Manna House of Prayer celebrates 40th anniversary

Manna House of Prayer celebrated its 40^th anniversary on Aug. 26 with an open house for the community. A crowd of about 150 people kept the building buzzing with activity throughout the afternoon.

The tours of the historic building were part of the attraction many visitors, but others stopped by just to chat with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia and to share in the 40th birthday party for the spirituality and retreat center.

“It was a wonderful fellowship of old friends,” said Susan LeDuc, Manna House of Prayer administrative services area coordinator.

For some guests, it was a chance to study the 19th-century architecture of the original Nazareth Convent and Academy.  Others found the artwork scattered throughout the three-story brick structure most fascinating. And for still others it was a chance to remember when the building at Fifth and Olive streets had served a different mission — particularly its time of service as St. Joseph Hospital.

 “Seeing the former delivery and surgical rooms was a big hit,” LeDuc said.

Diane (LeDuc) Nelson, of Concordia, was eager to see the room where she was born on the third floor of the building. She brought along a sign showing her birthdate to take photos in the room.

“This has been fun,” she said as she examined the former birthing room.

Mary Louise Hydorn, of Concordia, also was born in the building.

“I was born here, and my brother and I both had our tonsils taken out here,” she said. “They did things differently back then. I was in a dorm room with 10 to 12 other women. My brother was 5 and I was 6.”

She particularly remembered the elevator.

“I tried to sneak out on the elevator,” she recalled. “But the Sisters stopped me.”

Door Prizes

In addition to tours, refreshments and a video showing some of the history of Manna House, guests were able to sign up for a drawing for door prizes. Winners of the prizes were: Jeanette Kondratieff, Clay Center: quilt; Bob Frasier, Concordia: bowl cozy; Sarah Ganser, Salina, bowl cozy; Joan Fraser, Concordia: tote bag; Shelly Farha, Concordia: jelly gift basket; Tonya Shea, Minneapolis: jelly gift basket; Ina Garrison, Clyde: bobbin Lace cross; Aline Luecke, Concordia: puzzle; Ann Burgess, Salina: puzzle; Noel Garrison, Clyde: puzzle; Rex O’Brien, Hays: puzzle; and Mary McConniel, Belleville: puzzle.

History

The red brick building that is today Manna House was built in 1884 as the first Motherhouse of the newly arrived Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia. The building first served as the convent and a boarding school, but as the number of sisters and students grew, it soon became apparent that a bigger building was needed to house Nazareth Convent and Academy.

So in 1903, the new (and still current) Nazareth Motherhouse opened at the corner of 13th and Washington streets, and the sisters converted their old home into St. Joseph Hospital.

An addition to the hospital was built in 1915, and the significantly bigger facility remained a hospital until 1951, when the sisters built what is now Cloud County Health Center.

The sisters converted the building into a nursing home and it served as St. Anne’s Home for the Aged until 1977, when the residents there were able to move to the new Mount Joseph Village on the west edge of Concordia.

Renovations began immediately and in just four months — in April 1978 — the building was dedicated as Manna House of Prayer.

The Manna House program actually began a few years earlier and 14 miles to the east — in September 1972 in the former St. Ann Convent in Clyde. The program remained there until moving to its current site in April 1978.

The founding sisters at the first Manna House were Sister Viatora Solbach, who died in 2011, and Sisters Pat Lewter and Faye Huelsmann.

The mission of Manna House, then and today, is to be a place were people of all faiths come for personal and communal prayer, on-going education, quiet time and counseling. Sisters who live there also provide youth ministry, facilitation services, spiritual direction and counseling.

Numerous sisters have served on the staff at Manna House over the years, and have offered a wide range of workshops, seminars and retreats. While always respecting the underlying mission of Manna House, the sisters and staff there continue to seek new ways to serve as new needs arise.

The Helping Hands program — funded solely from donations — offers emergency assistance to people who have no other resources. Through its small food bank and emergency financial assistance, Helping Hands was able to serve more than 1,000 people last year.

