Losing the habit: the life of a Catholic nun
By Brianna Owczarzak
Sister Mary Lou on Dipity.
At the age of 21 most people are graduating college or starting their families, but not Sister Mary Lou Owczarzak.
On Sept. 8, 1964, just three months after her 21st birthday Sister Mary Lou took a leap of faith and became a Catholic nun by joining the Mission Sisters of the Holy Spirit.
“I wasn’t really thinking of the convent at those days, but I had this feeling that I should be doing something with my life,” Sister Mary Lou said.
Sister Mary Lou visited her priest and he made an appointment for her to go and meet the Mission Sisters.
“At that time I didn’t think I really wanted to enter the convent,” she said, but she took an application anyways. “I think I entered to prove to God that convent life wasn’t for me.”
The Mission Sisters attracted her because they didn’t have the regular habit uniform and they weren’t teachers or nurses as was the traditional work of sisters back then, Sister Mary Lou said.
Faith and family
Sister Mary Lou grew up in a Catholic family and attended a Catholic grade school and high school in Bay City, Mich.
“Religious life and family traditions were a strong part of my background,” Sister Mary Lou said.
Sister Mary Lou grew up in a polish family, where they practiced polish/Catholic customs.
One of these customs was the breaking and passing of the Oplatek bread, a thin square wafer, on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.
“The Oplatek was the family coming together simply to break bread and to share in a meal. The sharing of the Oplatek was saying we are family, we break bread together, we are church,” Sister Mary Lou said.
The Oplatek is one of Sister Mary Lou’s family traditions that she brought to the convent to share with the other Mission Sisters, although she is the only polish sister in the convent.
Religious life
The Mission Sisters worked with the migrants at the Guadeloupe clinic when they first arrived in Saginaw. While working at the clinic one of the Mission Sisters became a midwife and delivered over 500 babies in the area.
“When I went to St. Anthony Parish, which was probably 50 percent Hispanic, people were coming up to me and saying ‘I owe my life to your sister Pauline.’ And it was so heartwarming,” Sister Mary Lou said. “I wasn’t only there as a Mission Sister, but there was a history of the Mission Sisters being involved in their lives. We automatically connected so easily, so community life has been an important part of helping me to grow in my faith and to support me in my ministry.”
“Everything that I did I would not be able to do without the support of community. I carried with me who I was as part of the Mission Sisters.”
Before retiring in July 2013, Sister Mary Lou worked at four parishes: Holy Spirit Parish, St. Athanasius Parish, St. Anthony Parish and Assumption Parish.
“The thing I’ve enjoyed most is interacting with people in the parish. I loved the work that I was doing in the ministry, but I loved to work with people to generate ideas to see how we can build programs and structure programs in the parish community,” Sister Mary Lou said.
During her career she was involved with religious education, youth ministry and Christian service.
“I really enjoyed the Christian service aspect of the parish because there’s so much outreach to the soup kitchens and to collections of food for our children who were in poor parishes,” Sister Mary Lou said.
At her first three parishes Sister Mary Lou was director of religious education, where she organized all of the religious education programs and took care of adult education.
She also organized parish outings such as picnics, graduation celebrations and holiday breakfasts.
Sister Mary Lou also made sure she visited the sick and elderly.
“We’ve always had our sisters over at St. Francis home which is a home for the aged. You go over there and you’re not only seeing the person you’re going to visit, but you certainly say hello and visit the other residents and talk to them. I enjoy being with the elderly,” Sister Mary Lou said.