the tiny farm community of DeSmet, Idaho, Sister Dolores Ellwart grew up around the Sisters of Providence and side by side with Native Americans. Today she lives and works where she began her life as the eldest of four children. Her father was foreman of a farm owned by the Sisters of Providence and her mother, a nurse, was an enrolled member of the Couer d’Alene Tribe. Dolores attended grade school at Mount St. Joseph Academy in Tekoa, Wash., and high school as a boarder at Holy Names Academy, Spokane. She entered the religious community in Seattle after graduation in November 1947. “God knocked me on the head and said, ‘How about becoming a religious?’ I didn’t become a Holy Names sister because I didn’t want to have to teach,” Sister Dolores recalls. She wanted to become a nurse but found herself teaching instead. In addition, she was transferred from St. Ignatius Province to Sacred Heart Province, on the opposite side of Washington State. “It was hard then,” she says, “but it really was a blessing because I got to know the other sisters” who today are part of the unified Mother Joseph Province. And the teaching didn’t turn out to be so bad either. “Teaching was what God wanted me to do, so I did it.” She has a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Great Falls and a master’s degree in library science from the University of Portland. She taught at Providence Academy, Vancouver, Wash.; St. Michael School, Olympia, Wash.; St. Finbar’s School in Burbank, Calif.; and in parish schools in Missoula and Great Falls, Mont; and Colfax and Walla Walla, Wash. In 1965 she returned to DeSmet, where she taught all of the grades at Mary Immaculate School and also was superior and principal. When the school closed in 1974, she moved across the road to Sacred Heart Mission as parish minister. She also was chairperson of the school board for a number of years at the tribal school started by the Coeur d’Alenes. An enrolled member of the tribe, Sister Dolores has lived in the same trailer on the reservation, 14 miles south of Coeur d’Alene, for 34 years. She teaches religion to youth and adults, prepares children for First Communion and Confirmation, and makes home visits to the elderly and the homebound in Worley, Plummer and DeSmet. “As long as I am of help to the people, I will be a presence,” Sister Dolores says. She faithfully participates in three Masses on Sundays and attends most functions, then travels to Spokane each weekend to be with other sisters. She knows what it is to live in two worlds and would not trade either one. Dolores Ellwart, SP f|áàxÜ VtÅ|ÄÄt Jubilee 2008 22 Though she retired last December, Sister Mary Clare Boland still finds herself rising at 4 a.m., just as she did for the 17 years that she provided pastoral care at the former Providence Seattle Medical Center. After 60 years as a Sister of Providence she is just learning how to shift gears to a more relaxed lifestyle. The youngest child of Joseph and Ethel Boland, she was born in 1930 in Seattle. Her teachers at Holy Family School were Sisters of Providence who cared for students during the Depression by doing eye checks and overall health assessments, making lunches and providing milk money, and buying shoes, Sister Mary Clare recalls. “They wanted the best for their students. They encouraged and inspired us. I knew by second grade that I really wanted to be like those women.” She graduated from Holy Rosary School and entered the Sisters of Providence in June 1947. She professed first vows in 1949 and was a patient visitor for several months at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. Next she taught grades 5-8 at St. Joseph Academy boarding school in the small farming community of Sprague, Wash. “I wasn’t prepared to be a teacher, but as I look back, it was what I was meant to be,” she says. Her teaching assignments took her to Wallace, Idaho; Missoula and Great Falls, Mont.; Seattle and also Sun Valley, Calif. She also served at Providence Heights in Issaquah, Wash., directing the education bloc and teaching practicum for junior sisters. In the 1960s, lifelong neck and back problems led to surgeries and rehabilitations. She was introduced to spiritual care ministry while recovering at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank, Calif. “I loved it, just being able to walk with those in pain and suffering, to be present and support, to give hope.” She arrived at St. Joseph Residence in Seattle in 1973 and began a ministry of caring for older sisters that continued for more than 20 years and encompassed jobs from driver to superior. Drawn to pastoral care ministry, she took spirituality classes and spent a year in clinical pastoral education studies in Steilacoom, then worked in pastoral care for a year at Providence Seattle. From 1979 to 1983 she directed the pastoral care program at St. Peter’s Hospital in Olympia, then returned to St. Joseph Residence as assistant superior before taking over pastoral care at Providence Seattle in 1990. In this year of Jubilee she gives thanks “for the wonderful bounties of religious life” and