Do you feel the desire to join us?

Two attractions have influenced my life's decisions. One began with the challenge, when I was ten, by our Religious Education teacher, Sr Madeleine Ryan, to do something for the disadvantaged children of the world. The other began to form when I was about thirteen. That was to know the Mystery at the source of life. These two desires led to my request to join the Ursulines as a missionary.

In January 1964 I joined the Ursulines. After 2 1/2 years of being introduced to religious life, in July 1966 I committed myself to the Ursulines and in 1973 I was transferred to the Province of South Africa to minister in the Province's newly opened outreach to Botswana.

Three Ursulines had preceded me to Mahalapye, Botswana. In Mahalapye, I taught and helped the priest to manage a primary school run by the Catholic Church. The people were very accepting of the Ursuline presence as education was a great need. At the end of 1984 I returned to Australia to study Special Education and to spend 7 months in Rome for spiritual renewal.

As a result of my studies in Special Education I was accepted by the Botswana Government to be part of their plan to introduce the concept of Special Education into the country's curriculum. At that time I moved to the Ursuline community in Serowe, Botswana, which had been opened two years before that of Mahalapye. Being employed by the government gave me the right to work with children outside the education system as well as with those in the formal education system. I loved this work and was so happy to see the children gain confidence when they were accepted and found they could read or improve their physical skills. I worked in this field from January 1987 to December 1997 when I was asked by the Ursulines to give six years to administration in the Southern African Province.

I returned to Serowe, Botswana, in 2005 and then worked on a voluntary basis with individual children in the mornings, and in the afternoons organized, with helpers, classes for Basarwa (San) children who attended schools in Serowe but needed help to cope well in the schools. One Ursuline in Serowe had been instrumental in having these children admitted to schools. In April 2013, the parish priest in Serowe returned to his home country of Ghana and the Bishop was unable to find a replacement. I was then asked to be Sister in Charge of the parish and work together with the executive of the Parish Pastoral Council to facilitate the life of the parish. There was already a system of lay ministers in place so this was not too difficult to implement. This ministry included managing the parish pre-school. I have enjoyed working together with the parish executive but regret that I had to drop my afternoon lessons for San children.

My teaching ministry is the way in which I have played out my call to help children less fortunate then myself. In recent years this has involved the support of orphans. All this has been done with the support of an Ursuline community where each sister was answering her own call to service.

How was my journey to find and connect with the source of life? From when I joined the Ursulines I was reading books about faith in an attempt to understand the meaning of faith and my own personal response. The privilege of having eight days each year for reflection and prayer has been one of the gifts of Religious Life. My spiritual journey was greatly helped by my time in Rome in 1985/86 where there was more time and help to address this interior search. Another gift in this journey was when I was in administration from 1998 to 2004. There I had the privilege of hearing and meeting with local and international religious who were addressing the areas of faith and church.

I have been gifted with my Ursuline Sisters and other spiritual guides and friends who have shared and supported me in my spiritual journey, as well as those people whose books have inspired and confirmed me in my own journey.