This year the sisters of the California Province had a special interest in the National Retirement Fund for Religious annual campaign. Last February Sister Mary Stephanie Still, PBVM, Executive Director of the National Religious Retirement Office for the United States, approached our provincial, Sister Mary Anncarla Costello. “Could their office feature our retired sisters in their materials for the 2017 appeal?” As a result, Sister Mary Therese Kirstein, Sister Mary Sheila Fay and Sister Mary Ann Hanson spent a good part of two days at the Carmelites of the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra having their photographs taken. Subsequently, Sister Mary Ann is featured on the 2017 campaign poster as well as in all national publicity – magazine advertisements, envelopes and fliers.
If you would like to read more about these sisters, enter Retirement Fund for Religious in your browser. Then follow the links.
Sister Mary Ann Hanson, SND, 79
“My sister was to be a nun, and I was to be a mother,” explains Sister Mary Ann Hanson, 79, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Thousand Oaks, California, “but God had other plans.”
“When I was growing up and on the day of my profession, my aunt—whom I always called Mom—asked me why I wanted to be a sister,” recalls Sister Mary Therese Kirstein, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Thousand Oaks, California. “I said ‘because I love God, and I want to serve him”.
“When I was in first grade, we had a good Irish pastor. He would ask our class who wanted to be a sister, and all the girls would raise their hands,” says Sister Mary Sheila Fay, 84, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Thousand Oaks, California.
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