February 25, 2009

Benedictine sister retires from senior ministry

Special to Denver Catholic Register

On Jan. 30, Benedictine Sister Mary John Thomas retired from her Senior Ministry position at the parish of St. Vincent de Paul in Denver to move into the new Benet Hill Monastery of the Benedictine Sisters, which is being built in the Black Forest area of Colorado Springs. 

Sister Mary John served seniors in the Denver area for 18 years, including 10 at St. Vincent de Paul and eight years at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Lakewood. 

Her entire career spans 57 years, including teaching first and second grades at elementary schools in Pueblo, Monte Vista and Colorado Springs; serving as principal and eighth-grade teacher at the now closed St. Cajetan School in Denver; and serving as prioress of the Benet Hill Monastery in Colorado Springs.

Born and raised in Kansas, Sister Mary John was taught by the Benedictine sisters when she herself was in elementary school.  She said she felt a strong draw to the religious vocation from a young age, although her father asked her to work for one year before making her final decision. 

After working as a secretary for the boilermakers union for a year, she entered Mount St. Scholastica Benedictine Abbey in Atchison, Kan.  Upon making her first profession, she was sent to Colorado to begin her teaching career. 

Sister Mary John loved teaching and especially loved the children.  From them, she said, she learned openness, honesty and how to always “be a child at heart.” 

She recalled being nervous as she moved from the classroom into administration and later into a leadership role within her community.  The new roles, she said, were calls from God. She credited her ability to succeed in them to God’s grace and describes those years as “gifted years.”

“God pulled gifts and abilities out of me that I didn’t even know I had,” she marveled.

Sister Mary John arrived to St. Vincent de Paul in 1987 when she was hired by Father Melvin F. Thompson to begin a senior ministry at the parish.  She began monthly senior luncheons, which still continue on the first Thursday of each month.  She organized recreational trips, distributed Communion to the homebound, visited nursing homes and hospitals, and accompanied the pastors and clergy with whom she has worked for anointing of the sick. 

Friends and co-workers said Sister Mary John brought warmth, joy and support into the lives of everyone in the parish who had the chance to work with her in any capacity. 

The Benedictine sister said she learned much from the seniors she ministered to.

“Through their trust in me, I have learned to trust,” she said. “They tell me their life stories when I come to visit, and I have felt so privileged to share that with them.”