In the April issue of As a Rule, Sisters Ramona Schmidtknecht, SSSF (right) and Julene Strombert, SSSF, reflected on a passage from No. 147 of the SCJ Rule of Life: “Our religious life shares in the evolution, the trials and the searching of the world and of the Church.”
As a young sister, expecting to be assigned to another year of teaching in Chicago, Sr. Ramona –– a School Sister of St. Francis –– was surprised to learn that she would be going to Mississippi where she would partner with other sisters in Dehonian ministry.
“Officially we were teachers in the schools where we would begin each day with prayer with our students, but that was only part of our call to Mississippi,” wrote Sr. Ramona. “We were, and in many ways still are, social workers as we help families meet daily needs. Whatever the need was or is, sometimes it may be a very unexpected need.
“Many times the help needed may not be in a material way. It may be in time: time to listen, time to be present, time to go out of our normal routine and meet the unexpected needs of our times. As we listen, we will hear of needs we are not seeing or not meeting. God, through prayer and through others, will direct us in the way we are to go and welcome This Day of God.”
Sr. Julene wrote that “After many years of teaching I started to wonder if God’s love that I tried to live really made any difference to the students. Now that I’m much older the answer is coming to me. When I see former students at the store, they often tell me that they are grateful that they had me as a teacher because it prepared them for the jobs they have today. Some say that they don’t think that they would have those jobs without the educational background that I helped to give them.
“Even Christmas cards from students I taught more than 50 years ago tell me how I protected them when they were in high school, which I don’t remember doing, but I guess I did show them that God loved them.
“It can take many years to know that you are truly sharing God’s love.”
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