Blessings Among Us By S. Georgia Kitt
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t was 2008, and I vividly remember the phone call from Assumption College in Denville, New Jersey. Excitement overcame as I listened to the request. The Leadership Council soon began to think of what this could mean for the women we welcomed, for our Community and for the education Mount St. Joseph University (MSJU) could offer them; we cautioned ourselves that all needed to ‘fall into place’ for this opportunity to become a reality. And it did! Now, 13 years later, we can reflect on the gift of presence of these six international Sisters who became a blessing among us. Sisters Yoon Mi Kim, Rustica Kayombo, Petra Mkongwa, Maria Pham, Marita Mafarutu and Domitille Ndayisenga, religious women from five different communities, and native to South Korea, Vietnam, Burundi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, have lived among us and earned their MSJU degrees while sharing their lives, cultures and wisdom. They are now leaders in their own ministries, faithfully contributing to Gospel living and their communities’ missions. S. Jean Miller’s connection with several of the resident international Sisters came about due to them missing rice, a staple food in their diets. This was true for Sisters Yoon Mi, Petra and Rustica. Even our Motherhouse kitchen got involved in cooking rice in familiar ways for S. Rustica after seeking her input. Sisters Yoon Mi and Jean would share their missionary experiences over a meal at a local Chinese restaurant. “I learned so much about South Korea and how advanced they are in the technology field,” S. Jean said. S. Victoria Marie Forde also enjoys an ongoing connection with S. Yoon Mi through shared photos of her current ministry and experiences. S. Victoria Marie believes she has learned far more from each of the international Sisters than she was able to provide. “They have broadened my outlook on the world and the beauty in God’s family.” She usually connected with the Sisters as ‘English teacher’ and helped to not change the content, but convey each Sister’s intent in what she wrote. S. Victoria Marie still communicates with S. Maria Pham from whom she feels she learned the most personally, related to the latest in Catholic theology. “S. Rustica seemed to be ‘at home’ from the beginning of her time with us,” S. Jean commented. Sisters Jean and Rustica did gardening together in the ‘backyard’ of the Motherhouse, harvesting tomatoes, corn and greens, starting most from seed. Cooking together they offered small dinner 18
S. Yoon Mi Kim (back) developed a close friendship with S. Victoria Marie Forde during Yoon Mi’s time living at Mount St. Joseph.
parties from their yield and enjoyed great conversation. Sisters Marie Irene and Mary Dolores Schneider were honored to live in community with the international Sisters in Seton Hall over the past 12 years. “Living with these Sisters from such different cultures has given us a concrete view of how similar we are in our religious commitments and prayer lives as well as our ministry responsibilities,” S. Marie Irene shared. S. Mary Dolores added, “We understand more specifically the difficult lives of religious Sisters in other countries, especially those in Africa.” They saw what a firm foundation each had received at Assumption College (New Jersey), especially writing college essays. Each Sister knew the format very well; their difficulties came with vocabulary, pronouns, prepositions and verb tenses. I n terc o m