Sisters at Manna House also respond to spiritual hunger, with a wide array of retreats and workshops as well as one-on-one spiritual direction. Throughout the year there are workshops on everything from “seasonal spirituality” and the ancient art of bobbin lacemaking to “meditation and movement” and the meaning and mystery of the rosary.

For information on Manna House and its programs, go to mannahouse.org

The October 2018 Messenger is packed full of news and upcoming events

Everyone’s invited to this year’s Pumpkin Patch

That hint of chill in the night air can only mean one thing — it’s almost time for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia’s annual Pumpkin Patch! This year’s family-friendly event will be from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20 and Sunday, Oct. 21.

Last year, scores of little kids — with parents, grandparents and older siblings tagging along — flooded onto the Motherhouse grounds to become bean bag-tossers, corn pile diggers, hay rack riders and pumpkin bowlers. And of course many took advantage of all the fun fall photo opportunities!
The entrance will be at the east gate (between the Motherhouse and the Concordia Community Garden of Hope), and admission costs $3 per person, with kids 2 and younger free.

Returning for a fourth year will be the popular hay ride around the Motherhouse grounds, as well as the corn pile, hay stack slide, pumpkin bowling, games, a scavenger hunt and other kids’ activities.

Kids are encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes as they take part in the fun.

The event is organized by Ambria Gilliland, the Sisters of St. Joseph assistant development director, with lots of other staff members and volunteers lending a hand. For more information, email agilliland@csjkansas.org.

All proceeds from the event will go towards replacing the roof on the historic Nazareth Motherhouse.

Annual Neighbor to Neighbor Holiday Boutique returns Saturday, Nov. 17

The artisans at Neighbor to Neighbor create with all kinds of materials — acrylics and oils, embroidery floss and ribbon, and (of course) sugar, flour, eggs, butter and chocolate.

And all that “art” will be for sale at the seventh annual Holiday Boutique & Bake Sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, at the downtown center, 103 E. Sixth St., Concordia.

Items featured in the boutique include one-of-a-kind jewelry, handcrafted holiday décor, artwork, knit scarves and hats, quilted items, children’s clothes and toys, women’s apparel and unique handkerchief dresses for girls. The always popular bake sale will feature cookies, candies, breads and other goodies. All the items are made by the women who come to the center, along with friends and supporters of the Sisters of St. Joseph who operate Neighbor to Neighbor.

There also will be a silent auction and a drawing for five prizes:

• A trunk full of chocolate
• A hand-crafted quilt
• A baby doll in a basket
• A sled full of coffee and tea
• A Barbie doll with a wicker-trunk wardrobe.

Tickets for the drawings are available at Neighbor to Neighbor; the Nazareth Motherhouse, 1300 Washington St.; and Manna House of Prayer, 323 E. Fifth St., Concordia. Tickets cost $1 each, or six tickets for $5. The drawing will be at 2 p.m. You need not be present to win.

Proceeds from the annual Holiday Boutique go to support the women and ministries of Neighbor to Neighbor.

Eulogy for Sister Patricia Helen Neihouse

VIGIL: July 26, 2018, at the Nazareth Motherhouse
EULOGIST: Sister Janet Lander

Sister Patricia Helen Neihouse begins her life review with Mary’s prayer of praise: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” (Lk. 1:46) May the story of her life which we recall with gratitude at this time truly be a prayer of praise. For, as that prayer continues, ‘God who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is God’s name.'” God has done great things in and through her life.

Pat Neihouse was born July 25, 1936, to John and Inez Ella Foulke Neihouse. She was the fifth of their 13 children, six of whom have predeceased her: Margaret Bruce, Marie Lewis, Joan Lust, Julia Ann Wooldridge, Janet Neihouse and Mary Louise Neihouse, who died at birth. Her parents, too, have gone before her. And now, her sister Mary Catherine Billinger has joined her in eternal life. Sister  Pat is survived by her siblings: Elizabeth Hoggatt, John Neihouse, Virginia Gross, James Neihouse and Gerry Parker, as well as nieces and nephews, and extended family.

