‘Wherever your feet are’
Sister Janis McQuade pins the Sisters of St. Joseph emblem on Becky Dursee, a member of St. Stephen Mission in Elkin, as she became the newest associate of the order through a “Rite of Welcome” initiation ceremony on Oct. 15. (Photo provided)ELKIN — Several parishioners in the Diocese of Charlotte are elevating their faith by sharing in the charitable service and mission of a women’s religious order that traces its roots back to 17th century France.
Eight men and women have become “Associates in Mission” with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia – committing to live out their charism of being “joyful courageous witnesses to the Gospel’s imperative of active, inclusive love.”
Becky Dursee, a member of St. Stephen Mission in Elkin, became the newest associate of the order through a “Rite of Welcome” initiation ceremony at the parish Oct. 15. She joins Debbie Parrish and other associates from Elkin and Charlotte.
“What really resonated with me,” Parrish said, “was that being an associate wasn’t about completing specific projects or tasks, it was about living the mission of unity and reconciliation.”
“You live out the mission wherever your feet are at the moment,” she said. “You perceive how your neighbor needs you – whether it’s a smile or an encouraging word for someone, taking a meal to someone, welcoming a refugee or an immigrant…For me, living the mission has helped me understand what God wants of me.”
Parrish and her husband Phillip discovered the order’s associates program after meeting some sisters from the order’s motherhouse in Philadelphia. Afterward, they decided to inquire about becoming associates and met with St. Joseph Sister Janis McQuade for an orientation.
“It’s a great honor to journey with other men and women who want to join us in living our charism of inclusive love,” said Sister Janis, a member since 1965. “They live our mission wherever they are – in their daily lives, relationships and experiences. They show the inclusive love and unity of the sisters through their chosen vocation.”
About 600 men and women nationwide serve as associates of the Sisters of St. Joseph, said Sister Janis McQuade, who also serves as pastoral associate at St. Stephen Mission.
Sister Janis is one of several Sisters of St. Joseph serving in the Charlotte diocese. Others are Sister Geri Rogers, principal of Our Lady of Mercy School in Winston-Salem, and Sister Joan Pearson, who works in the diocesan Hispanic Ministry Office.
The order that became today’s Sisters of St. Joseph was founded in 1650 in war-ravaged LePuy, France, by six women who wanted to practice spiritual and corporal works of mercy under the patronage of St. Joseph. The first Sisters of St. Joseph who came to the U.S. arrived in St. Louis in 1836 and then moved to Philadelphia in 1847.
People interested in becoming Sisters of St. Joseph associates attend multiple orientation sessions to learn about the sisters, their history and values, then go through a Rite of Welcome ceremony.
Associates participate in retreats, community gatherings and celebrations, and some volunteer at ministries sponsored by the order or serve on committees and boards for the order. But their most important role, Sister Janis said, is to actively seek to show Christian love to all they meet in their daily lives.
Debbie Parrish said the associates in the Elkin area get together monthly for prayer, spiritual reading and talks, and to share a meal together. Her decision to join, she said, is “probably the most significant choice I have made since I got married and had my children.”
Associates in Elkin also include Kathy Jenkins, Ronnie Krakovsky and Phillip and Debbie Parrish, Patricia Topper from Mount Holly, and Diane and Skip Whitman of Charlotte.
— Christina Lee Knauss
What is an associate and how is it different from a consecrated religious?
Consecrated religious and associates/affiliates of an order are called to the same charism or mission, but they live out that call differently. Consecrated take religious vows, do not marry, and live in community governed by a Rule. Associates are lay men and women, married or unmarried, who formally partner and participate with an order but live independently. Many orders, including the Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of Charity and Congregation of Notre Dame, have growing associates or affiliates programs here in the Diocese of Charlotte.
‘Yes, Jesus, I will follow you’
CHARLOTTE — When she took her vows 34 years ago, Dominican Sister Zenaida (“Zeny”) Mofada never imagined she would serve the Church living halfway around the world from her home in the Philippines.
Sister Zeny felt the tug of a religious vocation when she was 13, a freshman in high school in Surallah, South Cotabato. Her religious education teacher inspired her to ask life’s big questions: Who am I? What is my purpose in life?
“He helped me understand that life is from God and what is important is our journey with (and back to) God,” she recalls. He helped her understand what he called the three paths to God – the priesthood, religious life or single life.
“He said if we choose the path of religious life, it is just like taking a plane, and you will reach your destination (back to God) shortly and efficiently. He said in religious life you have all the means you need to be holy. Your life is characterized by prayer, the daily Eucharist, and all of your hours are with Jesus or with God.
“I was convinced with that! I wanted to be in the religious life because I want to go back to God faster. I want to have that direct contact with God, to do what He wills.”
She privately consecrated herself to God at that moment, and she began attending Mass more often, visiting a chapel for prayer every day, and cultivating a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Mother of Perpetual Help.
“I took all of those opportunities to be with Jesus. With that private consecration and with God’s grace, that love for the vocation to religious life was sustained.”
Sister Zeny went on to college, earning a degree in education from Notre Dame of Marbel University in Cotabato City. But still, religious life was calling her.
“During my time in college, God helped me discern what He wanted of me. I had a profound experience of Jesus’ presence one night while on a retreat, a vision of Jesus extending His hands, and He said, ‘Come, my child, follow me.’
“I found myself, when I was awakened, on my knees next to my bed. I said, ‘Yes, Jesus, I will follow you.’”
After graduation from college, she decided to join the Dominican order. She entered the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine Siena, headquartered in Quezon City, Philippines, and made her profession of vows in 1988.
In 2015, her congregation sent her as a foreign missionary – traveling to the United States to serve as the religious education director at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte.
“I was very happy to be sent here in 2015 to be part of the foreign mission in the Diocese of Charlotte,” Sister Zeny says.
In 2020, she started assisting with the faith formation work at St. Mark Parish, and last year she became the pastoral associate for catechesis.
Guiding religious education teachers, students and their families through virtual classes and isolation during the pandemic has been a big part of her leadership focus. For Sister Zeny, meeting the challenges head on has been just one more way she can serve God.
“Serving here at St. Mark has been another great experience for me to live (our community’s motto) to serve with compassion for truth and compassion for humanity, loving God and loving my neighbor through the Church, in my ministry.”
The Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine Siena have ministered in the Diocese of Charlotte for 27 years, serving as faith formation educators.
Sister Zeny believes that her order’s presence – their smiles, their prayers and work as teachers, even the habits they wear – encourage people in their own faith journey and show everyone how joyful it is to serve God no matter what one’s situation in life. The answers to life’s big questions, she believes, all point back to God.
In October, she will wrap up her “foreign missionary” assignment here and return to the Philippines to continue her ministry of serving God and His people.
Says Sister Zeny, “I am thankful to God for the gift of my vocation and for the grace of sustaining me 34 years.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter