Sister Marta was able to get to Canada in October 1951. Sister Theresa continued to work in Innsbruck. She finally received her visa to the U.S in November 1952 and immediately began working at Saint Thomas Orphanage.
Sister Marta finally joined her there in December 1953. They mothered many youngsters over the years, including Gloria High Hawk, who arrived at the orphanage around the same time as Sister Marta.
“Mother Marta named me Gloria after Gloria in Excelcis Deo and Mother Theresa named me Rose because of all the roses in her garden in the summer.” Miss High Hawk recalled.
From time to time, Miss High Hawk would be sent to visit a potential adoptive family. She would invariably spend nights away from the orphanage shedding homesick tears and begging to return to her “mom.”
“Those two sisters were my mom,” Miss High Hawk asserted.
In February of 1954, Bishop Kucera authorized the founding of the American community of the Mercy Sisters of Saint Francis with permission from the Vatican. Under the direction of Sister Theresa, who alternated with Sister Marta as major superior from 1954 to 1970, the sisters all worked at Saint Thomas orphanage at first.
In 1961, Bishop James V. Casey changed the name of the order to the Marian Sisters of the Diocese of Lincoln. Continuing to follow the rule of Saint Francis, the sisters began training for a teaching apostolate.
The orphanage was closed in 1963, and the sisters adjusted to serve the diocese as teachers, nurses and in other roles as needed. Sister Theresa worked with the elderly at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital.
Also that year, the Marians moved to a new motherhouse near the Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat Center in Waverly. Three mission houses in other towns have enabled the sisters to serve communities outside of Lincoln.
As Sister Theresa grew older and had to retire from nursing, her apostolate changed. She worked in the garden as long as she could, providing beautiful flowers to adorn the sisters’ chapel. She used her gifts of music and art to praise the Lord.
In her last few years, she accepted the apostolate of suffering with grace and cheerfulness and devoted herself to the apostolate of prayer.
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Sister Theresa remained a source of wisdom and leadership to the other sisters. “Do with love, whatever God asks,” she would tell them. “Find joy in doing little things with love for Jesus.”
Miss High Hawk continued to telephone Sister Theresa for counsel and encouragement, even past the days when Sister Theresa was able to hear her on the phone.
“Sister Margaret would talk to me and keep me caught up, and she would give my messages to Sister Theresa,” Miss High Hawk said. “I’d say, ‘Tell her I love her!’”
Sister Theresa’s death came on the Feast of Saint Andrew, which, Msgr. Perkinton said at her funeral Mass, “strikes me as something of a providential sign.”
He explained, “We remember Andrew, filled with joy, running up to his brother Peter and proclaiming, ‘We have found the Christ!’ That was Sister’s life. Her life filled with the love of God was in itself a joyful proclamation: ‘I have found our Lord, Jesus. Come and see for yourself.’”
Printed with permission from the Southern Nebraska Register, newspaper for the Diocese of Lincoln.