Pat was baptized at Sacred Heart Cathedral and attended both the elementary and secondary schools there. Her parents valued Catholic education. She loved school and was a good student. In her life review, with fondness, she remembered the Sisters of St. Joseph and others who were her teachers. She was a tomboy who loved sports. She reminisced that when she was small she was always losing her hair ribbons. Later, she played on basketball and baseball teams.

One of her special memories from her growing up years was having her Grandma Neihouse live in their home with them. When she later entered religious life her dad said to her, “You know it was because of your grandma.” Pat also gives credit to Father Wasinger who accompanied the Legion of Mary and impressed her with his help given to alcoholics and to the needy. He supported her desire to be a Sister of St. Joseph, encouraging her to write to Mother Helena.

Pat entered the Sisters of St. Joseph on Sept. 8, 1954, part of a band of 14 postulants. Most left religious life in the late ’60s and early ’70s. She is survived by band members Sisters Bernadine Pachta and Agnes Irene Huser. After she made first vows in 1956, she spent a year studying at Marymount College. She then taught in Concordia, followed by one year at Cure D’ars in Leawood, Kan. On March 19, 1959, Sister Patricia made final vows. She finished her studies at Marymount and left for Belém, Pará, Brazil on Feb. 22, 1963, with Sister Patricia Vaughan. She arrived in Teresina, Piauí, Brazil on June 25, 1963, with Sisters Margarida, Rose Dominic, and David, beginning more than 50 years of missionary work. She reflected in her life review: “As I look back upon my years in Brazil, I find myself, along with others, in the midst of a new vision of the Church in the world. How many times the Redemptorist priests and we sisters studied the documents as they were being written during the Vatican II Council. We were very excited to put into practice what these documents meant for us and the people of God.”

Sister Pat was enthusiastic about the formation of the laity, helping them to grow psychologically and spiritually.

Over her years of mission work in Brazil she worked in parishes in Teresina and Amarante. She accompanied workers, and tried to help the poor improve their living conditions, coordinating fundraising for aid to the poorest on the periphery of Escalvado, including beginning a community garden. She also worked in the Archdiocesan Catechetical Office, after completing a preparatory course in catechetics. Between 1967 and 1976 she completed other certificate courses in areas of psychology and counseling, and a course for those who would become religious formators.

In the years that followed, she took on many other ministries: retreats and spiritual direction, directing Bible groups, Novice Director, Coordination of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Brazil, Coordinator of the National Conference of Religious of Brazil in Brazil’s northeast, and teaching Enneagram workshops.

When the Congregation opened a mission in Nova Esperança, in the southern part of Pará, Sisters Janira, Augusta and Rita went with Pat to work with nine base ecclesial communities, living among the people in a little house with a thatched roof. In the Diocese of Conceição do Araguaia they helped the poor to learn about their faith and about human rights, and how to improve their health.

Upon returning to Teresina, she resumed giving Enneagram workshops touching the lives of more than 4,000 vowed religious, priests, bishops and seminarians, as a means of self-knowledge, personal growth and spiritual deepening.

About 10 years ago, when Pat’s sister Jan became ill, Pat spent over a year in the United States. Part of this time was spent caring for Jan. However, Pat also took time for personal renewal. She made the Sarah Sabbatical and also the Bearers of the Tradition programs at Manna House of Prayer. She reflected on the latter saying, “Once again I confirmed my consciousness of how beautiful a gift God gave us as Sisters of St. Joseph, our Charism. Together, with many Sisters of St. Joseph of other states and nations, I shared and received new insights. It was a time of joy and gratitude for having been able to participate.”

Pat returned to Brazil, and resumed ministries in leadership, religious formation and and other ministries. She was blessed by being present for the 50^th anniversary celebration of the foundation of the Brazil Mission and her own 60^th jubilee of religious life. When Sister Alexsandra took on the study of English, Pat mentored her through opportunities for conversation in English. When I had the privilege of spending six weeks with our sisters in Brazil in 2014, Pat also took me under her wing until I regained enough Portuguese to speak for myself. She was a gracious hostess.

