Retired Religious Mass is Sunday at St. Paul Cathedral

By Sister Paula Kelleher, SSJ
Special to The CFP

On May 26, 1986, The Tennessee Register,  newspaper of the Diocese of Nashville, published an article about the financial plight of the elderly men and women religious serving in the United States. This article pictured an elderly sister crocheting an afghan. Her unspoken hope was that the afghan would be sold at the community bazaar and that the money from the sale of that afghan would then be used to help with her ordinary living expenses.
That article was printed 31 years ago and our elderly religious still crochet afghans to raffle at community bazaars to help defray their expenses. These vowed religious have been assured that taking one less spoonful of oatmeal will not lessen this crisis but they still crochet and live in joyful hope that one day, someday, we will be able to support the elderly members of consecrated life without a collection. And so we begin another annual collection with this unspoken hope.
Several years ago we started the annual collection by presenting the annual Retired Religious Award to a vowed religious who represented all religious in the diocese. This year the award will be presented to Sister Ann Mary Cobb. Sister Ann Mary is 96 years young and agreed to receive this award in the name of her community, the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Sister Ann Mary taught at St. Benedict’s School in Still River and later at the Immaculate Heart of Mary School there. By all acoounts, Sister was a marvelous educator.  She taught by word and example and former students still recall her days as an English teacher and the plays and skits she insisted that they perform. She was kind and firm as the school principal and always encouraged the students to be engaged in all aspects of school life.
These facts deal with the past but who is this gracious woman who is the recipient of this year’s Retired Religious Award?
Frequently church meetings begin with the aspiration: “Let us remember the holy presence of God.”  When I am with Sister Ann Mary I know without a doubt that I am in the Holy Presence of God and my being whispers and adores his divine majesty.  The early days of this religious community were difficult, but the only thing Sister Ann Mary will say is, “That was then and this is now.”
Sister Ann Mary was born and educated in Clinton, and after graduating from high school she graduated from Radcliffe College, a women’s liberal arts college in Cambridge.  
She taught second and third grade in Boston from 1945 to 1947. She traveled in Europe before she decided to enter the community in Cambridge.       
When I tried to get her to tell me how many years she was a sister she smiled and said that it seemed like she was a sister forever. She had little to say about her lived experience as a religious. She said repeatedly that the past was exciting and that the future was ours to live.
My instincts told me that this was a special woman. She is delightfully humorous and I have never heard her say an unkind word about anyone.
Each religious is called to live the special charism or grace of a particular community. The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have dedicated their lives to living the charism of teaching the documents of the Catholic faith. Sister Ann Mary has lived this charism and still teaches all of us, by word and example, what it means to be Catholic.
Bishop McManus will present the Retired Religious Award at the 10:15 a.m. Mass,  Sunday, Oct. 22, at St. Paul Cathedral, Chatham and High streets, Worcester.
The cathedral is wheel chair-accessible with an elevator on the Chatham Street side. There is also handicapped parking on Chatham Street.
(On a side note: When you see Sister Ann Mary’s  award, please notice the daisy on the side of the plaque. Of course there is a story to it. Those of you who know and love Sister Ann Mary will not hesitate to ask her why this daisy adorns her award. Yellow daises are a part of her delightful personal history and with the grace of the present she has incorporated the past into her experience.)

–  Sister Paula Kelleher is the diocesan interim episcopal liaison to religious.