Tonight is a bittersweet time here at Marian Mantle.  We are feeling both sadness and joy--sadness at the loss of a dear friend, Joy that she now lives without pain.  Sister Mary Jo Kennedy, RSM died Wednesday after a lengthy illness.  From the first time she heard about the Marian Mantle Group she was a constant encouragement.  Her support brought us to Nativity of Mary parish twice since I began speaking.  In addition, I was privileged to speak to the Mercy Lay Associates of the Religious Sisters of Mercy here in the KC area and, I’m told at her suggestion, I am invited to speak there again in March.

            Sister was an important and an imposing presence in Greater Kansas City and beyond.  She was a leader in the Charismatic Renewal since it’s beginning here.  She was active in grief therapy work, and much more—but that is for others to tell.  I’m sure her funeral will fill the church to overflowing.  Appropriate, for she was a little lady who lived an overflowing life.  It overflowed with love, with kindness, with generosity, with hospitality, and with gentleness.  It overflowed onto all who met her.

            Sister was, for me, the embodiment of those wonderful ladies of the Religious Sisters of Mercy I knew during my college days at Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  These college professors who welcomed us as grown women instead of girls, expected us to excel in our studies, be scrupulous in our personal lives, and devout in our spiritual lives.  But, they also taught us to stay real, to keep our feet on the ground, even if our heads might be sometimes in the clouds.  In the midst of the 1960’s, with civil rights, Vietnam, and Vatican II all in full swing, they demanded that when we left those hallowed halls on graduation day, we did so prepared to meet whatever life sent us and to answer whatever God might call us to do.  They were true ladies in the finest sense of the word.  Sister Mary Jo was no exception.  Her opinion was freely given, but always given in love and encouragement.  She was not a college professor of mine; but, when I spoke at the Mercy Associates last Spring, and looked in her eyes during my talk, I saw the kindness of Sister Rene, the gentleness of Sister Mildred, the hospitality of Sister Monica, the generosity of Sister Augustine, the love of Sister Wilma, and so many others looking back at me.  She was my personal Mercy Sister here in Kansas City and I loved her.

            She also played a part in my son and daughter-in-law finding each other in this big city.  At a mass one evening at St. Ann’s parish, Sister MJ was kneeling between me and a woman named Margaret (who I knew slightly).  At the offertory, Margaret spoke a prayer “for our children to find good Catholic people to marry.”  At the coffee afterward, as I walked by Margaret’s table, I stopped and jokingly said, “That didn’t happen to be a girl, did it—because I have a son who is single?”  Margaret laughed and said it was actually two girls and a boy.  We got to talking about how difficult it is for young adults who are no longer in college to find other Catholic singles.  Margaret mentioned that her daughter had been attending a group, but since she began working on her Masters she was no longer active in it.  We left it at that.

            Next evening I had dinner with my son.  Afterward, in the restaurant parking lot I remembered to tell him about the group I had heard of.  He said he’d call the church and find out more.  As we went to get in our cars I said to him, “Son, God doesn’t intend for you to live your life alone.  I will pray about it, but you have to pray, too. 

            On the way home, I told the Lord, “I stuck my neck out there—I’m counting on you to back me up!”  When I got home I had an email from my cousin, who is a longtime friend of Margaret’s.  She said Margaret had mentioned our conversation to her daughter and she said to give my son her phone number and she would tell him about the group.  He did.  She did.  The day of their wedding, as part of the offertory procession, that piece of paper (on which my cousin wrote the phone number) was carried to the altar as a symbol of an offering of their lives to the Lord--certainly evidence of the hand of God.  And right in the middle was that dear little Sister of Mercy, Sister MaryJo.

            May the angels lead her into paradise and the martyrs come to meet her on her way, and may she be led into the holy city, Jerusalem.  May she rest in peace.

Peace,

MaryAnn

[Footnote:  She’s evidently already busy praying for her friends down here.  I received a phone call from a woman who was very close to Sister.  She said her daughter had just called her to say that she and her friend in a many-years live-in relationship had decided to marry.  The woman said she told her daughter that Sr. MJ had just died and it looks as if she is already hard at work. 

            Praise God!  I pray Sister’s intercession will help us see more prodigals with softened hearts in the days to come]

+ I am with the St. Teresa group that meets on Thursday evenings. I always look forward to our prayer group. I always leave there uplifted. I feel we have all grown so close to each other. I thank God for bringing Barbara Sanborn into my life. She is such a beautiful person and a true friend. God bless you.   ~Hutchinson

+Thank you so much for this newsletter. I enjoy it and it gives me strength as I read it. Thank you for all the prayers. ~Anonymous

+Shortly after I joined this prayer group, I told my mom about it, and a short time later I called her after one of our prayer sessions, and she was pretty excited. My niece asked a parishioner in her town when they had Mass. She would like to start going so her children could be raised in the Catholic Church. This last weekend my sister said she was going to try to go in and help her get started going to church. Nothing has happened yet, but they are definitely filled with the idea and intention. When I started praying with this group, I never even thought about them, but then God does work in mysterious ways. God bless you!      ~Kansas

+God bless you and everyone who prays for all the prodigals.   It gives us all so much hope, where there was none before.  ~~Anonymous

And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."  ~Mark 2:16-17

The patient and humble endurance of the Cross - whatever nature it may be - is the highest work we have to do. ~St Katherine Drexel