On Nov. 9, 2017, Pat returned to Concordia due to illness. Leaving Brazil did not end her relationship with the sisters there. She continued to write emails and communicate with them through technology, until that became impossible. Since her passing on Sunday morning, I have received various messages of grief from some of the sisters in Brazil. Their Regional Coordinator, Sister Nair, also wrote to let us know that every night the sisters and many others who loved Irma Patrícia, have been saying a rosary for her. Saturday, they will celebrate her life at the “Seventh Day Mass,” a memorial Mass in St. Joseph’s Church in Teresina, with all the sisters, the Redemptorist priests, parishioners and many of Pat’s friends present.

Pat appreciated her five months at the Motherhouse in Stafford Hall, grateful for the care she received and the time she spent with the sisters, especially playing rummy. She loved to go swimming and be outside. Her illness made it necessary to move to Mount Joseph on April 5, 2018. She has expressed gratitude for the faithfulness of family and community members who have visited her, for the care offered by staff and our sisters who minister at Mt. Joseph, and for the little things like jigsaw puzzles, card games with Sister Lucy, watching the birds outside her window, and an abundance of correspondence, even though her illness and “saudades” or longing for the Brazilian community caused significant suffering.

On Sunday, July 22, Pat slipped quietly into the heart of God. In the last part of Pat’s life one of the books she was using for meditation was a translation of “The Sacrament of the Present Moment” by Jean-Pierre Caussade, SJ, an 18^th century spiritual classic. In it, the author encourages the reader to live in the moment, finding God present, and abandoning oneself to Christ in every aspect of daily life, accepting even obstacles and finding peace. It appears that Pat so took the message to heart that she shone with its transforming grace. In her life review, she quotes Father Caussade who said, “To live by faith then is to live in joy, confidence, certainty and trust in all there is to do and suffer each moment as ordained by God.”

Pat, indeed, you lived each moment with generous courage and humility. In our tradition as Sisters of St. Joseph, this is to live the zeal of Jesus. And as Jean-Pierre Caussade said, “The way opens up before us as we walk, and we follow it with unfaltering steps.”

With new unfaltering steps may you follow Jesus into the life of unending Love.

 
Memorials for Sister Patricia Neihouse may be given to the Sisters of St. Joseph Health Care/Retirement Fund or the Apostolic Works of the Sisters; P.O. Box 279, Concordia KS 66901. To make an online donation in Sister Patricia Neihouse’s memory, click on the button below:

 

 

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia condemn the ongoing violence in Nicaragua

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas stand as one with the following statement of  the U.S. Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in regards to their condemnation of the ongoing violence and injustices in Nicaragua.

Click on the link below for a downloadable pdf.

Nicaragua-Corporate-Voice-Statement

Sin and salvation topics of 2018 Theological Institute

Dr. Nancy Pineda-Madrid was the speaker for the 2018 Theological Institute held July 12-15 at the Nazareth Motherhouse in Concordia. Her topic was “Salvation and the Community of Faith.”

Dr. Pineda-Madrid is an associate professor of Theology and Latino/a Ministry, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry; vice president, International Network of Society of Catholic Theology; past-president, Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States; and author of “Suffering and Salvation in Ciudad Juarez,” and “Hope: Promise, Possibility and Fulfillment.”

“It is the violence in Ciudad Juarez that has forced me to ask questions about salvation,” she said during the opening night of the Institute. “The border region is very much a part of my interest in salvation. We’ll be looking at salvation and what it means to confront the broken and fragmentary experience of our lives, and how Jesus and the Church provide that release.”

The Institute began with a discussion and reflection on the nature of sin, both personal and social.

“We live in a time right now where we have to ask ourselves, when is fear a sin?” Dr. Pineda-Madrid said.

Following the discussion of the nature of sin, three models of salvation were presented over the course of four days: salvation as expiation or atonement; salvation as liberation, and salvation as divinization or transforming love. Each model was explained through Scripture and texts, as well as by putting it into the context of theological figures in history.

