Mary Rowell, CSJ
Peterborough, ONT
Hello, I'm a novice with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peterborough, Ontario. My life has been a wonderful gift and adventure. I grew up in Cambridge, England in a warm extended family, among the beautiful ancient university buildings and surrounded by the gentle countryside of "big sunsets". It was during my childhood in Cambridge that I learned to love kindness, learning and nature.
When I left high school I became a Franciscan sister but I stayed for only six years. After leaving the congregation my life continued very happily. I became a nurse and later a nurse educator in England. This eventually opened up the opportunity to work in numerous developing countries throughout Asia where I set up nursing and technician programs in ophthalmology and helped develop prevention of blindness initiatives in the rural areas. During my time as a nurse teacher I had studied philosophy and completed a graduate degree in medical law and ethics at the University of London, England. So when I finished my work in Asia I became a clinical ethicist at the Children's Hospital in Toronto, the city to which I had moved in 1990. I also taught bioethics at the University of Toronto. All of these opportunities in my life brought me so many gifts. These were complemented by wonderful friendships and deep relationship. Somehow though I could never forget that first call of God and gradually the whisper of God returned to my life - a great surprise to me. So in my early fifties I found myself once again discerning religious life.
I met the Sisters of Saint Joseph through making some weekend retreats with them. It was their gentle kindness, deep faith and hope and their wonderful ordinariness that appealed so much to me. I began my candidacy with the Congregation in 2003. It has been a gift of life to me. The sisters' faithful witness through the years of transition that have been hard for religious was a special example to me. My candidacy period has helped me deepen my relationship with God and to reach out more to others. I have been very grateful to be able to share in some of the ministry of the sisters in retreat work and ecology. At the same time I have been able to complete my doctoral thesis in bioethics, ecology and theology. This surely had to test the wonderful patience of my community members who have supported me so much! In all of this I have also been able to pursue my interests and love of gardening, walking, reading and cooking.
I now begin the federation novitiate with deep gratitude, much hope, a sense of wonder and I hope with a heart open to God's new adventure for me.
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