Thank You, Sister.

Anne-Elizabeth Straub, LCSW, GCFT

My life has been touched and enriched in every phase by Sisters of a number of different congregations.  I am a better Catholic Christian because of their lives and work.

I had the privilege of sixteen years’ formal education by Sisters, first eight years with the School Sisters of St. Francis, four with the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and four more with the School Sisters of St. Francis at Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  During that time, in addition to an excellent grounding in academics and religious studies, they provided listening ears and hearts, practical help, firm boundaries and living examples of wisdom, love and giving, frequently all at the same time.  For that, thank you, Sisters!

After high school, I was received into the the School Sisters of St. Francis and lived in that Community for four years.  During that time I learned the joys and trials of living in community and matured in my theological understanding of my faith and practice and developed a prayer life that still sustains me.  The habit was a symbol of the life I chose when I was received into the community. When the decision was made to modify the habit, along with other changes in the community’s constitution and practices, it was made with a great deal of thought and prayer.  The community’s spirit and life was still the same; the symbol, far less important than the life it represented.  At the completion of my first temporary vows, after discussions with my superiors, we decided that I would not renew my vows.  This was a very painful, difficult decision and felt like a real loss at the time, but I have come to believe and continue to believe that it was correct.  Thank you, Sisters, for the time I spent in community; for the education I received; for the opportunities for service and practical applications of my faith and for the discernment built into the formation process.

After I came home to resume my life as a single and then a married Catholic, my life was still touched and enriched as I prayed, worshipped and worked along with Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor, Dominicans of Sparkill and of Amityville, Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Maryknoll  and probably some others whose affiliations I didn’t know or no longer remember.  To all those sisters, thank you, for your inspiration, challenge, support, friendship, providing the invitation to serve!

Their talent, organizational skills, energy, generosity, prayerful fidelity to the Gospel and their community charisms have built up the church in this country and continue to do so. They have been at the forefront of social justice and peace efforts and have enriched individual lives such as my own.

For all these things and more…

Thank you, Sisters!