To me it was significant that the obituary for Sister Virginia O’Hare, S.U.S.C., would appear in the recent Star Herald edition that focused on our seminarians and their reflections on Jesus’ call to dedicate their lives in service to him and his flock. How, appropriately, we could then be led to consider Sister Virginia’s call to serve Our Lord by educating children well, not only in the “Three Rs,” but even more significantly in the truths of our Catholic faith.
The Sisters of the Holy Union of the Sacred Hearts have their origin in the group of single ladies who were formed by their parish priest to meet the catechetical needs of the children during the terrible anti-Catholic times of the French Revolution. Despite the dangers of torture and the guillotine, they persisted in their commitment to form the next and future generations of the local church. They succeeded and from these humble and danger-fraught beginnings a new congregation of vowed women religious was born. Their lives combined, in equal partnership, the active and contemplative. The sisters became well-noted for the quality of the education they provided and soon found themselves called to minister in our country in the New England area. That early French community soon attracted candidates from not only the local established Catholic women but also from the newly arriving Irish and Portuguese families. As the saying goes, “The rest is history.”
In 1946, Father John Fallon, the founding pastor of Sacred Heart, Mount Ephraim, convinced the Holy Union community to staff the new school he was building. Everyone was ecstatic over their arrival. With very little material reserves, the sisters and parishioners joined together to form a vibrant partnership to educate the children — their hope for the future.
My parents were among those very active and hopeful young married couples, and this began a long and loving relationship with the then-Sister Agnes William that lasted until she was called home — 74 years of friendship.
Sister taught me in the sixth and eighth grades. A marvelous teacher, with a unique approach and engaging manner who encouraged every student to want to learn, each according to their own ability. With great patience she responded to the needs of the 47 students of our class, shepherding us from subject to subject, projects and activities, and accepting us for who we were but nudging us forward to be what she saw we could be and what we could accomplish.
A vocation to the priesthood or vowed religious life in communities of women or men is a call from Jesus, but how it comes is influenced by events and most importantly by people. My parents and their friends, the priests of our parish, and the sisters were all such wonderful people that helped me hear the call to serve him. Of these I will ever be grateful for Sister Agnes William — Sister Virginia O’Hare, S.U.S.C., who helped me by example to hear that call more clearly and hopefully to answer more completely every day.
Father Frederick G. Link is a retired priest of the Diocese of Camden, and currently resides at Saint Joseph the Worker Parish, Haddon Township.
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