Sr. Mary Ruth Wand SSND finds joy in saying ‘yes’ to God every day

A happy hymn resonates in Sister Mary Ruth Wand SSND’s spirit.

“Speak, Lord, I’m list’ning. Plant Your word down deep in me. Speak, Lord, I’m list’ning. Please show me the way.”

A native of Quincy, Illinois, Sr. Mary Ruth has spent most of her 52 years of professed religious life in the Jefferson City diocese.

She has been a teacher at St. Peter Interparish School in Jefferson City, and at St. George in Linn; a teaching principal at Immaculate Conception School in Loose Creek, Holy Family School in Hannibal, Fr. McCartan Memorial School in Marceline, and at St. Joseph School in Martinsburg.

She has been serving as pastoral minister at Annunciation parish in California since 1999.

From the day she claimed her vocation, Sr. Mary Ruth has begun each day by saying “yes,” like the Blessed Mother, to helping God bring forth the Messiah in the world.

“Every day in religious life, you have to get out of bed and say, ‘I recommit myself to this. This is my life and I give it to You, God, in whatever capacity suits You today,’” she stated.

God responds by blessing and strengthening her resolve.

“I am grateful for God’s fidelity through the years and say with Mary: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior!’” she said.

Family values

Sr. Mary Ruth agrees with Pope St. John XXIII that faith-filled families are the cradle of vocations.

Growing up in a large, Catholic farm family meant she and her brothers and sisters had to learn to share, work and pray together.

“After dinner, we knelt down to pray the Rosary,” she recalled. “That was part of the routine. If something came up, we would stop and pray.”

They all had chores, and they learned to look out for each other.

“Each of us had a role in the family,” she said. “Not that everything was perfect, but we learned strong values — basic goodness and respect for each other, the love of nature and the love of God through all the things that happen.

“We weren’t any holier than anyone else,” she said. “But we were well grounded in the values that you need to carry into religious life or married life.”

Her parents always showed respect for priests and sisters, and she and her siblings learned to do the same.

Farming was hard work for everyone, and nobody had a lot of money, but they always saw to it that the priests and sisters were taken care of and that the needs of the Church were met.

The Wands, like most Catholic families, had relatives in religious life. Family reunions were scheduled around their home visits, which usually happened once every five years.

“When they came home, the whole family got together,” she recalled. “You didn’t plan anything else for those five evenings.”

She acknowledged that it’s often more difficult today for parents to create such stability and instill such values.

“Some people just aren’t getting that at home,” she said. “That’s why I think our churches need to be places where people can come for refuge and guidance, where we give them hope and help them keep plugging on.

“We need to be on our knees, asking God how we can help,” she said. “Sometimes, I’m there just to listen. Other times, He gives me the words I need. I always pray that I will be His instrument — that God will help me say whatever He needs them to hear.”

These are your sisters

Blessed Mother Theresa Gerhardinger founded the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the 1830s in what is now Germany. Under the Blessed Mother’s patronage, she wanted the sisters to identify and address unmet needs in the Church and society.

They started out by helping the poor, especially women and children, mostly in rural areas. That developed into a heavy emphasis on education in the classroom and beyond.

“So we’re educating constantly, whether it’s teaching a child or holding the hand of someone who’s dying,” said Sr. Mary Ruth.

Taught by SSNDs at St. Anthony of Padua School in Quincy, she entered religious life in 1961 in St. Louis and professed first vows in 1965.

It meant sacrificing having a husband and children.

“But we’ve been promised that God will multiply our gifts a hundredfold,” she noted. “We become family with the other sisters and with the people we’re sent to serve. I know my SSND community will always be there for me.”

She’s fond of holding up an SSND photo directory and saying, “These are all my sisters.”

“And that’s just in the United States,” she noted. “Our community is international, universal. We’re all one family.”

And they’re all “related” to all other women in religious life.

“It all boils down to our baptismal call to help bring Jesus into the world,” she said. “For me, the best way to do that has meant being a sister, so that is what I do.”

Holy obedience

One of the vows Sr. Mary Ruth and all religious sisters make to God is to be obedient.

“We are missionary disciples,” she said. “Obedience means you go where you’re sent.”

But it’s much more than simply following orders.

“It means accepting guidance from our superiors and listening to God through dialogue and discernment,” she said. “We discern our gifts and talents, and our superiors call them forth from us. They help match our gifts with wherever there is the greatest need for them.”

For instance, Sr. Mary Ruth didn’t want to become a principal, because she’d miss being with children all day in the classroom. But when she agreed to accept the challenge, God revealed to her a whole new set of gifts and graces she didn’t know she had.

Similarly, she feels abundantly blessed to have become a part of Annunciation parish.

“The people here are wonderful,” she said. “They’re very encouraging and supportive. I feel like I’m one of them.”

As a pastoral minister, she has contact with people of all ages, including children in the Parish School of Religion.

She visits people who are homebound or in the hospital and comforts families in times of sickness and death.

On Tuesdays, she leads a faith-sharing group that studies the readings for the upcoming Sunday’s Mass.

“They are an awesome group,” she said. “They are really searching for the Lord. They want their faith to continue to grow.”

She also works with a group of parishioners who produce the six-minute weekly mediations for the “Mustard Seed” Sunday radio program.

In both groups, she enjoys seeing people share the insights God gives them into Bible passages, through their life experiences.

The Lord’s work

Sr. Mary Ruth holds a bachelor’s degree in music theory and a master’s degree in elementary administration.

She has also served in St. Louis and in Iowa and Nebraska.

She noted that the number of sisters in the United States has steeply declined since she entered religious life. Most parishes and schools no longer have sisters, leaving children and their families with few opportunities to get to know any.

“And a lot of us are getting older,” she said. “You just don’t have as much energy to be in all those places we used to be.”

She believes religious life remains an important part of the Church in this country, although it’s changing.

“I’m very sure people are still being called to religious life,” she said. “But these days, there’s so much noise. I think it’s hard for people to hear the call, whether to religious life or Priesthood or even to marriage.”

Parents can do a lot to instill a healthy prayer life in their children, help them grow in knowledge of God and challenge them ask, “Who, me?”

“It’s definitely the Lord’s work,” she said. “God’s going to bless us through it if we’re open to it.”

The best happiness

Sr. Mary Ruth asks for prayers for her and all sisters to be able to grow in faith and joyful service and to persevere in doing what God wants them to do.

“If we’re doing the Lord’s work, we want to be able to do it the best we can and for as long as we can,” she said.

She also requests prayers for young people and their parents to be open to a special calling from God.

“You’re going to find the best happiness in finding out and doing what God wants you to do,” she said. “You can muddle through other things, but to really carry out your baptismal call to bring Jesus to the world, you have to really listen, really pay attention, and then do whatever you’re called to do.”