SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 • ThE PiloT • 5St. Gregory’s Parish offers our sincere gratitude for the blessing of the ministry of Sr. Dorothea Murphy, R.S.M. to our Parish family and the Boston Home...”a woman for others.”St. Gregory Parish2223 Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester Lower Mills, MA 02124617-298-2460 • www.stgregoryparish.comSee A cause for jubilee…, page 14By Sister Nina Underwood, MMMAs far back as I can remem-ber I felt adventurous and held in a peaceful presence. I dreamed of being a nurse and missionary…but certainly not a nun.I was blessed with parents who were hard working and had great faith making great sacrifices to send their seven children to Catholic schools.I was influenced by the holi-ness of my aunts and great grandmother.My parents often spon-sored or supported causes that directly assisted the poor and shared the need to serve those less fortunate.So at a young age , through the sisters in school, through film and stories of the needs of the poor and sick in faraway places, I felt drawn to service.When I was in high school, my older sister entered reli-gious life.At that time I had no desire to do the same….but I felt that the seed of the call had been planted in my heart…Yet I resisted as I did not want to be a ‘nun’. Time pasted and we were living next door to the Medi-cal Missionaries of Mary and I was drawn by the openness and hospitality of the sisters as well as the dog they had.So I decided to try other orders of missionaries and was delighted when I was not accepted, thinking, well this must be God’s will. The urg-ing of the Spirit led me to ask for admittance to Medi-cal Missionaries of Mary and to my surprise I was warmly welcomed and accepted by our Foundress, Mother Mary Mar-tin, MMM.This is when I began a sin-cere discerning process and with the help of wise women was assured I had a vocation to missionary life. After a couple of years in formation I was “converted” by the Holy Spirit with a profound sense of Holy Mystery and acceptance despite my feeling of unworthiness. Following this, a great desire to seek and serve God with all my heart.In these early years of forma-tion I developed a longing for a deep relationship. With God…valuing prayer and spiritual reading.Aware that MMM’s were sent where the needs were greatest and human develop-ment was paramount, I was sent to Nursing Training in Ireland at the IMTH and that was interrupted by a request to train to be a pilot. So as a result I was the first in my group to be sent to the Turkana desert in Northern Kenya in response A cause for jubilee and gratitudeBy Meg GlendonThe Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur are launching a new province in the United States. Sisters from five former provinces in New England (Boston, Connecticut and Ipswich), California and the Baltimore and Washington, DC area have joined together to create the US East — West Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SNDdeN). The new leadership team took office on Sept. 1. The team is comprised of the following Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur: Barbara Barry, Edie Daly, Barbara Ann English, Mary Farren, Anne Malone and Catherine Waldron (Canonical Moderator or Provincial). Administrative offices will continue to be located in the areas served by the for-mer units.The collective energy of this new province will both strengthen existing ministries and provide impetus for new expressions of the Sisters’ mission to edu-cate for life, to serve those who live in poverty and to respond to their religious congregation’s mandate to be “women of justice and peace in the midst of the inequality and violence in our world.” The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur US East — West Province along with Sisters in two other US Provinces, Ohio and SND Base Communities, have con-tinuously proclaimed the goodness of God in the United States for one hun-dred and seventy five years. They are a part of an international Roman Catho-lic congregation of women religious with eighteen provinces located on five continents.Founded in 1804 in Amiens, France by St. Julie Billiart (1751-1816), the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur serve in a variety of ministries with associates, co-workers, and volunteers in Africa, Asia, Europe, North, Central and South America. The Congregation strives to respond, through education and pro-grams for social justice, to the needs of people around the world, especially those living in poverty. They maintain a website at www.sndden.org.Meg glenDon iS uS DireCtor of SnDDen CoMMuniCationS Phone: 860.280.5443; or eMail: Meg.glenDon@SnDDen.org.A new beginning for the Sisters of Notre Dame de NamurCourtesy photoBarbara Barry, SNDdeNEdie Daly, SNDdeNBarbara English, SNDdeNMary Farren, SNDdeNAnne Malone, SNDdeNCatherine Waldron, SNDdeN
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