My name is Sr. Miriam and I was Sr. Teresa's “pastoral person” for the last 19 months or so, which meant that we met regularly to talk about how she was doing. She was also a dear friend and sister.
First of all, I would like to extend my condolences to all of Sr. Teresa’s family members present here today, especially to her dad Pedro, her mom Maria and her two brothers Pablo and Edwin.
One of my favorite stories about Sr. Teresa goes back to last June (2022) when we were in The James cancer hospital in Columbus. Sr. Teresa had just arrived by ambulance, and she was exhausted and unsure of how bad things were. A male nurse named Jeff was checking her vitals and he then asked her if there was anything more he could do for her. Without skipping a beat, she said to him, "Well if you could take a few spins around the room on a unicycle, that would be great.” He, looking slightly confused and said, "Do you have a unicycle in here?" to which she responded, "No, but you asked me if there was anything at all you could do for me!”
I broke this eulogy up into different sections as I thought that Sr. Teresa would like that - she loved order and categorization!
Other-Centered
St. Therese of Lisieux, Sr. Teresa’s patron saint once said, “It is not enough to give ‘to everyone who asks’ (Luke 6:30); I must even anticipate their desires, [and] appear to be very much obliged and honored to render service.”
I must even anticipate their needs…. Sr. Teresa exemplified this to an extraordinary degree.
For example, she tried to anticipate the needs of the person coming after her in a particular role in community. Sr. Agnes Maria shared with us that on three separate occasions she stepped into roles in community that Sr. Teresa had just held. Each time, Sr. Teresa took the time to write out detailed manuals for Sr. Agnes Maria, to try and make it easier for her to transition to the new role. Being postulant formator was Sr. Teresa’s favorite assignment in all her time in community, but because of her health situation, in August of 2022, Sr. Agnes Maria was assigned to the role instead of Sr. Teresa. There was a real death for Sr. Teresa in this, but she generously tried to help Sr. Agnes Maria as much as she could. Even when Sr. Teresa was going through chemo treatments she would check in with Sr. Agnes Maria to see if she needed any help, and one time she even called from the hospital to see if she had any questions.
Sr. Teresa was always trying to think of what was important to the other person. For example, the morning of my home visit last July, I went into Sr. Teresa’s room to say goodbye and when I was leaving she said, “Cead mile Failte” which is a Gaelic phrase. She thought it meant goodbye and she had been practicing it. It actually meant “100,000 welcomes” but I was so touched that she would take the time to try and speak in Gaelic to me, especially when she was sick and going through her chemo cycles. She also sent me numerous emails and notes in Gaelic - looking up the translation on google translate and then writing it out.
She didn’t just pray for individual sisters but she prayed for our individual family members too. She created a list of family members of sisters with columns for when she offered her Mass, mercy chaplet and rosary for that person. She even had a separate notepad that went back to 1999 that had separate columns for each of her own family members and check marks for the dates that she prayed for them in a particular way.
Sr. Teresa rarely directed the conversation toward herself, but would ask a sister a question about how her day went, how she was doing, or about a recent ministry, etc. It was amazing how she remembered the specifics of what was going on for sisters and how she followed up with us about those things. She remembered dates that were important to us and our families, having made lists to help her remember.
Sr. Teresa knew that the Lord was likely calling her home soon and on several occasions she shared about how she was doing with regard to this, and how she was actively preparing. One very moving moment for me was a conversation that I had with her several months ago when she brought up the topic of her death. She said that she was concerned about pain as she didn’t have a very high pain threshold but that her main concern was about how her family and the sisters would be affected by her death. At a time when she’d be entirely forgiven for being even a little self-focused, she was still thinking of us, wondering if WE’d be okay.
Beautiful Uniqueness of her Person
There was a beautiful uniqueness to Sr. Teresa.
At times she would answer the phone, "Hello, this is Mrs. Jesus Christ speaking"! On every community google survey she filled out, she would sign her name “Sr. Teresa, Daughter of the King of Kings.” She knew who she was, and Who’s she was.
She prepared so well for her hospital visits. We have donated nature magazines at the convent and Sr. Teresa would cut out nature scenes and bring them to the hospital with her so that she could tape them to the walls and boost her spirits.
Before going into the hospital for one of her surgeries, she recorded herself praying many of our prayers onto an MP3 player so that when she was recovering in the hospital she could press play and listen. She didn’t want to miss any prayer times!
In the last few weeks she had taken over the role of posting our community blogs. She had a whole strategic plan for the blogs up until August of this year (2023), noting what big community events were coming up, and who she would ask to write blogs.
Living our Life so Well
ST lived our way of life impeccably well.
Mother Della Marie and I had the hardest time encouraging Sr. Teresa to stop the community bread and water fast on Wednesdays and Fridays when we became aware that she had a very serious illness and would soon need to undergo surgery and chemotherapy! I think it might be the only time that I saw her kind of annoyed! She was a little stubborn about it. (In the best possible way).
Her input for the 2020/2021 community assignments was a simple: “I’m open to however I can best be of service.” Period.
In terms of Franciscan poverty, her “To Do” list was written on a rectangular piece of paper in pencil so that she could keep erasing and rewriting her list on the same worn little piece of paper.
Sr. Teresa died on an ‘ordinary’ day - she didn’t die on Ash Wednesday or on a major Marian feast day or solemnity. It was just an ordinary day. But she lived the ordinary so extraordinarily well, that it actually seems fitting for the person she was. Brian Kissinger (head of student life in Gaming, Austria for the two years she served there) said: “Sr. Teresa to me modeled what it looked like to be ‘hidden in Christ.’ She always seemed so content in whatever role she was given, eager to serve in behind-the-scenes roles and at the same time more than capable of up-front leadership.”
Sr. Teresa was a prayer warrior, known for her loud and clear intercessions and for entering whole-heartedly into times of praise and worship. She was also known for her discretion and charity in community life - we can't actually remember a single time that she spoke badly about someone else. She was also very willing to jump into skits and was very believable in the various roles she took on. Her last skit was three days before her death in which she played Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. J She also smiled very readily and in recent days many people have commented on how affected they were by her smile.
Dealing with her Illness
During her illness, Sr. Teresa often shared that she was just taking things one day at a time and really striving to live in the present moment. She talked about her two close friends who were preparing her to meet her Spouse face to face - St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Elizabeth of the Trinity - both of whom knew that they were dying and both of whom died young.
She read the letters of St. Therese and those of her sisters (to her) in the last months of her life. Sr. Teresa said that while both St. Therese and St. Elizabeth of the Trinity were completely surrendered to the Lord's will regarding the timing of their deaths, both of them really wanted to go to heaven (personally) and this was an encouragement to her. St. Elizabeth knew that going to heaven would be the consummation of union with the Trinity who dwelt within her so profoundly on this earth. St. Elizabeth talked about the "heaven of the heart" since the Trinity dwells there - and how we begin to live heaven here on earth. Sr. Teresa started to do likewise.
Sr. Teresa said that she was trying to be, and praying to be, entirely surrendered to the Lord's will, however that played out.
She told me once that she was doing her best to prepare well for eternity, for whenever the Lord took her. She still hoped for a major miracle of healing and knew that’s what it would take, but she simply continued to lean on her Divine Spouse for what she needed in the present moment. She knew that her health could deteriorate quickly at any time and last summer when she knew she could pass sooner than later she said that she specifically asked the Lord for areas to work on so she would be ready to see him face to face as soon as possible (she said she didn’t want to spend time in purgatory).
The Lord revealed a specific area to her to work on and she worked on that, taking a 90 day targeted approach to the situation! Sr. Teresa didn’t do things by halves!!
She said that she was not afraid of dying (as she knew she would be going to Glory). She said that she knew she was made for Glory, for heaven and that the Lord had been walking closely with her and preparing her, which he did in the most tender and gentle way possible. She said in some ways she knew she could / 'should' be in despair or depression because of her health situation but she wasn't. She was truly trying to live in the present moment.
Just two weeks before her death, she mentioned that she had decided to do her Personal Growth Plan for the year. We normally do them in August but she was too sick to do it then. She mentioned that she wanted to focus on living in a selfless way, in a way that is focused on others, outward-focused on serving others etc. I don’t know if she realized how fully she was already doing that.
She said that she was dependent on the Lord day by day not knowing what was coming and when things might change for the worse for her, but that she trusted in her Divine Spouse, knowing that he was trustworthy, faithful and very close to her.
Rest in peace, Sr. Teresa. We miss you terribly but we have faith that we will see you again in our heavenly home one day. We are so, so grateful for the witness of your life, your vocation, your love for us, and all the joy that you brought us over the years.
-Sr. Miriam O'Callaghan, T.O.R.
