Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6 — The Georgia Bulletin, May 31, 1990
Sister Margaret
Thomasine Made Language Arts Lively
BY RITA McINERNEY
They call it “the miracle of the bake sale” at St. Thomas
More parish in Decatur.
Who would disagree that raising $3,000 in a one-day bake
sale to send eighth grade students on a three-day retreat is
a miraculous achievement? That's what happened, last
year, according to Sister Margaret Thomasine Grady.
The Sister of Notre Dame de Namur has been taking
eighth graders on this retreat for 17 years and “the children
never had to pay a cent. The whole parish helps. The elderly
are very generous. ”
Each year in January the children go to Blessed Trinity
Shrine Retreat in Alabama with Sister Grady and a few
other adults. Last year, Father Peter Rau was the retreat
master for the second year. For many years. Sister Grady
said, Father Terry Young served in this role.
Sister Grady has spent 26 of her 50 years in religion at the
Decatur parish. That’s been her choice.
She was one of six religious sisters honored Sunday. May
20, by the Atlanta Conference of Sisters at a reception at St.
Joseph’s Village. Another member of the Baltimore pro
vince of her congregation, also a longtime teacher at St.
Thomas More. Sister Rose Lally, was honored as a 60-year
jubilarian.
Sister Grady is now teaching grandchildren of some of
the mothers and dads whose children were in her language
arts and religion classes back in the 1960s and 70s. While her
energy level for long classrooms days has diminished, her
love for the students is as deep as ever.
She first came to St. Thomas More in 1950, the year the
parish school opened. She was third grade teacher for one
year then returned to Baltimore where she served as prin-
Best Wishes To...
Sister Rose Lally is this year noting 60 years as a
member of the x Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur of
the Baltimore province. She has been at St. Thomas
More School in Decatur since 1972 and earlier served
there from 1951 until L955. Subject of an article in The
Georgia Bulletin on Dec. 1,1988, she taught primary
science until the end of this school year.
Fifty years as a Sister of St. Francis of the Holy
Family of Dubuque, Iowa, was marked by Sister
Rosemary Wickham on Feb. 4,1990, with her parish
family at St. Francis of Assisi in Blairsville. Her half-
century in religious life was the subject of an article
iri the issue of Feb. 15 of this year.
Sister Carolyn Oberkirch celebrated 25 years as a
Sister of Mercy at Our Lady of the Assumption
parish, Atlanta, on Sept. 9, 1989. She has served the
parish for 15 of those years and her work as an
outreach minister there was most recently reported
on April 19 of this year.
cipal and superior for three years.
In 1954 she returned to Decatur for six years as principal-
superior. For the first three years she also taught third
grade. There were a lot of changes at the time. Immaculate
Heart of Mary and Sts. Peter and Paul were both spinoffs
from St. Thomas More parish.
“We were so crowded. There were nearly 700 students.
We had to have two of every class with 50 or 60 students in
each section.” A new addition was added to the school and
convent. When St. Pius X High School opened its doors in
1958 four sisters came down to teach there. They lived at St.
Thomas More convent.
In 1960 she went north for 11 years, studying and teaching
in Washington, serving as principal-superior in another
Baltimore school, teaching eighth grade for three years in
Ridgewood, N.Y., and finally one year in Philadelphia, near
her home in Clifton Heights.
She came back in 1971 to stay. “I’ve chosen to stay. I’ve
had the opportunity to make a choice and had the approval
of my superiors,” she said.
She enjoys the world of St. Thomas More parish. "First of
all,” the children. “They are lovable, generous and have
good will.” She finds in them “great potential for tomor
row’s world. They are willing to work with you.”
"All children want to please. They make teaching a joy —
most of the time.” And the culture mix at the school; white,
black, Hispanic, Oriental is an asset.
“She’s conscientious, thorough and caring. She demands
a lot of work from the children,” Ann Dugan, computer and
remedial education teacher, said. Her own three learned
much from her. “She loves the kids very much. She wants
them to learn her subjects and she wants them to learn the
love of God.”
“She’s very personable. She looks gentle, but she’s a
strict teacher. She wants kids to behave, to show respect.
Sister Margaret Thomasine Grady
...reaches out to others.
She’s not a 1950s nun, she’s a 1990 nun, very serious about
what she does, understanding and approachable for both
children and adults."
