Sr. Inez Kenny - A vocation Story
In the FAQ we have been responding to questions on Religious life which were submitted by second level students. In the following inspiring story of her life as a Marist Sister, Sr. Inez Kenny sheds light on many aspects of following a call to Religious life from the perspective of having lived 60 years of vowed commitment. It’s been a wonderful journey and, as she says at the end, she’s not finished yet!
Sr. Inez (centre) with two novitiate companions at their Golden Jubilee
in Longford
Vocation: Life lived for others
When my father stood at the baptismal font in the Paulist Church on West 60th Street, New York on September 27, 1927, he made the commitment to bring me up to love God and my neighbour. He understood what he was undertaking. Mothers did not attend the baptism of their children in those days. I was the third in a family of seven, two girls and five boys. My father loved New York. He had been there from early in the century. He had seen the survivors of the Titanic come ashore at the docks. He knew Fifth Avenue when there were only four cars in it. At his work in the reception of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel he met the ‘movers and shakers’ of the time – Lipton, Carnegie, Rockefeller II, the Wright Brothers ....., and the ‘celebrities’ of the day, Caruso, McCormack, Gigli. He intended to bring up his family there. But the Wall Street crash changed all that and he and my mother decided to return to Ireland with their three young children.
The depression was not confined to America and times in Ireland
were very hard during the 30s and 40s. My parents were faith-filled,
hard working and generous. All their efforts went to providing
for us. Ours was a family like most others. Without any preaching,
our parents gave us the example of trust in Providence, daily prayer
and concern for our neighbour. We were fortunate that there was a very
good primary school about three miles away so we passed the nearest
one and walked the three miles there and back every day. The teacher
was young, enthusiastic and dedicated to his forty or so pupils. We
received an elementary education in the best sense of the word and I
was fortunate to receive a county council scholarship. This was tenable
only at the Marist Convent, Carrick-on-Shannon. In those days of limited
public transport and few private cars, we would not normally have occasion
to go to Carrick-on-Shannon. Sligo or Enniskillen would have been nearer.
But in September 1940 my mother took me to my new school and we made
our first contact with the Marist Sisters.
Thanks to the good foundation I received in the primary school,
learning presented little difficulty and boarding school offered
many new experiences. The gospel values of home prevailed here,
too, and the Sisters gave us every chance of developing our talents.
I enjoyed my years in boarding school and by the end of the five years
I had decided, as had four of my classmates, Bridie, Molsie, Pauline
and Monica, to enter the novitiate. Looking back now, I can see the
many people who had a part in this decision: my parents, the extended
family, a dedicated primary school teacher, the Sisters who taught me,
my school companions and the Carrick community. How and when I heard
the ‘call by gracious choice’ to be a Marist Sister is still a mystery
but it was real. A slight change of plan saw me going to Teacher Training
College before starting novitiate.
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Sr. Inez (right) |
My father and mother came with me to Carrick-on-Shannon on December
8, 1947 to begin the novitiate. Later I realised that they were
making a greater sacrifice that day than I was. Six companions
were there before me – Bridie, Anne, Cora, Brigid, Mary and Kathleen.
Two years later we made profession and four of my companions
went to England. We could never have envisaged as we set out on our
journey how our life would change with Vatican II, the return to the
roots of our charism and the changes in society. It even takes an effort
now to remember what convent life was like then – large communities,
religious dress, strict daily regime, rare contacts with family. Of
my sixty years as a Marist Sister, thirty were spent in primary education.
I was called to give ten years to the general administration in Rome.
Those years were an opportunity to get to know our international congregation
better. I also had the privilege of visiting our communities in four
continents and seeing our charism being lived out in different situations
and cultures. And now, looking back, I can see that the centre has held
throughout. Vowed religious life is still centred on Christ, lived in
community and reaches out to others.
There are very few large communities today. I now live with two
companions, Anne and Frances, in a small house in St. Peter’s
parish in Belfast, among a people who have suffered greatly and
who value the presence of Sisters among them. Two other Sisters,
Mary and Bernadette, returned missionaries, look after a hostel in the
parish for families waiting to be housed. Sr. Myra lives and works in
the Mercy Prayer Centre nearby. There are many ways we can be present
to the people of St. Peter’s : visiting at times of birth and bereavement;
bringing Holy Communion to the housebound; visiting the schools and helping
with sacramental preparation; training adult and children’s choirs; doing
paraliturgies in season and many other services as the needs arise. There
is a variety of interests we can develop in our old age, too, and opportunities
to be creative, maybe not as daring as suggested by Jenny Joseph in her
lovely poem: ’When I am old I will wear purple/with a red hat that doesn’t
go and doesn’t suit me/and I shall spend my pension on brandy/ and summer
gloves and satin sandals.’
The wheel has come full circle. I am now happy to stand with
young parents at the baptismal font as their babies are being
baptised, see the joy on their faces and hear them commit themselves
to bring up their children to love God and their neighbour. A
world of opportunity opens out before these Belfast babies!
-Sr. Inez Kenny, SM
