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| ‘I made a decision and never looked back’ | |||
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May 22, 2005
The diocese has 43 men and women religious, seven of whom are celebrating significant anniversaries in 2005.The Diocese of Knoxville is currently home to 33 sisters and 10 brothers. Below you’ll find brief question-and-answer interviews with seven who are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year.
Q: What are you most thankful for? A: For more than 30 years I worked with handicapped children. I learned from them how to be patient, compassionate, and caring. I’m very grateful because they taught me a lot about life.
Q: Who inspired you to become a sister? A: My great aunt was a Sister of Mercy. I had a cousin who was a Sister of Charity. Growing up as a kid, I always said I would never become a nun, but I think I was trying to deny that I wanted to be one. All through grade school I really loved the sisters, but in high school I became very close to them and spent time with them. That was where I really made a decision, and I’ve never looked back. Q: What advice would you offer to a young woman who is discerning a call to religious life? A: If you are really interested in praying and growing in prayer, this would be a great opportunity. If you want to be of service and minister, it’s also a great opportunity.
Q: What are you most thankful for?
A: For my vocation, that God has called me to serve his people in the church.
[I’m thankful] for my Catholic upbringing. My parents were devout Catholics,
and I’m sure the seed of my vocation was planted through my parents’ prayers
that the seven children in our family would do whatever God called us to do in
life. Q: Who inspired you to become a sister? A: I went to college and tried several things, but there was something I was missing in my life. I wasn’t really completely at peace or happy. It just hit me like a bolt of lightning that God wanted me to be a sister. I was going to daily Mass at the time. Father [Philip] Thoni was instrumental in my vocation too. Q: What do you think about the declining numbers of people entering religious life? A: It makes you feel bad that more girls are not entering. I know it’s all in God’s hands. We just have to do the best we can with what we have.
Q: What are you most thankful for? A: My Mercy community. Being a Sister of Mercy has been a joy, and I’m so glad that God and I agreed on that for me.
Q: How will you celebrate your anniversary? A: I’m celebrating in Nashville at Mercy Convent on Aug. 6. We’ll have a liturgy at 1:30 p.m. in the convent chapel, followed by a reception for everybody. Q: Who inspired you to become a sister? A: I’m from Memphis, and the Sisters of Mercy at Immaculate Conception School were just wonderful. Q: What advice would you offer to a young woman who is discerning a call to religious life? A: Do your best to grow up as a fine Catholic young woman, and ask God to lead in the path he wants you to go.
Q: How difficult was it to enter the convent at age 15? A: I wasn’t used to being away from my family, but when I saw the example of the other sisters in the convent, I said, “If the sisters can do it, I can do it.”
Q: Did you celebrate your anniversary? A: I was in Atlanta to visit one of the sisters who had a car accident. The most beautiful thing for me was the sisters who lived in the house [with her] remembered it was my anniversary. Q: What advice would you offer to a young woman who is discerning a call to religious life? A: To use the words of John Paul II, don’t have fear. Christ is more than an obligation. It’s a blessing to be called, and it needs to be seen that way. It might seem old-fashioned to go into religious life, but it’s something that needs to be done, and God is not old-fashioned. Q: Did your family support your vocation? A: My brother tried to talk me out of it. I convinced him by saying I was going to go [to the convent] for a week. To this day he teases me and says, “OK, is the week over yet?” after 15 years.
Q: What are you most thankful for?
A: The people who guided me. . . . I had started going to daily Mass because
I had a lot of questions about things I was reading in the Bible. There was a
Dominican priest, Father Marcin Mankowski, who was so happy to answer my questions. Q: You were in the U.S. Army. How did that benefit you as a sister? A: In the area of obedience. . . . It’s so necessary for a religious to trust that, by the vow of obedience, God’s will is coming through our superiors. Q: What advice would you offer to a young woman who is discerning a call to religious life? A: Spend time in prayer. Go to confession regularly. Spend time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, talking to him. The book The Imitation of Christ was a big help for me. Q: What did your parents think when you first broached the subject of religious life? A: My mom hung up on me the first time. . . . But she saw how happy I was at my first profession. She’s very happy about it now.
Q: What are you most thankful for? A: Being called to this life. I never had any second thoughts about it. I certainly appreciate the calling, and I’m really happy with it.
Q: What do you do now? A: I have an outreach program with St. Ann’s. Mostly I’m involved in housing, either building or repairing, but we also reach out to those who need help with food, clothing, utility bills, and so forth. Q: How long have you been doing that? A: This July, it will be 28 years. Q: Did you live in a monastery at first? A: Yes. It was a community of brothers, and we followed a regular schedule. I spent most of my years at St. Joseph’s Farm in Notre Dame, Ind. I came down here to Tennessee with a group of four brothers in 1978. We all did different things—I got involved in housing and building.
Q: What are you most thankful for?
A: Probably that I got hit over the head and came in [to religious life]. It
took about three attempts by the Holy Spirit, and it finally hit me the third
time, and that was it. I’m grateful that I joined. It’s been wonderful
for me—not always easy, but certainly great. Q: How did you come to be a brother? A: I had been working at a very good job. I was office manager for a company that built oil refineries. I came to the conclusion that I had a good life and that it was time to give something back. I wanted to do something worthwhile. Q: What is your greatest challenge? A: Living community life because many times I thought, “It’s time to leave this.” Q: What advice would you offer to a young man who is discerning a call to religious life? A: I would tell him to do something temporary to get the feel of it before he makes any final decision. Then he can get acclimated to what religious life is all about before finally deciding. | |||
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Sister Patricia Connolly, RSM, Mercy sponsorship, St. Mary’s Health System,
Knoxville; first profession Aug. 15, 1955, at the Sisters of Mercy motherhouse,
Cincinnati
Sister Mary Thomasetta Mogan, RSM, Mercy sponsorship, St. Mary’s Health
System, Knoxville; first profession Aug. 16, 1955, at the Sisters of Mercy motherhouse,
Cincinnati
Sister Margaret Turk, RSM, community services, St. Mary’s Health System,
Knoxville; first profession Aug. 16, 1955, at the Sisters of Mercy motherhouse,
Cincinnati
Sister Carmen Gordillo Garcia, MAG, Hispanic Ministry, Five Rivers Deanery; first
profession April 15, 1990, at Capilla del Convento de Hermanas Misioneras del
Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Ad-gentes in Huamantla, Tlaxcala state,
Mexico
Sister Vincent Marie Keeling, OP, teacher, St. Mary School, Oak Ridge; first
profession Aug. 10, 2000, at the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia motherhouse,
Nashville
Brother Paul Bray, CSC, director of the Cumberland Building Ministry, St. Ann
Parish, Lancing; first professed vows Feb. 2, 1950, at Sacred Heart Basilica,
Notre Dame, Ind.
Brother Anthony Ragucci, CFA, assistant director for the Signal Mountain community
of Alexian Brothers; first professed vows March 19, 1960, at the Alexian Brothers
novitiate, Gresham, Wis.