Sr. Geralyn S

Sometime ago, I found myself talking in front of teenagers about the ethical use of technology. After my presentation, I opened up the conversation to any questions that my young audience had. When I called upon a young man to ask his question, he said, “Sister, I have two questions for you. Why did you become a Sister and why do you stay?”

In response to his question, I related the following:

My vocation story began with a somewhat rude awakening as I began eighth grade. My mom and I were scheduled to go uniform shopping on a rainy day in August. The deluge outside did not stifle my mom’s hunger to get school shopping completed before the first day of school. As we set out to the mall to complete our assigned task, my mom swerved to avoid a car that cut her off and hydroplaned. She struck the grassy median of the highway sideways, causing the car to turn over as she hit a tree. The impact of the tree propelled me out the closed side window, seventy-five feet across the highway diagonally. I landed face down, unconscious, in a puddle of water on the side of the road. A passerby saw this, stopped, rolled me over and propped me against the guard rail. First responders were deployed to scene of the accident. As paramedics constructed a canopy to shield me from the rain, I came to. I asked, “What happened?” “You were in a car accident”, replied a voice from my left. “My mom?” “She is ok.” “The car?” “Well, don’t worry about that!”

I never opened my eyes and yet I can tell you color of the canopy and the color of the paramedic’s uniform. After some time, I heard the same voice say, “Is she gone?” To which I responded, “Nope, I am right here.” I felt pressure on my knees, thigh, face, and hands as they bandaged my wounds and strapped me in a spine board.

Twenty four hours later, I found myself in a hospital room with over three hundred stitches, experienced my first of six operations, staring at the ceiling trying to count the dots in the design of the tiles. My roommate was a 79 year old woman who had fallen and broken her hip. Her injuries caused her to become quiet confused. Her daughter got permission to stay in the room hoping that her presence would make her mom less confused so they could repair her hip. The daughter kept on saying with tears streaming down her face, “My mom is going to die and I never told her I loved her. She doesn’t even know I am here.” I responded, “Did you ever try praying?” “How do I do that?” “Prayer is a conversation with Jesus. Tell Him what you told me.”

We prayed together. I felt for the second time in my life the Presence of Christ in that hospital room as sure as I sit here typing this story. We prayed until both of us fell asleep. I was not surprised that when we awoke the next morning we found the mom perfectly lucid and hungry, asking for breakfast! Jesus had indeed answered the prayers of two young women that evening! As I experience more surgeries and physical therapy, I realized that God had indeed saved me for a very special reason – to serve Him. He is my Beloved!

I went to high school and decided to go to college where I met the Sisters of Christian Charity. A few temporary professed Sisters were in the same education classes that I was as we were both studying to be teachers. I was touched by their obvious joy and how they would look out for each other.

A classmate of mine was discerning her call to religious life and asked me if I was interested in attending a retreat at the Motherhouse. I agreed. As soon as I genuflected in chapel and prayed in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I an incredible sense of “being home.” I knew at that moment that this was where I would spend my entire life and said, “OH SHOOT!” I then realized that I had to then convince my parents of this desire.

Once again, My Beloved intervened. The moment in which I cross the threshold of my family’s home, my dad called downstairs from his bedroom, “Over my dead body are you entering the convent until you graduate from college!” In response to this apparent affront, I called back, “Oh yeah, who is paying for college? That would be me.” To which my dad retorted, “But you are living HERE!” At that moment, I surrendered to the fact that perhaps he could have been correct. I graduated from college with a teaching degree and realized that I had so, so much to learn.

As to your second question, “Why do you stay?” This is a simple and yet a profound question. Basically, I have deeply fallen in love with Jesus. He is my all, my everything. I work for Him as I build up the Kingdom of God in Pennsylvania.