Meet Sister Teresa Ryan
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Sister Teresa Ryan and friend
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I grew up in Southwestern Ontario outside the hamlet of Walton,
the youngest of seven children of Marjorie and Lawrence Ryan.
A call to go deeper in seeking God gradually surfaced around
1964 when three good friends were killed suddenly in a car
accident. The fragility of life was all too real, drawing
me to look for deeper meaning in life. After completing the
registered practical nurse program I worked in London at St.
Joseph’s Hospital on post-partum. The sister that was
my supervisor asked me if I’d thought of religious life.
It was very important to me to hear this question/invitation.
At the time I was dating someone and just wanted the question
to go away. But God would be about God’s work and ways
as the years went by and in 1971 I entered the Sisters of
St. Joseph of the Diocese of London, leaving a couple of months
later. This was also a necessary stage for me. In 1973 I re-entered
with a more peaceful heart.
At present I live in a house of welcome in London with three
other sisters and a lay student and work at St. Joseph’s
Hospitality Centre (Soup Kitchen) that our community owns
and operates thanks to the generosity of about 100 volunteers
and many donors. Over the years I’ve worked at St. Joseph’s
Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital (Chronic Care), a transition
home for women, the Soup Kitchen plus six years in the Zana
Valley, Peru where our community had a mission for some 32
years.
After Hurricane Mitch in 1999 three of us were able to go
to Nueva Vida outside of Managua City in Nicaragua (a resettlement
area for families flooded out around Lake Managua). I’ve
been fortunate to be able to return on two other occasions
for six weeks each time to work with some special needs children
on a one on one basis as I did in Peru. It has been a privilege
for me to have the Central and South American experiences.
The special needs children were always a gift. Even though
I’ve worked with our own poor here the limited third
world experience continues to be a blessing and bring into
balance "the journey".
Experiences around the deaths of loved ones have probably
been the most significant encounters with God and God’s
grace. It is a time when one is brought to one’s knees
in pain, in grace and in awareness of how God accompanies,
loves and empowers me.
Those I accompany continue to challenge me to go deeper,
to be called to conversion and to grow in acceptance of self
and others. God has been very patient, gentle and gracious.
Submitted by
Sister Teresa Ryan, csj
London
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