Her classroom environment, sister Grady sees as
“being order rather than the discipline of the past. There is
more of a sharing today, more relaxed. The classroom is
more like a workshop where discovery is going on, more
hands-on type of learning, more enjoyment .”
“While there has to be order, there doesn’t have to be ab
solute silence,” the jubilarian believes.
Sister Sallie Bradley, SND, principal at St. Thomas More
for “seven happy years,” 1970-77, recalled Sister Grady as
“being totally interested in the child as an individual. When
you walked into her classroom it was alive.”
One of Sister Grady’s special assignments was that her
girls and boys develop their own “creativity notebooks.”
She did this to have “each child appreciate God,
themselves, nature, other people.”
It helped the students “develop a sense of wonderment,”
appreciation of the five senses, she realized. They learned
to recognize well-written literature, would choose what
they liked and share it in the classroom.
She also had an eight-week section during which the
children searched out good poetry and then wrote and
shared their own poetic efforts.
Sister Joan McCann, OP, former assistant superinten
dent of education, recalls how she enjoyed visiting her
classroom. “She was so innovative.” She also was impress
ed by her calming effect on the class.
Father Pat Mulhern, St. Thomas More pastor, ap
preciates her because “she is a teacher through and
through. She has a tremendous devotion to St. Thomas
More parish.”
Two years ago, Sister Grady said, she felt the need to
reach out to others in the parish. She knew she could not
continue the individualized teaching in language arts she so
enjoyed. Now she devotes herself to teaching religion to the
upper grades. And she retains one of her most cherished
responsibilities, preparing seventh grade children for the
sacrament of Confirmation.
A shorter school day “allows me afternoons to take care
of other responsibilities.” She explained that it’s better to
be able to do the food shopping for the convent in the after
noon rather than at 10 in the evening as she did while
teaching a full school day. As the only driver among the
convent sisters, she is available to take the others around.
She also plans the menus and is convent accountant.
Senior citizens are in her care zone. She brings one to
church every Sunday, balances the checkbook of another,
takes others where they must go.
One night a week she visits an autistic child while his
parents take a break. Teddy, 10. "is the love of my life, ” she
admits with a smile.
"The Lord has sent people along. 1 don't plan every day.
With elderly sisters in the convent, she likes to be of service
to the community however she is needed.
Even in Catholic elementary school she started thinking
about becoming a sister. The thought “pursued” her at
Notre Dame High School in Moylan, Pa., where she was
taught by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She made
her decision in her senior year and was one of six
classmates among the 12 entering postulants after gradua
tion.
That was in 1940. Early in May she returned to provincial
headquarters in Ilchester, Md., for a golden jubilee celebra
tion with her high school classmates. There will be a pro
vince celebration in July and a parish celebration Sept. 8.
She is one of two children. Her mother, she realized,
didn’t want her only daughter to go to the convent although
"she kept thinking it was God’s will.” Her father asked her
if she was happy each time they visited during her postulan-
cy. “You know you don’t have to stay.” he would tell her.
Once he saw her in the habit he realized she was there to
stay.
The first years in the novitiate she was "homesick but
happy.” Ever since, although "there have been problems,”
naturally, “I’ve been happy in my vocation with the Lord. "
With His help, she has found, "everything came through as
He wanted it.”
She likes changes brought about after Vatican II. Quitting
the habit was no hardship. “1 think it helped me relate bet
ter to the children.”
Being able to go out and help people, visit them in their
homes is another gain for her.
She is not pessimistic about religious life but confident
that it will continue despite the alarming decline in the
number of vocations. "It may be in an entirely different
form,” she envisions. “1 believe the Holy Spirit is guiding it
in the path it’s meant to be.
Whatever form religious life takes in the future there will
be more lay involvement, more associates as some con
gregations have, she believes.
“God’s work will be done in His way, in spite of us. I have
great faith in the Holy Spirit for the future of religious life
regardless of the changes.”
She mentions the foundress of her congregation, Saint
Julie Billiart, and quoted one of her favorite sayings, "How
good is the good God.
CELEBRATE
Sisters Rose Lally
and Margaret Tho
masine Grady sit
with other Sisters of
Notre Dame de
Namur at the recep
tion. (Photo by Sister
Joan McCann, OP)