“I want to present us with a range of models of salvation,” she said as she gave the group a roadmap of the upcoming days of study. “There are a lot of ways to think about salvation. They aren’t mutually exclusive; they spill into each other.”

Dr.Pineda-Madrid grew up near the border in El Paso, Texas. She is the niece of Sister Esther Pineda, CSJ (deceased). Her parents, Gus and Rachel, attended the institute. Gus is Sister Esther’s brother.

The Sisters of St. Joseph established the annual Theological Institute a way to continue their long-standing educational tradition, exemplified by the schools they founded and staffed, including Marymount College in Salina. The program is held each summer in Concordia.

The 2019 Theological Institute is scheduled for July 18-21 and will feature Dr. Shannen Dee Williams, speaking on the topic, “The Sin of Racism.” Dr. Williams is the author of the book “Subversive Habits: Black Nuns and the Long Struggle to Desegregate Catholic America.” Her study chronicles the epic journey of black Catholic sisters in the United States from their fiercely contested beginnings in the nineteenth century to the present day. For more information on reserving a spot for the 2019 Theological institute, email retreatcenter@manahouse.org.

 

Eulogy for Sister Margaret Rourke — Dec. 23, 1947 – June 1, 2018

VIGIL: June 11, 2018, at the Nazareth Motherhouse
EULOGIST: Sister Marilyn Wall

“As for your zeal, it will always be proportionate to the love for God in your heart; see that it springs from a great love and it will be great.” 

— Maxims of Perfection, Chapter XI, No.1

Sister Margaret Rourke was born on a very cold night, Dec. 23, 1927, at her family’s farm home, 11 miles northwest of McCracken, in the southeast corner of Trego County.  She was baptized, Margaret Louise, at St. Mary’s Church in McCracken on Jan. 14, 1928. She was the fifth of seven living children.

Of her childhood, she said, “I grew up close to the soil and close to nature. As a child I spent time contemplating the vastness of the sky and its distance from the earth. I loved to explore the green pastures, play in the waterholes after a rain, climb hills with my brothers and sisters and play imaginary games under the trees or on the hillside.”

Margaret talked about one of her earliest awakenings about God. It was on a bright Sunday morning when she was about five years old. The family was riding to church with the five oldest children seated in the back and she was sitting on a cream can, as was customary.  She asked, “When will we be finished going to Church?”

Her mother and the others tried to explain that they would never get finished. “We will go every Sunday every year all the time.” She said that was unfathomable to her, but it caused her to ponder who this God might be and what was he like.

One of the things she said she really lacked was social interactions with children outside her family and relatives. She went to a one-room school with about 10 students. She had one classmate through third grade, and that classmate was her cousin, Marjorie Rourke. After third grade, Marjorie’s family moved and Margaret was the only one in her class. However, she said her high school years were a good contrast.

When Margaret was ready for high school, her two older sisters, Lucille and Eileen, who had stayed home a year to help during their mother’s illness, were ready for their junior and sophmore years. The three of them stayed at an apartment that her family rented in Ellis and went to school there.

After high school, Margaret went to Marymount in Salina. She said that she felt early in her time there that she might be called to religious life … but she waited until the end of the year to talk about it just in case a young man might sweep her off of her feet. In the end, God’s call was clear. Margaret entered this community of St. Joseph on March 19, 1947 … 71 years ago. On March 19, 1948, she received the habit and the name Sister Mary Thomasine. Living band members are Sisters Christella Buser, Vivian Boucher and Mary Savoie.

Her first mission was Tipton where she taught grades 1, 2 and 3 (about 45 children). Sister Christella, who was in her band, was also in Tipton for the same five years. Her second mission was Leoville, where she taught the same grades but had only about 26 children. Also on that same mission in Leoville was Sister Ann Louis, her principal. The two of them became lifelong friends and supported each other in all areas and especially in their spiritual journeys. After two years in Cawker City, she was assigned to Sacred Heart High School to teach math which was a real stretch for her. But the biggest stretch was going to St. John’s High School in Beloit to teach biology, chemistry and physics. She had taken one course in chemistry seven years earlier and five hours in biology in summer school. With Sister Marie Kelly’s help she survived.

