Hundreds of years of combined service: Sisters in their nineties reflect on decades of dedicated ministry
As we approach our November Feast of the Presentation of Our lady, we take a brief look back at the lives of four Nonogenerians who have spent between seventy and eighty years of dedicated energy serving the poor, in the footsteps of our Foundress Nano.
Sr. Rosario: As I look back on almost eighty years of Presentation Life I can honestly say that it’s been a very happy one. Plenty of ups and downs but never a day’s regret ! A happy secure childhood and youth were followed by an equally happy and meaningful one in my vocation as a Presentation Sister, where I was able to join with Community in prayer and the ministry of education. Now in my nineties, frail but mobile, I can still continue in the ministry of prayer and contemplation for God’s glory and the saving of our beautiful planet.
Sr Nora
Sr Nora: Sixty-seven years, a lifetime of fruitful and happy work mainly in education, has been Presentation’s precious gift to me and I give thanks for the energy I was able to use in the Zimbabwean Mission. Today we sometimes hear the call ‘Education ! Education ! Education!’ How important that call was three hundred years ago for our enlightened, inspirational Foundress who overcame impossible obstacles to give an education to the poorest of the poor of her time ! My Zimbabwean journey saw me working at primary and secondary level preparing hundreds of students for life and leading Christian Life groups in the service of the Gospel. All was not rosy all the time ! At one point the mission was closed because of war when Liberation fighters took away eighty-five students for training. This was one of the greatest sorrows of my life. Other satisfying activities which we undertook was the leading of Faith and Light meetings with handicapped youth, conducting ‘Better World Retreats ‘ with local people and other Religious Congregations. When I reached the age of ninety I retired to Matlock where I continue serving the Lord in prayer in a lovely caring Presentation Community.
Sr Magdalen
Sr Magdalen: The question ‘ What has Presentation been for me? ‘ brings my response that it has been my very life since I left my Yorkshire home and family in 1947 to cross the sea to Ireland as the first “ Sasanach “ to join the Novitiate in Castleconnel. In keeping with the charism of our Foundress who declared that she would willingly serve the poor in any part of the world, another sea journey happened when I started a new life in India. There I spent thirty-plus fruitful and happy years in places like Madras and Kodaikanal, serving in education amidst multicultural and multireligious situations. My God-given gift of music was well used and to this day “ old ” students are in grateful touch, always recalling the way of life and values that they were taught by the Sisters and which they saw lived out by Nano’s Sisters themselves. Then, in 1980 another sea journey happened, this time to California where a different experience saw more of the same ministry in a different culture. My time back in England working in parishes was also enjoyable and hopefully useful in the spreading of the “Good News.” Now here in Matlock, in the seventy-sixth year of Presentation Life, I am still able to live out my “ retirement “ in a musical way !! Press a button and I will sing both in Chapel and especially to entertain visitors, often called upon. For all of the years a deeply heartfelt ‘Deo Gratias.’
Sr Eithne: ‘ Lord, keep your hand upon me lest I betray You. ‘ This has been a constant prayer all my long life asking for the Grace of keeping faithful to my vowed life as a Presentation Sister, a promise made seventy plus years ago. Throughout all the ups and downs of life God has indeed supplied more than generously the Grace that has kept me on the straight and narrow path which, at His call, I chose to walk. Having been inspired by the charism of Nano I’ve spent my years working for the Gospel in education and in connection with young people up and down the country wherever the mission and need called. For some time now I’ve been happily living in the Matlock Community, though being fairly handicapped by the gradual deterioration of my eyesight. That is what the blessing of Presentation Life been like for me.