When we hear the word “retirement,” we tend to think of the time of life when we set aside our jobs and devote our time to other things, taking a well-deserved rest from decades of hard work.
Every Maryknoll Sister reaches a time in her life when she is no longer able to undertake the physical challenges of overseas mission work. When that happens, however, her ministry does not end—it only changes.
When you support Maryknoll ministries, you’re not just supporting field missions in other countries… you are also helping to support the volunteer work and prayer ministries of our “retired” Sisters.
We would like to tell you about three Sisters who spent decades helping and ministering to people all over the world. Now, they have all come together at our community in Ossining, New York, where they volunteer at a local Children’s Home & Rehab Center. This facility serves children in need of postoperative care, or physical rehabilitation or therapy.
Sister Mary Boyce, M.M. (pictured left holding baby) spent 23 years as a teacher and social worker in the Philippines, and then many years working with the homeless, immigrants, and the physically challenged in California.
At the Children’s Home she works mainly with infants, holding them and giving them the physical contact that they need with a nurturing person. She also writes and illustrates her own series of
children’s books.
Sister Madeleine Giusto, M.M., is a registered nurse who spent more than a decade working in South Korea among the rural poor, and then among patients with Hansen’s disease (formerly called leprosy). Sister Madeleine volunteers at the Children’s Home despite having lost her eyesight. She talks and socializes with children who are getting ready for bed, preparing them for rest.
During her decades of eventful work in Africa, Sister Catherine Erisman, M.M. was an education pioneer in Tanzania; served among famine refugees in Sudan; as a nurse in Somalia, an AIDS outreach worker in Tanzania and among victims of the genocide in Rwanda. Her primary role at the Children’s Home is in music ministry. Every Friday, she and some fellow
musicians involve the children in music. “We do a program for the group able to gather, and then visit each of the rooms of children who are room bound.”
As you can see, your gifts in support of Maryknoll Sisters ministries are very “high yield” investments indeed. Those Sisters who can no longer work in overseas missions continue with volunteer work closer to home. Those who can no longer do physical work dedicate themselves to praying for all of us… and you can imagine how much God values the prayers of such dedicated servants!