In her life review Sister Margaret relates, “The years after the Vatican II Council were both rocky and exciting. I considered my nine years in Clyde to be more growth-producing that any other nine years in my life.” At Clyde, Margaret worked with Sister Judy Stephens and an innovative team that offered catechetical education and pastoral support to several parishes in the region. In Margaret’s words, “The changes, the new ministry, my readiness to risk growing, my experience with the CPE course under Father Frost at Independence, Iowa, the many workshops, conventions, courses, congregational thrust toward renewal, friendships, outings and travels were all contributing factors.”  

Eventually, Margaret took a position in adult education and parish ministry at Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish in Overland Park, Kan. This position lasted for 12 years, and as in all of her ministries, she continued to grow in zeal and in her life with God.

Throughout her life Margaret was courageous in the cause of justice and relentless in the alleviation of poverty. In her “retirement” from active ministry she was mission coordinator for Appeals for our Brazilian Sisters. This she did with the same enthusiasm and diligence as she did everything else. For ten-plus years she organized parish presentations and did many of them herself. When her presentations took her to western Kansas or to Colorado she loved to spend an overnight with her family.

On the occasion of her 50th Jubilee she reflected, “For me this is a moment of facing the NOW at a deeper level of realization of how each of us has become who we are today because of our gifts … gifts that surfaced from our deepest center or gifts from one another and from all of creation.”

Margaret also maintained a close relationship with her family over the generations participating in and planning many family reunions and celebrations and being of help and support whenever someone needed her. Margaret was very close to her nieces and nephews. In these past years she has been a pivotal point for her nieces, who have loved to come here to Concordia from their various home bases to dote over and stimulate Margaret … and to find time to nourish their own relationships with one another. The sisters here in Concordia have also benefited from the joy and fun they bring.

Even as a resident at Mount Joseph, Margaret’s eyes have sparkled with zeal and acceptance. She has exemplified for me and many others the portrait of a Sister of St Joseph: “in her face the reflection proper to our Congregation — continual joy of spirit.  This is the quiet inner glow of the Sister whose life in the service of Jesus has been successful.”

Memorials for Sister Margaret Rourke may be given to the Sisters of St. Joseph Health Care/Retirement Fund or the Apostolic Works of the Sisters; P.O. Box 279, Concordia KS 66901. To make an online donation in Sister Margaret Rourke’s memory, click on the button below:

 

 

Spring into a new Messenger!

Spring into a new Messenger

 

The April edition of The Messenger is always an exciting one, and this year is no different. We have Sisters and Novices at the border, a Spaghetti Dinner recap, exciting news from the Marymount Alumni Association and a calendar bursting with activities for the future.

The print edition is in the mail today, and it’s available here right now as a flipbook. To open the flipbook edition, just click on the image below:

 

 

Eulogy for Sister Therese Richstatter — Dec. 21, 1929 – April 13, 2018

Vigil: 7 p.m. April 16, Nazareth Motherhouse
Eulogist: Sister Marilyn Wall

Live out your whole life with one desire only, to be what God desires you to be
In nature, grace and glory in time and in eternity.  (Maxim #73)

Sister Therese Richstatter was born on Dec. 21, 1929 in the Clay Center Hospital.  She was the youngest of two children with a sister named Frances who was a year and a half older than herself.  Her parents were Edward and Martha (Klemm) Richstatter and they lived on a farm south of Greenleaf, Kan. She was baptized in St. Michael’s Church in Kimeo and given the name Anna Elizabeth.

Kimeo, at that time, was a thriving and faith-filled community centered around the Catholic Church. There were families on practically every section and most of the families were large. There were two masses on Sunday morning and the Church was full for both masses. The Church was (and still is) large and beautiful, its steeple can be seen for miles around. Anna and her sister attended a one room school half a mile from their home.  On Saturdays they attended religious instructions.  The Sisters of St. Joseph taught religious vacation school every summer in Kimeo.  It was there that Anna first met our sisters. She and Frances received their First Holy Communion together.  Anna had just completed first grade.

