  Sister Marion
Garneau
Marion likes being a sister. And it shows, "It's been a good life,
full of blessing," she says. Her reasons are simple. Religious
life has allowed her to serve as Christ did and to live life to the
fullest. She has taught school, has lived among the poorest of the
poor in Peru, has been in positions of leadership and now works and
lives among the poor of Edmonton's inner city."There is so much
blessing in my life," she says. "Each day has its share of
the joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears of the human community."
Currently Marion is a member of the Inner City Pastoral Ministry, an
ecumenical faith outreach for street people, and ministers to sexually
abused and battered women as well as to women prisoners. Marion was
born in Edmonton as were both her parents. Her paternal great-grandfather
came to Edmonton in 1874 from the Red River; his farm in southwest
Edmonton is part of today's Garneau district.
"I grew up in a home where faith and spirituality were
important,"she
noted. Her mother is 88 and still runs a prayer group at St. Alphonsus
Parish. She joined the Sisters of Charity at the young age of 16
and credits her Grade 3 teacher with planting the seed. The teacher,
a
lay woman, simply asked if she would consider becoming a sister.
As a teenager Marion met several congregations in Edmonton but as
she began to think seriously about religious life during Grade
11, she felt drawn to those she knew best - the Sisters of Charity.
A
number of them taught at St.Alphonsus School at the time. "Strangely,
my vision was of working with children in Africa, yet I joined a
congregation that at that time was in ministry only in Canada. "Years
later the Sisters of Charity would expand their ministry to foreign
soil allowing her to live in Peru.
Upon entering, she set off for Saint John, NB, where the Sisters
of Charity have their founding houses. There she finished high school,
earned her teacher's license, earned university degrees in science
and education, and taught high school
for a number of years.
She enjoyed teaching and expected that this would be her life. However,
God is full of surprises. In 1972 she responded to her congregation's
invitation to ministry in Peru. "What a gift," she said. "The
parish on the fringes of Lima, where I lived, had at one point
150,000 people and one priest. There was no way that the model
of Church
that I had known in Canada would fit."
Peru was not an easy place to be. "People face relentless poverty
that could destroy a person's spirit and yet these people are so
hopeful, so ready to work together, to envision a better world."
In Peru she witnessed the power of small Christian communities and
their ability to draw out leadership.
"I learned a whole new model of Church. Lay people led the
Church."
"
There have been so many unexpected blessings in my life." In
1981 she returned to Edmonton to do formation work for the congregation.
Four years later she was elected General Superior of the Sisters
of Charity and returned to Saint John. Marion led the congregation
for nine years, returning to Edmonton in 1994. Since then she has
lived and worked in the inner city, volunteering in projects such
as a resource centre for prostitutes, for survivors of sexual abuse,
for battered women, women in prison, housing.
"It's wonderful to live and work in the inner-city.
I'm very grateful to be able to walk with the poor as Jesus did."
Western Catholic Reporter
used with Permission
Back to Meet Us Page
|
