Answering God's Call: Sr. Mary Gowern

This is the next in our series on Christian vocation.

One’s Personal Vocation
Mary Gowern, csj

You will find in the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) that each of us has been given by God a “personal vocation” long before we were born. Read and reflect on the passages in Psalm 139: 13-18: ...your eyes beheld my unformed substance... A vocation is the unique God given meaning in life. One’s personal vocation is the spirit that animates our life be it as a religious, single or married.

I grew up in a very “nuclear” family. My mother’s strong faith in God was visible everywhere... participation in the life of the church... Catholic education for the children... praying as a family daily, etc. My parish was extremely active with a recreational center for the young long before the town itself built a boys/girls club. Sisters of St. Joseph were our teachers in school. I loved school and grew to believe that becoming a teacher in my adult life was what I wanted for a career.

In my senior year, I was accepted early to a prestigious college. By February of my senior year my deposit for college was made and I was “sailing” toward graduation. However, a gnawing sensation kept “creeping” in and I wondered if there wasn’t something “more” that God had planned for my future. In March of my senior year, I made the traditional “Novena of Grace”. I asked God “to let me know” if I should explore religious life. At the end of those nine days of prayer, I felt tremendous peace. Just needed to have the courage to tell my mother about the decision to become a Sister of St. Joseph. She couldn’t have been more supportive.

Becoming a nun and staying as a nun was very challenging in the 60’s...so much was happening with Vatican Council II and the renewal of religious life. Many who entered with me saw more opportunities outside the convent and so left to become active in the church and world as a lay person.

My 46 years as a woman religious has brought me wonderful challenges and opportunities. I have had so many experiences in ministry particularly with diverse populations: rich and poor (inner city poor, rural poor, immigrants, immersion experience in Haiti) and middle class communities. As an educator working with junior high students and with undereducated adults I early on moved into parish work which I find the most rewarding. Truly, of all my parish experiences Epiphany has been the most profound experience for me. Epiphany is holy ground where I daily encounter God in the face of my co-workers and parishioners, young and old.

Living in community with others who shared my life had its blessings and challenges to growth as a human being. I miss that but at the same time, living alone now has helped me nurture my contemplative side and appreciate the “quiet” especially since Epiphany is such an active parish.

Each religious congregation has a particular “charism” or gift which is offered to the church. The charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston is unity and reconciliation. Our mission is to love the “dear neighbor” without exception and to work toward becoming “one”.  So as I go about my daily activities I try in all of my encounters to see “relationships” as the “heart” of my work and to bring all people together in one heart and mind ... one step at a time.

It is different time now, a different world yet some are hearing the call to religious life. My congregation has been blessed with women “seeking” our way of life. We have a young woman making final profession the end of September.

We are all in this “together”... the ‘this’ is the work of God be it as a single lay person, member of a religious congregation or married couple... our vocation is to respond to the call of Christ  to be a channel of God’s love and goodness for others.