Religious Milestones: Franciscan Sister Marie Therese Sherwood, 60 years

When Franciscan Sister Marie Therese Sherwood started school as a child at Assumption Parish, Jersey City, she could hardly have imagined it would be her first steps toward religious life.

Sister Marie Therese’s vocation began at home. Her parents, Anne and Thomas Sherwood, were active in their parish. “My brother, John, younger sister, Annie, and I joined them in church services and parish events,” said Sister Marie Therese. “John became an altar server and I, a member of the children’s choir.”

At school, the children were taught by the School Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, which was a blessing for Sister Marie Therese. “During my elementary school years, I began to feel a call to religious life. At the time, I wasn’t focused on a particular ministry. I just wanted to belong to Christ, to truly be his spouse.”

After high school, she entered the novitiate of the School Sisters of St. Francis, Bethlehem, Pa., where she earned a degree in elementary education and taught in several schools.

With a growing desire to learn more about her Franciscan roots, Sister Marie Therese participated in an internship in spiritual direction and directed retreats in Cincinnati. She spent several months at Our Lady House of Prayer, Phoenix, offering spiritual direction and days of retreat.

“During this time, I realized my ministry to God’s people was moving in another direction. I began to delve deeper into our congregational history and the life and writings of our foundress, Mother Frances Antonia Lampel,” said Sister Marie Therese. “What shone through in her writings was our congregation’s charism [the Spirit’s gift to the Church]: in religious life, we should ‘strive for intimate union with God in the midst of apostolic service.’”

Sister Marie Therese continued her studies at the Institute of Pastoral Ministry at St. Joseph’s College, West Hartford, Conn., where she earned a certificate in spirituality. This led her to minister in retreat centers in Bethlehem, Pa.; Mahwah, and the Center for Spiritual Direction, Springfield, Mass.

Sister Marie Therese served as novice director on the Province Formation Team and served on regional and national Formation Conferences, traveling nationwide. “I spent several months at our Formation House in Trichur, India, teaching aspirants and postulants.” She also participated in classes with novices in the Franciscan Studies program, sponsored by the Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University (N.Y.).

In 2005, Sister Marie Therese was asked to join a team charged with writing the first international formation program for the School Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. This meant spending three weeks at their motherhouse in Prague. There, she received a great gift: “Our Czech Provincial accompanied me by train to Gratz, Austria, where I was able to pray by the graveside of our foundress. I asked her to intercede that I would have a ‘double portion of her spirit,’ and I continue to pray for this each day.”

For the past 17 years, Sister Marie Therese has served at St. Matthias Parish, Somerset, as pastoral minister of social concerns, collaborating with other pastoral associates and parish staff.

“I am inspired by our volunteer parishioners who work alongside me in the ministries of bereavement and caregivers support groups, Lazarus and funeral teams, assisting families that are preparing a funeral Mass for deceased loved ones,” she said.

She is also spiritual director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul chapter, a cantor and choir member, and “feels privileged to journey with the sick, homebound, and nursing home parishioners and the ministers who bring them Eucharist each Sunday.”

In the future, she noted, “When I am no longer in active ministry, and with health of body, mind and spirit, I will continue volunteering in outreach to the poor and those in need. With my last breath, I hope to pray in the words of St. Francis of Assisi, ‘I have done what was mine to do. May Christ teach you what is yours.’”