A Nun Blog - The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration

A Nun Blog - The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration "For God created man for incorruption, and made him in the Image of His own Eternity." Wisdom 2:23



Friday, December 3, 2010

A Life Well Lived

Sr. Bernadette had an evangelization charism all her own. A true blooded Italian through and through, she enjoyed people immensely and unhesitatingly offered encouragement, counsel or a joke when it was needed. Initially, new sisters here often found it astounding when Sister Bernadette received hundreds of Christmas cards each year (no exaggeration!). But after witnessing her conversations with our own family members in the parlor, or a nurse in a doctor’s office, it is clear why she is so personally beloved by numerous friends. She often remarked that she “never met a person [she] didn’t like” – a testimony to her own geniality! Perhaps the underlying reason for such personable generosity was her untiring fidelity to Christ and her vocation. Even into her 80s, she would eagerly volunteer to fill in for an extra nocturnal adoration hour when needed. The adventures and challenges that filled her 60 years of religious life, as well as the 31 years before her entrance, became for her stories and lessons that she readily handed on to us. In a way, they are the inheritance that she has left us. Our only sister in her nineties, Sister spent the first several decades of her monastic life at Sancta Clara Monastery in Canton OH as an extern sister. Then she made her way south and lived here in the cloister, making garments for Infant of Prague statues and doing her best to keep up with the correspondence of the many friends she loved. She was, and still is, an incredible blessing to us and all who have come to know her over the years. Sister Bernadette passed peacefully to her eternal reward on the night of December 1st, 2010. May God grant her eternal rest.

4 comments:

Monica Marie Arroyo, PhD said...

Réquiem ætérnam dona ei Dómine;
et lux perpétua lúceat ei.
Requiéscat in pace.
Amen.


Now you have another intercessor in Heaven, Sisters!

Anonymous said...

Oh, my goodness! Very shocked to hear!

And in her nineties, too--from the pictures, she sure didn't look it!

And she passed just days before her patronal Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the very day that St. Bernadette of Lourdes was canonized in 1933!

May she rest in eternal peace, in the company of Our Lady Immaculate, St. Bernadette, and all the Angels and Saints.

Barb in NY

Anonymous said...

Amen.

Doris and Pete said...

Sr. Mary Bernadette has been a very dear friend ever since we first met her at Sancta Clara over 20 years ago. All through the years, she remembered our family in prayers, and her letters (written in her beautiful handwriting) contained so many words of inspiration, encouragement, counsel, seasonal blessings and thoughts, etc., and have kept all of them to treasure. We thank Our Lord for the blessing of knowing her and for visiting her the last time in October '09. We will miss her so much, but will keep her always close in our hearts and thoughts. Buon Natale, Sister, in heaven and rest in peace in the everlasting arms of Jesus and Mary.

Doris and Pete, Kent, Ohio