looks forward to a spiritual time in quiet thanksgiving. “I will pray for the other sisters, for vocations, and that others come to enjoy the blessings of Providence.” Mary Clare Boland, SP f|áàxÜ `tÜç j|ÄyÜ|w At the tender age of 6, Pauline Lemaire wanted to be a Sister of Providence like her first-grade teacher, Sister Mary Leona Miller, then in her second year in the classroom. “Years later, I realized that I had made the connection that her being good to all the children was because of her lifestyle,” Sister Pauline explains. “Her life of prayer and being close to God was what I wanted.” Pauline Lemaire, SP f|áàxÜ VxÄ|Çx Éy ]xáâá Born in Moxee City, Wash., to French-Canadian parents, she grew up on a mink ranch. Her sister was in the fourth-grade classroom, “so I had to fend for myself. I didn’t understand English, but I could watch and follow suit,” Sister Pauline explains. Her first 12 years of school were with the Sisters of Providence at Holy Rosary School in Moxee. When she was a fourth grader, Sr. Esther (Lauretta Frawley), then in her mid 20s, prepared her class for a substitute teacher for a week while she went on retreat and made final vows. “She came back with a ring on her finger and talked about her final vows.” Pauline had long talked about being a sister, but as an adolescent she stopped doing so “as the boys became attractive. I didn’t want to embarrass myself if I changed my mind,” Sister Pauline says with a chuckle. Later, she knew what she wanted. After graduation, she visited relatives in Quebec, then entered the novitiate at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, part of the third class in sister formation. Sister Pauline professed first vows in 1959, then entered juniorate studies, two years living in Everett and commuting by bus to Seattle University, then a year at the new Providence Heights in Issaquah, Wash. Sister Pauline’s first mission was six years teaching second and then first grades at Holy Rosary School in Sun Valley, Calif. Many students were Mexican-Americans who spoke only Spanish in their homes. “I could tell they were not thinking in English,” she explains. “They had a hard time reading and hearing English sounds.” She encouraged her students to tell her the word in Spanish, and then she would tell them in English. “But they were already ashamed of their heritage and would never speak Spanish at school. I never had one child tell me the Spanish name so I could tell them the name in English.” 16 From there, Sister Pauline taught first grade at SP-staffed parochial schools in Tacoma, then Seattle. Next, she taught first grade at Our Lady of the Lake school in Seattle with sisters from several communities. An awakening came when she read about Montessori education and fell in love with what it could do for children. “Every child is respected for who they are, their learning level is respected, and they learn at their own pace. The goal is to help the child learn how to direct their own learning.” That led to 14 years at Providence Montessori School in Portland, including a year as a substitute at a conventional kindergarten using the Montessori philosophy. “I never tired of it,” Sister Pauline says. “The little ones never ran out of energy, but I was starting to …” Next came a year’s sabbatical that included eight months of study in Jerusalem and a visit with the Sisters of Providence in Egypt. Then Sister Pauline moved to Yakima to teach English as a Second Language at the community college. Downsized out of that job, she became a parish volunteer in ESL teaching and did home nursing care as an RN assistant. “I loved visiting with the elderly and listening to their stories, particularly those with local history,” she says. In 2002, she was asked by the province leadership to go to El Salvador to teach English to pre-postulants Vilma Franco and Margarita Hernandez. The five months of communicating with her few Spanish nouns and lots of hand signals fired Sister Pauline up to study Spanish at Eastern Washington University. Then she practiced the language among the Sisters of Providence in Chile, followed by six months in Wapato, working with Mexican immigrants. In the Yakima Valley, Sister Pauline found particular joy in teaching Spanish literacy to adults, including a 74-year-old woman from Mexico who had stayed home to help her mother raise the other children, but always wanted to learn to read for personal enrichment. “She made slow progress. In every little step we rejoiced,” Sister Pauline says with joy. The woman was delighted to be able to sound out some words, and to learn to read her children’s names. Today, Sister Pauline is pursuing a passion: helping pre-school children in El Salvador learn to read. At the end of October she returned to that country, embracing the opportunity to create something new and be of service. It makes her feel youthful, which she admits seems a bit out of step with her 50th Jubilee. “Golden Jubilees are for old people,” she jokes. “I can’t believe I’m here.” Sister Pauline hopes to spend this Jubilee year quietly reflecting on and enjoying the