Why I am a religious Sister today

Sr. Ernestine with the Olympic torch at the U of C

Every call to religious life is personal. We all have our individual way of coming to know what we want for our life. For me, Sister Ernestine Miskolczi, SSS, this awareness happened very early in life. I remember very well that when I was about five years old while visiting relatives, three-year old twin girls were dressed up as nuns by the older girls. Being shy and perhaps a loner I was sitting on the stairs looking at the twins and thinking to myself that they will not be ‘nuns’ but I will.

During my growing-up years we had Sisters who would teach us catechism during the summer holidays. These Sisters seemed always happy and that is what I wanted for my life. My teachers during high-school were all Sisters who further impressed me and helped draw me to thinking about this life style for myself. Needless to say, there were some handsome young fellows who held my hand and touched my heart but could never draw me away from my first choice.

In high school I had come to know a couple different communities of religious life. The first one that I had come to know was the one that I chose to enter right out of high school. I grew up in the wide-open spaces on a farm in Saskatchewan with blue skies from horizon to horizon. When I entered the noviciate of the Sisters of Social Service I had to move to the big city of Hamilton. Wide open spaces were gone. Three months later we were going to see Niagara Falls; what joy filled my heart, I could be in the open spaces for a while. To my great disappointment we didn’t see much open space as there were buildings practically all the way to the Falls. I soon learned that religious life wasn’t all peaches and cream. It had its ups and downs as all life does.

For over sixty years of ministry in God’s service as a Sisters of Social Service I enjoyed twenty years of as a teacher in Ontario and Saskatchewan, thirty years of parish ministry in three different parishes in Calgary, and several years of volunteer work wherever I can.

I am blessed indeed in many ways. My other works took me to see the Holy Land twice, visits to Europe three times, to Mexico three times, Los Angeles seven times. Who can want for more?  

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Written by Sr. Ernestine Miskolczi, SSS
For more information on Sisters of Social Service, visit: sistersofsocialservice.ca

Photos courtesy of Sr. Ernestine