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The Formation Experience: Our Stories
Mary Brigid Tembo had a simple request: she wanted everyone to come with her to meet God. And they could come in her Care-A-Van. Mary Brigid, born and bred in Zambia, speaks with a melodic British accent and laughs heartily. A nun since her youth, she decided three years ago to enter into discernment with the Sisters of Bon Secours and was accepted as a candidate on January 24, 2004 and now is a first year novice. "I got the call very early in life and I never wavered," says Mary Brigid, who feels drawn to the Bon Secours charism of compassion, healing, and liberation. "When I heard about what the sisters believed and the work they did, I thought, ‘this is what I want!'" says Mary Brigid. Finding a community that lives its charism She was invited to the Bon Secours Provincial House in Marriottsville, Maryland for a Come and See vocation weekend where she was able to visit with the sisters. It confirmed her resolve to transfer orders. "The Sisters of Bon Secours live their charism of compassion, healing, and liberation," says Mary Brigid. "You can see in them the practice of simplicity and kindness. And in whatever they do, you find them very joyful. That's what attracted me to them." "I loved it. I cherished it," says Mary Brigid of her outreach ministry. "I was able to meet the people—those who were sick or had no clothes or are poor—and offer them compassion. I was able to reach out and teach them to read. Why did I love it? It allowed me to show my love for God in a new way." And it helped her to bring others to God. "I believe we're all called to sainthood," says Mary Brigid, adding with a joyful tone, "I would like everyone in the human race to come with me to meet God. If we all work hard together, we can help those who don't know God to reach Him and love him too."
Ready now to go down a new path
At three, Chris Webb decided she wanted to be a sister so she could play the organ in church. At 19, she wrote letters to three different religious communities but was discouraged from applying because she has diabetes. Now, Chris is finally firmly on the path of the religious life. It took some twists and turns through marriage, motherhood, and divorce, but with God leading the way, everything eventually fell into place. "It was like something was driving me to do this," says Chris who entered the candidate phase of formation with the Sisters of Bon Secours on January 24, 2005, the feast of the Bon Secours foundation day. "I had to know whether I really did have a calling. I was happy being a lay person in the church, working part time in hospice, re-doing my house since my sons had moved out, paying off my car, and getting ready to take on full time ministry." What Chris believes now is that she wasn't just settling into her old life. "It was almost like God was preparing me for my new life. Everything that was happening was for a reason and now I know this new life was the reason." At the urging of the new director of mission at Roper St. Francis Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina where she worked as a medical technologist, Chris took a post card from "Guide to Religious Ministries" which was pre-addressed to the Sisters of Bon Secours Vocation Director, Sr. Pat Dowling, allowing Chris to request further information about the Sisters of Bon Secours. She brought the card home and put it by her computer. It took her two weeks before she finally got up the courage to email Sr. Pat. "I was scared," she says easily. "Scared I might get rejected like I had been when I was younger and be hurt. But I was also scared I would be accepted and then what would I do?" A deep connection is made
Chris went to all of the Come and See vocation weekends hosted by the Sisters of Bon Secours after that October, one every three or four months, she says. In fact she had the privilege of being at the entrance ceremony of a woman entering the community as a candidate and she felt both touched and affirmed when witnessing this event. "It meant a lot to me to be part of the sisters' community, even in such a small way." The Come and See weekends gave Chris time to talk with the Bon Secours Sisters and with other women interested in the congregation. She had the chance to hear our stories and share her own thoughts. Some events had as many as 10 women gathered. Currently, Chris lives with two Bon Secours Sisters in Fair Lawn, New Jersey and works as a chaplain at Bon Secours Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York. "Through my studies to become a chaplain, I've learned that we must feed people with more than just food," says Chris passionately. "They should all have dignity and respect. They deserve that. The Sisters of Bon Secours offer that dignity and respect to everyone they touch—the people in their ministry, the laity and each other. They truly live their charism."
Carol Frawley has been at God's doorstep before. "In his eyes, I'm already his," says Carol who was a year away from making her final vows in another congregation before she discovered the Sisters of Bon Secours. "I just felt like I wasn't being fed," explains Carol who spent five years in formation with another congregation before she became a chaplain assistant in ministry at the Bon Secours Maria Manor Nursing Home in St. Petersburg, Florida. At that time, she had been doing parish outreach as an assistant director of a program for indigent people. "But when I met and learned more about the Sisters of Bon Secours, their mission and values, I fell in love," says Carol, now a first year novice with our congregation. "It just matched what I was looking for. They were taking care of the dying and that's where I wanted to be; working with the dying and those hurting in any way." It was three years ago when Carol decided to switch gears and begin the year-long discernment process with the Sisters of Bon Secours, then a year of pre-candidacy. In 2004, she was accepted as a candidate and in August 2005, she entered the Sisters of Bon Secours Novitiate. Finally following her call
Up until August 2005, Carol shared a house with Sr. Dorothy Brogan, a nurse and hospice worker in Greenville, South Carolina. Carol worked in patient relations and spiritual care at the Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital in Greenville and then joined the pastoral care staff where she visited at the bedside of dying patients and helped families make major healthcare decisions. In her role, she supported and guided patients or families spiritually and emotionally, praying with them and reading scripture.
"I love this life. It's very fulfilling. Just knowing I have sisters out there supporting me through prayer and who understand the desire within me to serve the Lord in this way is very gratifying. It's not giving up anything, it's coming to wholeness. That's true for everybody if they're in the right vocation, whether that be married life, single life, or religious life."
DISCERNMENT • FORMATION
EXPERIENCE • WALK
WITH US Copyright © 2006 Sisters of Bon Secours USA. All rights reserved. |
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Sr. Mary Brigid had been in another congregation where she worked with
children, opening two high schools for girls in Africa and serving as
a deputy education secretary for all Catholic mission schools in Zambia.
She taught English and served as a school principal. "What was
planted in me during my time with my previous congregation prepared me
for more," she says, explaining her desire to transfer. "Bon
Secours answered my fundamental need as a person to grow and to help
others get to heaven." 
As a candidate, Mary Brigid lived with two sisters at St. Mary's
Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. She worked on the hospital's Care-A-Van,
an outreach program staffed by doctors and nurses. The van travels to
needy communities in the Richmond area to bring essential healthcare
to the poor and uninsured. Many are new immigrants to the United States,
unable to speak English. Mary Brigid, who speaks English, Polish, and
10 African languages, was the Reach Out and Read Coordinator on the van.
She worked with children and adults to teach them to read and write English.
Also, as a special projects coordinator, she helped select, order, and
distribute books to the communities the van serves.
"Once I saw the work the sister's were doing, I had no doubt I
wanted to enter into discernment with them," says Chris. "I
had completed the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program to become
a certified
Catholic chaplain under the direction of one of the Sisters of Bon Secours
and had taken on their charism without realizing it until I saw the ministries
they were involved in. These women were living the kind of life I had
been describing to my spiritual director."
"There was an inner desire to be with community and to live this
life," says
Carol, explaining her calling. "I wouldn't settle until
I followed it. There's a yearning that has to be answered and
in answering it, you start to feel whole." She adds, "Having
other sisters on the journey who understand the "call" and
how I feel has been very helpful to me."
"The world is hurting and this is why the Lord allows us to share
our gifts with others," says Carol, who is now in the Novitiate.
During the first year she is living at the Provincial House in Marriottsville,
Maryland with other candidates in the Novitiate, studying and learning
more about the Sisters of Bon Secours, and how to integrate her own
spirituality
with her ministry.