blessings of the past 50 years. She planned to be back in the Pacific Northwest in the summer for a retreat, the Jubilee celebration and the annual community meetings. Jubilee 2008 20 was a new specialty when I began my nursing career and I was pleased to share my knowledge. I had the opportunity to nurse in critical and coronary care units in Medford and Portland, Ore. These units were great places to care for patients, especially on the night shifts when activity slowed and patients lay awake and worried. Charlotte Therese Multz was born the middle child in a third-generation Yugoslavian family with five children, one boy and four girls, in Sioux City, Iowa. Her grandfather was from Sarajevo and her grandmother was from Selo-Blazevci, a small settlement outside Lagneb. Her father, one of six sons who became a well-known and loved insurance agent, and her mother, “an old-fashioned cowgirl” who became a housekeeper, had met and married in East Helena, Mont. The family moved to Yakima when Sister Therese was 5 and she spent the first eight years of school being taught by the Dominican sisters, whom she loved, at St. Paul’s School. Sister Therese says she really got serious about religious life when she was a high school junior at St. Joseph Academy. Therese Multz, SP f|áàxÜ i|vàÉÜ|t My six years on the Provincial Council were a time of change. The province made major organizational changes and the members took on more defined roles in the corporations. Developing the role of councilor for health and social services proved challenging. Administrative positions in the hospitals were an opportunity to help develop plans to meet the specific needs of local communities. This had to be done with many different constituencies, often with conflicting desires. My time in Oakland and both experiences in Anchorage, Alaska, were a delight, however, when a plan came together. Serving as president of Providence Health System was my greatest challenge. The knowledge, support and direction of the board and the qualified staff made the ministry possible. The opportunity to help plan and develop WomanSpirit, a spirituality center for women in Seattle, was an exciting time. Working with the Provincial Council and a group of dedicated women made a unique center available. We were able to provide daily, weekly and special events in a restful, quiet setting. The activities were geared to help the individual identify where she was spiritually and assist in her growth and development. “I didn’t know what community, so I prayed very hard that God would show me,” she recalls. She explored every religious community in a large book from school but still was uncertain. Finishing the dishes one evening, she went in the living room to sit on the couch. “I was saying the Rosary when God showed me that it was the Sisters of Providence that I wanted. He showed me how simple and humble they were and that they were extremely fine teachers. That was all I needed.” I have been pleased to serve in each ministry. The one in which I am involved at the time is enjoyable. I have not been able to select a favorite. Ministry for me continues to be supported by community life and the spiritual life. There are challenges with both, but great rewards. Her decision made, now she had to sell it to her family. She sought God’s help for that, too. The topic led her mother to call for the first Multz family meeting ever. Sister Therese heard all the arguments of why she shouldn’t enter the novitiate in July, but stood her ground. Already working to put herself through Yakima Valley Junior College, she finally acquiesced when her mother insisted that she wait a year to consider whether to enter the novitiate. “I knew it would be a year of temptations; that the devil would be chasing me, and he did,” Sister Therese explains. “But I wanted it so badly. The following year I had to tell them again that I was going.” Her parents delivered her to the sisters at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, and her dad gave her a box of chocolates. “They thought I would never see candy again.” My present ministry is in the country. I love the silence and the peace. It speaks to my soul. The two aspects of the ministry – the contemplative part, the hermitage setting; and the active part, the greening of the universe – are a good balance for me. The location, beauty and the atmosphere, as well as the active work, enhance my prayer. The ability to work closely with the natural world is a blessing. I fill my time with prayer, community events and ‘farming.’ I raise vegetables for the local food bank and with a small flock of hens I provide eggs, as well. Umatilla County has many needy, including migrant workers who contribute to the farming economy. Life is full, continues to be precious, and wildness has given way to gentleness. I love it and I am grateful to God for it. I plan to celebrate my jubilee year by remaining open to my wild and precious life. Sister Therese professed first vows in 1959, taking Sister Victoria as her name in religion because her father’s name was Victor. Her first mission was as a teacher of fourth graders in Tacoma, 18 Jubilee 2008 replacing a sister who had taken ill. “It was wonderful!” she declares. She taught for one month, then returned to the sister formation program in Everett, Wash., then to Issaquah. “My class literally moved us into the College of Sister Formation in 1961,” she says. Teaching became her first love. She taught for 20 years, primarily in the middle grades and in all subjects in Tacoma, Vancouver, Yakima and Seattle, Wash.; Burbank and Sun Valley, Calif.; and Fairbanks, Alaska. One of her fond memories is teaching the fifth grade in Sun Valley, where she was thrilled to be put in charge of the Christmas program for the intermediate grades. “It was so exciting! Every one of the children in the fourth- to sixth-grade classrooms was involved and each had a special thing to do. There was a lot of ballet for the girls and heroic jumping and dancing for the boys. They just loved it and I will never forget it.” Because so many children obviously needed help, she went to Leslie College in Cambridge, Mass., to earn a master’s degree in psychology. When a serious head injury ended her teaching career, Sister Therese became a mental health therapist with a specialty in using creative arts in healing. She worked for one tough year as the only woman at a school for boys on the San Juan Islands, then became activities director for the sisters at Mount St. Vincent. She also became one of the founders of Youth Associates of the Providence Sisters (YAPS), a 25-member ministry group for junior and senior high students that was active in the late 1980s. She led the group based at Kennedy High School with Lawrence Feil, youth minister at Holy Rosary Parish, involving students in community service work in shelters, homes for the elderly and psychiatrically impaired, day centers for street youth and a migrant farm worker camp in the Yakima Valley. The activity reminded Sister Therese that her first call was to work with children, “not just by teaching but through personal involvement,” she says. “Before I entered, I saw a holy card with a picture of a Sister of Providence working with children,” she explains. “It said: ‘We shall have all eternity in which to rest; now we must work.’ I wanted to be there and do the work with her.” She brought that passion and dedication to her ministry in a psychiatric hospital in Kirkland, Wash., and to her current volunteer work at the Women’s Drop-In Center in Spokane, where she has been since 2005. Today, Sister Therese says it doesn’t seem possible that it was 50 years ago that she entered religious life. “But it is important that this year of Jubilee is here. This was absolutely the right choice for my life.” “Tell me, what will you do with your one wild and precious life?” As I have aged, Mary Oliver’s question has become increasingly meaningful to me. No matter one’s aches and frailties, life is precious and wildness diminishes. There is always good one can do. I grew up on the family farm in Wapato, Wash. My parents, Irene and Lee Taylor, started with a small plot and worked hard to gradually increase their land holdings. We had the experience of all the animals and crops raised by farmers as crop rotation occurred regularly. My brother and two sisters and I were often a part of the new plantings. As small children we trudged through the field behind the horse-drawn cart as Mom and Dad planted the new hop yard. I remember the day Dad asked Mom to drive the new tractor back to the house while we teens hurried home to prepare lunch. I looked out to see if we should put lunch on the table and saw Mom driving around and around the house. When she finally came in, she said it would have been nice if Dad had told her how to stop the tractor. The Sisters of Providence have been a part of my growing up. A number of them are relatives -- the closest were my aunts, Sisters Violet and Blanche Dufault. They, along with the Sisters who taught summer vacation school in White Swan, Wash., influenced my life and my thoughts for the future. I love my life as a Sister of Providence and the various ministries in which I participated: teaching, health care, women’s spirituality and now the greening of the universe. Ministering with and for others is such a pleasure. During my initial studies at Seattle University and the College of Sister Formation, I earned both bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees. Later I returned to Seattle University and graduated with a master’s degree in business administration. On a number of occasions through the years I have been blessed with opportunities to refresh my theology. In 1997 I spent the year in the spirituality program at Seattle University. After profession in January 1958 at Mount St. Vincent, Seattle, I assisted with seventh grade in Olympia until the end of school. My limited teaching of children was rounded out by teaching summer vacation schools and assisting teachers during college breaks. I believe I was more successful with educational classes for nurses. Coronary care Dona Taylor, SP f|áàxÜ WÉÇÇt `tÜ|x