Fellow blogger Father James Martin, SJ, posted a beautiful tribute to a sister who died recently. Sister Louise French, BVM, died last week. She was a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Dubuque, Iowa.
Sister Louise was a sister for 69 years and a lifelong educator who taught philosophy taught philosophy at Clarke College in Dubuque and Mundelein College and Loyola University in Chicago. Father Martin first met Sister Louise when he was sent to Loyola to learn philosophy with other Jesuit scholastics. Father Martin writes that she is “one of the best people I’ve ever known.”
Father Martin writes,
“At this point in my life I had scant experience with any real-life nuns, or, to use a more contemporary term, “women religious.” In my childhood I had run into a few at our local parish during C.C.D. classes (a sort of Catholic Sunday School). But apart from seeing “The Nun’s Story” and “The Sound of Music,” and bumping into a very few during my novitiate years, I remained completely ignorant about religious life for women. As a result, I arrived in Chicago carrying the same stereotypes about women religious that many Americans hold: sisters compassionate, of course, but they were also a little clueless, rather uneducated, somewhat naïve and perhaps even silly.
Sister French was none of those things–except compassionate. She had completed her Ph.D. in philosophy at Saint Louis University, and by the time I met her had enjoyed a long and distinguished teaching career…. Her intellect, memory and grasp of even the most mind-bending philosophical proofs were nothing short of astonishing. As all great teachers do, Sister French could make even the most difficult concepts seem easy: this was one reason why she was so valued by the Jesuit seminarians….
The other reason we valued Sister French was Sister French herself: she was a patient, gentle and caring woman.
Be sure to read all of Father Martin’s blog post about Sister Louise on the website of America Magazine (10/21/09).
Our condolences to the BVM Sisters and to Sister Louise’s family and friends, and all those whom she touched with her life and spirit.
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Join Sister Maxine and me for prayer today at noon Central Time at http://anunslife.org/live.
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Such a beautiful story.
Compassionate, patient, gentle, caring, astonishing intellect, most difficult concepts made easy … describes many of the Catholic Sisters I know.
I’m sure Sister French will appear in the “Thank You Sister” letter-writing campaign along with many other Sisters.