World Day of Consecrated Life: Sisters consider the role of hope in their religious vocation

I am filled with gratitude for my religious vocation, and I am hopeful that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our world can and will be transformed and that all people will come to know that oneness for which Jesus Christ was sent.”

Sister Mary Ann Carey SSND

This year’s World Day of Consecrated Life — on which the Church honored and particularly prayed for consecrated religious sisters, brothers and religious priests — coincided with the Church-wide observance of the Jubilee Year of Hope.

Several sisters serving in various roles throughout the Jefferson City diocese reflected on how God has used their personal vocation to Consecrated Religious Life and the charism of their various religious congregations to share hope with the people they pray for and minister to.

• “Building relationships of any kind among people of various cultures and various beliefs brings hope to our planet that is so diverse,” stated Sister Cathy Vetter CCVI, a Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word, who lives and volunteers in Jefferson City.
• Sister Ruth Ann Klauser said since God invited her to answer his call to be a School Sister of Notre Dame almost 60 years ago, his generosity has always included hope.

“Take each day with eyes open, and look at the many miracles and surprises that God gives to us!” said Sr. Ruth Ann, who is the consecrated religious representative to the Diocesan Pastoral Council.

“All the wonderful people and events that come our way each day are the gift of a generous God that enables me to share his gift of hope every day of my life,” she said. 

• That same charism is what attracted Sister Kathleen Wegman to the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

“I have always felt called by God to help impact that charism wherever and in whatever capacity I was asked to serve,” said Sr. Kathleen, who is the bishop’s delegate for religious in the diocese.

She noted that an important part of the SSND mission is education, and educators instinctively recognize potential in other people.

“That is deep within me, and it gives me hope,” she said.

The SSND constitutions, under which the sisters exercise holy obedience to their religious superiors, emphasize that “we are educators in all that we are and do.”

“May I continue to strive to be faithful to this,” said Sr. Kathleen.

• Sister Bernita Wasinger SSND, who visits people who are homebound or living in nursing homes in and near Linn and Loose Creek, noted that hope is hard to touch.

“However, it gives purpose to my life as a consecrated religious in the SSND community,” she said.

The strength she receives from that community is powerful.

“As I visit folks, I notice how they look for hope in their difficult situations,” she stated. “As I pray with them, it seems to restore or awaken in them their reason for being. It gives them hope.

“I hope a lot each day!” she added.

• Sister Mary Ruth Wand SSND is a pastoral minister at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Sedalia and visits people in hospitals and nursing homes.

She previously served for many years as a Catholic school educator and principal.

“In the spirit of the Gospel and of our foundress, Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger, I try to make Jesus present through the ministry of education,” she said.

“United with God’s people, my hope for the year and for the future is through the Eucharist, simple living, and Mary our mother,” said Sr. Mary Ruth. 

• Sister Mary Ann Carey SSND said she unknowingly first experienced the charism of that congregation while being taught by SSNDs in elementary school.

“I learned as much or more from their example as from their words,” she stated.

Sr. Mary Ann especially remembers her first-grade teacher, Freeburg native Sister M. Teresella Bauer, now deceased, as a living example of the great way God works through a religious congregation and its individual members.

From her earliest years, Sr. Mary Ann hoped to follow in her teachers’ footsteps by becoming a sister and educator “in order to spread the Good News of God’s love for all people to all people.”

“I am filled with gratitude for my religious vocation, and I am hopeful that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our world can and will be transformed and that all people will come to know that oneness for which Jesus Christ was sent,” she said.

• Sister Mary Rost, pastoral associate at Immaculate Conception Parish in Brookfield, spent 42 years of her religious life in formal education in Catholic elementary schools.

A major goal for her in that role was to help each student more closely reach his or her potential.

“The next 17 years have been more involved in the life of a parish, working with many active parish leaders, helping to guide the parish to a deeper prayer life and encouraging people to be involved in the ways we reach out to our needs and the needs of others,” she said.

One way she tries to show hope and belief among parishioners is to actively participate in the activities of the parish.

• Sister Linda Maune SSND, a teacher at Holy Family School in Freeburg, said she is motivated by the SSND charism to be enriched by the past and challenged by the future.

At the beginning of this Jubilee Year of Hope, she especially feels called to appreciate the gift of each new day.

“As I minister to young children, I continue to try to help them reach the fullness of their potential, for they are our future,” she stated.

Her students continue to inspire her to respond to her calling and to be a witness of hope in this troubled world.

Clarity and perspective

Pope St. John Paul II initiated the World Day for Consecrated Life in 1997, to be celebrated each year on Feb. 2, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.

The Church in the United States celebrates the day on the Sunday closest to the feastday.

This year, sisters who are on mission throughout the Church in central and northeastern Missouri gathered in the home of Bishop W. Shawn McKnight for their communal observance of the feastday.

Together, the sisters prayed, visited, shared a meal and helped God reinforce each other’s unique baptismal call to holiness and service in the Church.

The sisters and Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki, vicar general of the diocese, began with a prayer service in the bishop’s dining room.

They sang hymns, chanted Psalms, offered prayers of thanksgiving and petition and contemplated the day’s Scripture readings.

Sr. Kathleen asked everyone to remember in prayer all of the sisters who have served in this diocese “who have gone before us and are now enjoying the peace of God.”

The sisters also lifted up in prayer the world, the Church and all who serve God.

They prayed for all who are called to Consecrated Life; for others to be called and to answer that calling; for the leaders of each of their congregations of religious women; for families throughout the diocese; and for all who have died.

They also contemplated their own call to religious life and how each could further advance the founding mission of her congregation at this time in history.

They exchanged a sign of peace and received a blessing before adjourning to a “happy half-hour” of fellowship, followed by a meal and an abundance of stories and laughter.

Msgr. Kurwicki marveled at the combined years of service and commitment among the sisters at the gathering.

He spoke of two important characters in that Sunday’s Gospel reading: Simeon and Anna, who were filled with the Holy Spirit and recognized the infant Jesus as the Savior when his parents brought him to the Temple to present him to God, in keeping with the Jewish law.

Msgr. Kurwicki noted that Simeon and Anna had spent their lives praying and patiently waiting, which gave them spiritual maturity and needed perspective.

The priest likened that to the years sisters spend in formation and in decades of religious life.

“Simeon and Anna were both spiritually mature enough to recognize who Jesus was,” Msgr. Kurwicki noted. “And that’s why you gave your life to Christ. You recognized who Jesus was for you!”

He thanked the sisters for all they are and all they do, and also gave thanks for the families who raised them and helped form them.

“You wouldn’t have your vocation if you didn’t have the families that you have,” he noted.

Bishop McKnight, who was making a pastoral visit to Uganda, homeland of several missionary priests who are serving in this diocese, posted a World Day of Consecrated Life message over social media.

“Please join me in praying for all those who have dedicated their lives to God through the gift of consecrated life,” the bishop stated.

“Let us thank them for their faithful witness and pray that they remain strengthened and inspired by Jesus Christ to continue living out their vocation with generosity and joy,” he wrote.