News - June 4, 2011
Six Jubilarians Celebrate 365 Years of Ministry
Top Row: Ellen Caldwell, CSJP (75 years), Zitamarie Poelzer, CSJP (70 years), Edith Reif, CSJP (60 years), Mildred Morrissey, CSJP (60 Years - not pictured)
Bottom Row: Judy Tralnes, CSJP (50 Years), Andrea Nenzel, CSJP (50 years)
Five Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace celebrated their collective 365 years of love and service in religious life at Sacred Heart Church in Bellevue, Washington on June 4, 2011 in the presence of community, family and friends. Sister Mildred Morrissey, CSJP, celebrating 60 years, was not able to join us in the Church due to health but was with us in spirit. Our presider at liturgy was Fr. Scott Connolly, pastor of Assumption Church in Bellingham, WA.
Some excerpts from Susan Dewitt, CSJP's homily (read at our liturgy by Carmel Little, CSJP):
Provoking to love and good works is one of the great arts of community, and I think it’s fair to say that all of our Jubilarians have been provokers of love, and have been provoked and encouraged to love. They have challenged themselves and others “to accept and and share our gifts” and they have “empowered others to do likewise,” in the words of our Constitutions.
Each of these Sisters we celebrate here today, like any true Christian, has also experienced abuse and affliction, endured what the letter to the Hebrews calls contests of suffering. On this happy day, in this joyful celebration of Jubilees, we find it easier to remember their shining times, their enormous accomplishments, the way each of these Sisters has been a lamp set on a lampstand to light the path for others. But we must honor also the hard times, the days of doubt or anger or sorrow, of illness, of loss, because in those times our Sisters Ellen, Zitamarie, Mildred, Ede, Andrea and Judy have endured and in enduring and doing the will of God they have received great recompense. Each of these Sisters, each of our shining lamps, has measured out a full measure of love and service.
Sister Ellen Caldwell came from Ireland to make her first vows in 1936, 75 years ago, in a time very different from today. Sister Ellen has been a shining light in our PeaceHealth Hospitals, serving the people of God with quiet dignity and loving care, notably as administrator of Ketchikan General Hospital. From 1965 until 2009, for 44 years, Sister Ellen lived in our Bellingham community where she was part of the fabric of St. Joseph Medical Center, playing so many different roles that she could probably have staffed the hospital administration single-handed. Sister Ellen’s light now shines in our community here at St. Mary-on-the-Lake.
Sister Zitamarie Poelzer has long been provoking her students and friends to love and good works; she has been a lamp placed on a lampstand as a teacher in our schools, as a campus minister, and as a fearless explorer of the spiritual life. She came to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace from Saskatchewan in 1941, spent many years as a teacher in our Seattle area schools, and then branched out into campus ministry in Oregon. She later taught herbology, nutrition, and the Silva method – and somewhere along the way earned four Masters degrees. Her light shines now at St. Mary’s and in summer days in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. How wonderful that a group of her former students from St. Therese School are here to celebrate with her!
Sister Mildred Morrissey has been keeping those challenging vows for a mere 60 years. She first met the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace when she and her sister lived in St. Teresa Residence, in Seattle, and in 1951 she was received into the community. Sister Mildred put her heart into her ministries as teacher and practical nurse – she especially treasured her days working with seniors at the Josephinum – and then she became for many years the voice of St. Mary-on-the-Lake, handling phone calls and announcements with aplomb. We all know that Sister Mildred’s light shines brightest when she’s making one of her jokes, and we all love to hear her laugh.
Sister Ede Reif’s life of joyful and loving service to the people of God has lighted the way for a multitude of patients, friends, and sisters. A nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene when she entered the community in 1951, Sister Ede supervised nurses in most of our PeaceHealth hospitals, then took on the great adventure and mission of working with Catholic Relief Services in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. With a Masters in Social Work, she returned to our hospitals in a new role. She brought her skills as nurse and social worker and her loving warmth to ministry to the Sisters at St. Mary’s and to her sunny years in San Diego. Who can resist Ede’s smile or her invitation to chat?
It’s been a mere 50 years of ministry and mission for our two golden Jubilarians, Sisters Andrea Nenzel and Judy Tralnes, but these two tall Sisters have surely not been hiding under any bushel baskets.
Sister Andrea gave the whole measure of herself to community when she came from the Canadian prairies to join the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace in 1961. I’m told that she got into trouble for questioning authority in the novitiate – perhaps as a consequence, she’s spent many of her 50 CSJP years in positions of authority. From teaching to organizing a Congregational Experience program to work with refugees in El Salvador and AIDS patients in Alaska, from Province leadership to steering the mission of PeaceHealth, Andrea has brought her passion for justice and commitment to the people of God to everything she does. This fearless Sister is a shining lamp for many and a great provoker of love.
Sister Judy grew up in Seattle, with frequent trips to Lopez Island where she lives and ministers today. A science teacher for many years, she particularly loved teaching middle-school youth, which I believe must qualify her for automatic canonization. Her commitment to the poor and marginalized led her to teach in Alaska and in a program for homeless kids. As a hospital chaplain, she has offered compassionate care and healing love to many, especially, in hospice work, to those nearing the end of their lives. A passionate gardener who cares deeply for creation, Judy is a light for the people of Lopez Island and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.
They could not be more different, these six Jubilarians, yet each of them knows how to provoke love and good works, how to endure suffering, and most of all how to share her gifts, to give the full measure of herself, to be a lamp on a lampstand.