Religious Milestones: Mercy Sister Helen Neder, 70 years

As a teenager, Mercy Sister Helen Neder thought her lifelong calling would involve caring for the sick, even though she had been exposed to religious life at her parish, St. James, Woodbridge. 

“Although I had much contact with the Sisters of Mercy in school and in our parish … I did not expect to enter the community.” Sister Helen said. “After high school, while working and planning to be a nurse, I went on a retreat with other young women. On this retreat, I felt God’s call to be a religious. It dropped on me like a load of bricks, and I could not ignore it.”

Sister Helen, who is celebrating 70 years as a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, built brick by brick, figuratively speaking, a strong career in education at various schools in the dioceses of Camden, Trenton and Metuchen.

Beginning her teaching career at the former St. Mary Cathedral Grammar School, Trenton, Sister Helen spent about three decades in classrooms at several other schools, including Red Bank Catholic and Notre Dame high schools in the Diocese of Trenton.

She was also an assistant principal at Holy Spirit High School, Absecon, Atlantic County, and principal at Kenmare High School in Jersey City. For six years, Sister Helen served as vocations director for her order, which was founded in the 19th century in Dublin by Venerable Catherine McAuley.

One of four daughters of Henry and Anna Grace Neder, Sister Helen grew up in Woodbridge. She was taught by religious beginning in elementary school.

“Perhaps more influential than my school experience,” Sister Helen said, “was my experience of the Sisters when my three sisters and I would help with counting the collection in the convent.”

There, she said, she witnessed the Sisters “laughing and enjoying community life.”

She said a major change she has witnessed in religious life is a greater emphasis on learning to discern where God is leading those in consecrated life. She said in her view, there is less regimentation and structure today than when she became a Mercy Sister in 1953.

Sister Helen graduated from the now-closed St. Mary’s High School, Perth Amboy. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Georgian Court College, now University, Lakewood; and a master’s degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. Both degrees were in chemistry.

Besides being an educator, her various roles included years in vocation ministry and community leadership. She worked as an assistant teacher at The Nurturing Place, a pre-school day care affiliated with St. Joseph’s Shelter for Homeless Women, Jersey City.

In short, Sister Helen turned the “load of bricks” into an enviable career of service to others.

What’s her recommendation for someone considering a religious vocation?

“I would advise young women to give themselves time to consider where God is leading them,” Sister Helen said. “They should talk with a sister they know or a vocation minister and take part in experiencing what our life is like.

“If this is where God is calling you, you will find joy in answering that call,” said Sister Helen, now retired and living at Mount Saint Mary, Watchung. Somerset.  “I decided to try it for six weeks, and here I am 70 years later,”

To the average person trying to build a spiritually satisfying retirement, Sister Helen’s seven-decade return on a six-week life investment proved to be enriching.