BELLMAWR – For almost 50 of her 70 years as a consecrated woman, Sister Philomena Leahy, FDNSC, has faithfully served South Jersey’s people, from Catholic school kindergarteners to seniors nearing the end of their earthly life.
Now, as she marks seven decades of professed life as a Daughter of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, she reflects on what she has hoped to impart, and what she has learned from those she has encountered, be it in the Diocese of Camden, California, Chicago, England or her native Ireland.
“I’ve tried to see Jesus in every person I’ve come into contact with and bring them closer to Him,” she says in the weeks after the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, Feb. 2.
From her roots in Kilkenny to her current home here at Saint Francis de Sales convent, where she has taken up residence since 1975, Sister Philomena has carried a love for the Lord and kept His people in her heart.
“My family – my parents, brother, two sisters and I – were a deeply religious family,” she recalls. “My father and I would go to Mass every morning at 7 a.m., and my mother had a tremendous faith and belief in the Eucharist. She would be in front of the Blessed Sacrament from 2 to 3 p.m. every day, then meet us as we were walking home from school. The church was between home and school. My mother would always remind me and my siblings to never pass by the church on our way to school without going inside and making a visit to Jesus.”
After Mercy Elementary School and Saint Brigid Secondary School, Sister Philomena made the decision to enter the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Glandore, County Cork, in 1951 at the age of 17.
“I made my first profession in 1954, and for the next four years performed ministry to those in parishes, hospitals and in prisons,” she says.
It was in this last ministry, where she led Bible ministry, benediction and rosary prayers to “prisoners, rejected by society. I would tell them Jesus loves them, and that they need to repent and turn to God.”
In 1958, she made her final vows, and 11 years later was sent to the United States – Bellmawr, to be exact, where she spent a year. She was then assigned to Chicago to teach religious education, and later, Los Angeles, where she engaged in parish and school ministry. In 1975, she returned to Bellmawr and what was then Saint Francis de Sales Elementary School. From then until its closing in 2009, she engaged its young Church as a kindergarten and first-grade teacher; she also was involved in parish religious education, and hospital and homebound ministry.
Today, she continues her daily visits to the homebound, with a ministry at Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Haddon Heights, where she goes to 8:30 a.m. Mass every day.
She is one of six religious residing in the congregation’s convent on Browning Road, with a community that is “always there for me,” she says.
When asked what motivates after 70 years as a religious, she explains: “I continue my vocation because not only do I like being with people, but because of my love for God and His love for me.”
Again, she circles back to her childhood and her mother. “We had an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in our kitchen, and my mother would tell me constantly, ‘When you pass by, say hello to Jesus.’”
“Like my mother, I have a deep faith in God. I remember her words: ‘God will always be with you, just trust Him.’”
Calling the Eucharist “the most important part of my life,” Sister Philomena notes that her frequent times in Adoration are focused on praying for more individuals to step out into the deep – as she did more than 70 years ago – and find meaning and fulfillment in a life to the priesthood or religious life.
“We need good priests and sisters to carry on the work,” she says.
With purpose and peace, Sister Philomena continues confidently in the ministry to which she has been called. “My mother told me once that there were a lot of girls in Ireland that God didn’t choose to be a sister. He chose me.”
“There’s a purpose in my life, for all of this.”
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