Jubilarians: Sister Maria Cecylia Ursula Trela, Sister Katherine Mroz, Sister Eileen Smith

Sister Maria Cecylia Ursula Trela, LSIC
70 Years

“They have been happy years.”

Sister Maria Cecylia Ursula Trela’s mother promised her to the Lord as a nun even before she was born.

When the young mother was five months pregnant, she was shot in the collarbone while working in the woods in Poland, and she promised God that if He saved the baby, she would offer the child to His service.

Decades later, Sister Maria is celebrating her 70th jubilee as a Little Servant Sister of the Immaculate Conception.

“They have been happy years,” she said in a telephone interview, noting that she never regretted her mother’s promise to God. “My mother was so happy” her daughter joined the religious order.

Sister Maria – the fourth of 11 children – entered the convent in Poland on May 6, 1954. She worked with young children at a school, trained as a bookkeeper and taught religion classes before she was sent to the United States in 1972. She taught kindergarten at St. Matthew School in National Park then was sent to Glassboro State College for a degree in science education for grammar schools. She graduated in 1980.

When plans were being made to open St. Joseph’s Nursing Center in Woodbridge, she was asked to take charge.

Sister Maria was also the assistant administrator for St. Mary’s Nursing Home in Cherry Hill. She was certified as a licensed nursing home administrator.

Later, she became administrator of Saints Peter and Paul preschool in Three Rivers, Mass. During that time she received a certificate in preschool education.

Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception work in education, religious formation and nursing. They work in parishes as religious educators and pastoral workers in the Dioceses of Camden and Metuchen, the Archdioceses of Newark and Philadelphia and the Dioceses of Columbus and Palm Beach.

Now retired, Sister Maria said she has always enjoyed participating in religious activities with the other sisters, and she especially liked working with kindergarten children.

By Cori Urban, Contributing Editor

---------------

Sister Katherine Mroz, RSM
60 Years

“I have loved every minute of my religious life. I’m just very grateful for being a Sister of Mercy.”

Sister Katherine Mroz wanted to enter religious life since she was shown a post card in third grade of the Mount St. Mary Motherhouse in North Plainfield.

“From that moment on I wanted to become a Sister of Mercy,” she said.

She said her mother told her to wait on it and think about her decision. “But I know she was praying for me to become a Sister of Mercy,” Sister Katherine said.

Her goal of joining the Sisters of Mercy after high school, however, had to be postponed while her mother battled tuberculosis, and so Sister Katherine waited until after college to join the order.

Sister Katherine received a state scholarship to Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) where she received a bachelor of arts degree in secondary English. She also holds a master’s degree from Notre Dame University and a doctorate from Lehigh University.

Sister Katherine decided to enter teaching as her ministry.

She started teaching at Mount St. Mary Academy, Watchung, returning in the 1970s. She also taught at Notre Dame High School, Lawrenceville; Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill, and Holy Spirit High School, Absecon. She later taught English at Georgian Court College, Lakewood, and was an adjunct for seven years in the English Department at Kean University, Union. While an adjunct she wrote for the Sisters of Mercy newsletter.

Sister Katherine said she especially loved working on the Mount St Mary Academy literary magazine, school newspaper and yearbook. “You get to know the students the best way by working (with them) informally,” she said.

After leaving education, Sister Katherine was hired as a correspondent for The Catholic Spirit, where she was assigned articles on the Sisters of Mercy.

Sister Katherine, who is retired and resides at Mount St. Mary’s, Watchung, writes poetry that is “in touch with the depth of spirituality,” and is posted on Facebook by Mercy Sister Judy Ward, who draws and designs artwork for Sister Katherine’s verses.

For anyone considering a vocation to religious life, Sister Katherine said she would advise them to “to pray and look for signs along the way. … The mystery of vocation is something beautiful and something adoring,”

By Paul J. Peyton, Correspondent

---------------

Sister Eileen Smith, RSM
60 Years

“As I reflect on my life, I just feel so blessed that I have been able to encounter so many wonderful people who have journeyed with me, especially in learning how to pray and relate to God in a deeper way.”

Religious Sister of Mercy Eileen P. Smith has brought others spiritual and earthly help and healing in her six-decade religious career. Educator. Spiritual director. Missionary: Does anything stand out among any of her roles?

“I would say it’s a wonderful life,” she said simply, with a muffled laugh.

For years, Sister Eileen has served as a co-director of Mount Saint Mary House of Prayer where she presently develops and conducts retreats and spirituality programs for adults seeking  deeper encounters with God. The House of Prayer itself is on the same campus as Mount Saint Mary Academy where Sister Eileen graduated and then entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1964. She took her final vows there eight years later.

Sister Eileen taught foreign languages and later theology at several parochial schools in New Jersey. She also served as pastoral minister at Holy Trinity Parish, now part of Most Holy Name of Jesus in Perth Amboy.

She lived more than a year in the Central American nation of Honduras, where she helped the Sisters of Mercy community help residents with fundraising and other efforts to build potable water systems, and minister to children with HIV/AIDS.

“I witnessed a lot of death in young children,” Sister Eileen recalled. “The earlier we received babies, the better were their chances to live.”

She never studied medicine or how to build a water supply, but Sister Eileen used her language background to provide spiritual and language assistance.

“When we did water systems [during missionary trips to Honduras], I collaborated in the beginning with a Presbyterian minister who knew I could speak Spanish” she said. “And he wanted to have groups to go and help in the rural villages.”

Money raised by Sister Eileen and others enabled project leaders to buy a pump, pipes, water tower and related equipment, she said. An engineer who went to a village would teach residents about construction and maintenance. She said everyone in a village would gather for a meal and celebration as the project neared completion.

“It was a glorious thing to be a part of,” she said.

By Anthony Salamone, Correspondent