Thankful FMIHM sisters know ‘our consecrated life is valuable’

Thankful FMIHM sisters know ‘our consecrated life is valuable’

The World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life was celebrated by the Catholic Church on Feb. 2. Attached to the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, or Candlemas – when candles are blessed to remember Christ as the light of the world – the day honors these women and men called to reflect the light of Jesus to all people.

Three religious women living in Glassboro – the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary – are doing just that.

“I’m very happy to spread the Good News of the Lord that He’s put into my heart,” said 84-year-old Sister M. Bernarda Ribeiro, a retired religious who lives with Sister Karen McConnell, 60, and Sister Nabila Abdel-Malek Gerges, 71, just steps from Saint Bridget University Parish.

The religious order serves across the globe in apostolic activities, social and health services, education, vocations and youth ministry, and according to local needs.

In 2006, five of these Franciscan sisters, including Sister Bernarda, arrived in Glassboro, occupying an old Felician Sisters convent. They began assisting at the old Saint Bridget parish and school. In 2009, they purchased their current residence on Ellis Street, which has been renovated.

“I feel very fortunate to have this mission,” said Sister Bernarda, who has more than 30 years of experience teaching Catholic school students in the Diocese of Camden.

Hope and Light

Born in Brazil to a Catholic family, Sister Bernarda remembered feeling the call to a religious life at the age of 9, but wasn’t certain until high school at Colegio Sao Jose, which was staffed by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

“I observed their witness, their lives,” and desired to emulate them, she recalled.

Making her first vows in 1963 and final vows in 1968, she came to the United States in 1980 and has served at a number of schools in the Diocese: Holy Saviour, Westmont; Saint Jude, Blackwood; Saint Bridget, Glassboro; and Saint Michael the Archangel, Clayton.

For 10 years, from 2014-2024, she served as general counselor for the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary General House in Rome, before returning last year. Although retired, she still assists occasionally at Saint Bridget University Parish.

Sister Nabila has been in Glassboro since 2006, teaching at the old Holy Saviour School and now ministering at Saint Michael the Archangel as a pre-K4 aide.

“I’m in heaven here,” she remarked.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Sister Nabila grew up in a Coptic Orthodox household, before having a powerful moment at Saint John Bosco Church there and experiencing the Catholic Mass and traditions.

“I was in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and I saw the families and children all showing respect and love,” she recalled.

Thanking the Salesian sisters who staffed this church, whose “kind and gentleness showed me the faith,” she converted to Catholicism and entered the Franciscan Missionary Sisters in 1972, making her final vows in 1976. For the next 30 years, she taught religion to students in Egypt.

Sister Karen McConnell, a native of the Diocese of Camden, grew up in Hi-Nella and attended the old Our Lady of Grace elementary school in Somerdale from first through fifth grade.

A powerful moment in her vocation journey came while she was an education major at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University). One Ash Wednesday, she couldn’t make it to her home parish, so she attended services at the school’s Newman club. Leading it was Father (now monsignor) Michael Mannion.

During a conversation, she recalled him saying how “priests and religious were regular, ordinary people who made a choice” to serve the Lord.

She soon realized her own life, “my own vocation, was looking for the missing piece.”

Graduating in 1987, she spent a year teaching at Saint Jude School in Blackwood before entering the congregation in 1988.

Professing final vows in 1997, she now helps people find their own missing piece, she stated.

Since becoming a sister nearly 30 years ago, she has worked with youth and young adults in the Diocese of Camden and has spent time teaching in China and the Holy Land.

Returning to the Diocese last fall, Sister Karen is now a teaching assistant at Guardian Angels Regional School in Paulsboro as well as Saint Margaret Regional School, Woodbury Heights. She also pays back the wisdom she received from Msgr. Mannion with weekly visits to Rowan’s Newman Club.

Love and Presence

Ministering in Glassboro, the three women “provide an alternative to what the world presents, and what life can be. We’re a reminder of a possibility to follow Christ,” Sister Karen noted. 

“We remind people of the important things. They, in turn, call us to remember who we are” – and by whom they are called,” she continued.

Sister Bernarda echoed those sentiments. “Our presence matters here. People see us at church, at school, and they come to us. They are looking for God, and they know our consecrated life is valuable to them.”

She expressed pleasure knowing that their convent frequently holds retreats for youth and adults, many of whom come for Mass in the chapel or Adoration with the Blessed Sacrament.

“People know there is a place to come and find hope,” Sister Bernarda said.

At the same time, she draws strength from those she serves. “Their appreciation, their love, give me strength and let me know I’m doing God’s will.”

Currently, Sister Bernarda works with students at Saint Bridget University Parish who are preparing to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.

“They’re asking questions, and wanting to know more,” she said of those in the OCIA program. “How beautiful that God is working in them, and in me.”

Sister Nabila added that “people remember our example, and are thankful that we help and pray for them.”

“Families come and tell me, ‘We feel peace and joy with your love and presence,’” she continued.

These women might physically come from different places in the world – New Jersey, Brazil and Egypt – but, spiritually, their vocation has brought them, and the surrounding community, together on the road to the everlasting light.

“We are so different, but each have one love – for our God, for each other and for our community,” Sister Bernarda said, emphasizing that one of her favorite daily activities is when the trio gathers together in the chapel. 

“We pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and that gives me strength. I know that they are with me, and I am with them, for God’s love.”