I came to the College of Saint Teresa (CST) in 1956, following the legacy of my mother, who attended Saint Teresa’s in the early1920s. Mom was a music major, though I was not. I was an Elementary Education major with a music minor. I was lucky to have several of the same teachers that had taught my mom.
In January 1957, four of the five of us who lived in one corner of Lourdes Hall, joined the Franciscan Community at Assisi Heights in Rochester. I was one of them. Later in January, we returned to the college campus for the remainder of the school year and then spent the following two years at Assisi Heights as Novices. After taking temporary vows in 1959, fifteen of us returned to CST to live in Assisi Hall, teach at a local elementary school and complete our bachelor’s degrees. Though I graduated in 1962, I still identify with the classmates I met and lived with who graduated in 1960.
What can be said about those years? I was given the opportunity of working a summer in Cabrini Green in Chicago, when it was still a dangerous place, quite an experience it was, bringing this small-town farm girl to the large city. There I met Dr. Martin Luther King, drove a minibus full of kids from the ghetto, and sat on a fireplug during an evening while playing my guitar, gathering the community to sing and encouraging the adults to come join classes in our school. At the end of the summer, I was honored to bring a yellow school bus packed with those kids from the ghetto, to rural Minnesota for a vacation with cooperating families.
A summer spent in Charleston, South Carolina, again, was a gift from the Franciscan Community. It opened my eyes to so many things that, until then, had not been a part of my life experience. Confusion – when, after purchasing some treats at a roadside store, I found a sign tacked to the door which said, “All purchases made to people of color will be donated to the KKK.” I went back into the store to return the items to the “nice” man, only to have the items flung at me with words I cannot repeat here. Sadness – when one of my students drowned while helping to integrate a beach... and I was asked by the family to attend the all Black Community funeral in my all-white habit. Fascination – when we were invited to the Islands where the Gullah People lived and encouraged to join their service, eat with them and join them in song.
Can you imagine the range of teaching opportunities within the Community? It was awesome and gave me a breadth of experience few have. To be honest, I must admit that second and fifth grades were my favorite, but I taught everything from a combined first/second grade to middle school physical education, and even high school choir. I learned so much from the knowledgeable nuns with whom I lived and grew under their tutorship.
Then came a summer in St. Paul working with Native American, African American and Latino teens. They begged to start a coffee house where they could invite teens from the suburbs to come and talk with them, sing with them, play games with them – and they did just that. Those kids worked hard, got the permissions and the materials they needed, and opened a Coffee House in the basement of the Church during the Church’s summer festival. I was so proud of them.
There are not enough words to express how the Franciscan Community helped to form the remainder of my life: how St. Teresa’s educated not just my mind, but my soul; formed strength within me to BE the woman it was possible for me to be.
I did not remain Sister Lisieux, but left the Franciscan Community in 1968 to pursue the rest of my life. There is no doubt that I have carried and shared what I learned in those years of my young adult life. Given this opportunity to look back on those years, I am newly reminded of how they influenced and cemented some things for me, and I am grateful. As indicated earlier, I would not be the 84-year-old woman I am today without those very valuable moments. I am forever grateful.