Therese wrote in her life review: “I was born at the beginning of the depression and we were poor.  Because there were no boys in our family, my sister and I helped with the chores on the farm. I attended Green High School in Green, Kan.  I boarded with a family who owned a furniture store there. In high school I played basketball and was in the junior and senior plays.  It was in high school that I first felt called to religious life. I used to read missionary magazines and wanted to be a missionary.  I attribute my religious vocation primarily to my parents who set a good Christian example.  They never encouraged me to enter religious life and I felt that they would rather that I didn’t. But they never did anything to make it difficult for me to do so.”

 “After I graduated from high school in 1948, I worked at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Concordia. I entered the convent on Sept. 7, 1949.  I received the habit on March 19, 1950 and was given the name Agnes Therese.  I later dropped Agnes from my name.  I made final vows on March 19, 1954. The Novitiate was a most happy experience. There were 15 of us in our band.”

The only surviving members of her band are Sisters Alice Marie Stalker and Rita Ann Mazanec.

 “My mother died July 20, 1954 and my father died Dec. 16, 1958.  My sister, who had crippling arthritis since she was sixteen, died April 14, 1978.  This was one of the hard things for me.  When other sisters went home for visits, I had no family left to visit.”

Therese graduated from Marymount in 1967. She then earned a Master’s Degree in Theology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. During her studies there she wrote a paper titled:  “Love in the Epistles of Paul” I will quote from that paper later and that is why the readings tonight and tomorrow at Mass are from St. Paul and on love.

 Therese loved her years of teaching, and said that one of her favorite years was her first mission year at St. Joseph and Ann School in Chicago. She also taught at Concordia, Clyde, Cawker City, Grand Island, Booneville, Tipton and Salina. She particularly enjoyed preparing students for First Holy Communion.  She also enjoyed being Sacristan, and later, Eucharistic Minister and taking communion to the sick wherever she was missioned. In 1987 she earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Emporia State University and then was librarian at Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Topeka. She had a great love of learning and was very well read.

 Of her own spirituality, Therese said: “My experience of God is a constant presence, who has always been there in my life as long as I can remember”. 

In her composition on love, she identified this reality also: “Here faith does not mean adhering to God’s word so much as belonging to Christ in a gift of oneself to God which is so total that it permits God to communicate God’s life to us and to work in us.”

Is this not also an apt description of our ministry of presence?

Therese also, over the years of her ministry,  engaged in many activities as volunteer and this speaks to her love and compassion for people. She taught religion in Huntington Beach, Calif., in a program called Sonshine.  She also taught reading in a summer enrichment program on the Oneida Indian Reservation in Wisconsin. In Topeka, she volunteered at the public library and the Better Business Bureau, taught RCIA and passed mail on Saturday mornings at St. Francis Hospital. At Medaille, she volunteered in the Green Thumb Program.

 In her Commitment to Mission and Life Statement for the year 2015-2016, Therese spoke directly out of the experience of life that has been hers in her later years and once again identified her experience of presence to God.  “I sit and wait, unable to do my own care; I wait for when others decide it is time.  My prayer is waiting … waiting for meals, Mass, communion.  May God bless my waiting, and God’s desire in my life.”

Therese, your wisdom, knowledge, sense of humor and your givenness have enriched us all.  We are grateful for your life among us and know that now you are totally in God and present to us and encouraging us in all ways.

I would like to close with a blessing from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 3, verses 17-19.
“May Christ, who has dwelt in your heart through faith,
And has been the root of charity and the foundation of your life,
Enable you to grasp fully with all the holy ones,
The breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love,
And to experience this love which surpasses all knowledge,
So that you may attain to the fullness of God”.

 

Memorials for Sister Therese Richstatter may be given to the Sisters of St. Joseph Health Care/Retirement Fund or the Apostolic Works of the Sisters; P.O. Box 279, Concordia KS 66901. To make an online donation in Sister Therese Richstatter’s memory, click on the button below:

 

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