Sr. Mary Ruth Wand SSND: 60 years, three families, one great life
Children’s eyes light up whenever Sister Mary Ruth Wand SSND reveals that she has three families.
They’re even more surprised to find out that they are part of one of those families.
“I was born into the Henry and Alice Wand family,” Sr. Mary Ruth explained. “I was called by God to my School Sisters of Notre Dame family, and I was sent by my religious superiors to my ministry families.”
A native of Quincy, Illinois, Sr. Mary Ruth has spent a large portion of her 60 years of religious life in the Jefferson City diocese.
She has been a teacher at St. Peter Interparish School in Jefferson City, then at St. George School in Linn; a teaching principal at Immaculate Conception School in Loose Creek, Holy Family School in Hannibal, Fr. McCartan Memorial School in Marceline, and St. Joseph School in Martinsburg.
She served as a pastoral minister at Annunciation Parish in California for over 20 years and currently at St. Vincent de Paul Parish of Pettis County.
“People are so good and I am humbled and overwhelmed!” she said. “God is so good!”
The first of Sr. Mary Ruth’s three families lived on a farm just outside Quincy, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.
“We were five girls and two boys and now have a total of 80 — including us, in-laws, nieces and nephews, greats and great-greats, plus, of course numerous cousins,” she said.
“We all learned about love, sharing, work and healthy work ethics, appreciation and care of nature, and especially prayer and love of God,” she stated.
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.”
Her parents were wonderful role models of faith, family and fun. They 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 at that time, 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,” Sr. Mary Ruth recalled. “You didn’t plan anything else for those five evenings.”
“All my sisters”
Sr. Mary Ruth and her family were members of St. Anthony Parish in Quincy, and the children all attended St. Anthony School.
All of their teachers were SSNDs.
There were two grades in every classroom.
“Early on, I felt drawn to be a teacher because there was a need for student tutors whenever Sister was working with another group,” Sr. Mary Ruth recalled.
The only teachers she knew were sisters, including several of her aunts. All of them were SSNDs.
An international religious congregation founded in 1833 in Germany, the School Sisters of Notre Dame (ssnd.org) now serve in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, with leadership headquartered in Rome.
Named for the Blessed Mother (“Our Lady”) they established a strong presence in the United States during the massive waves of immigration in the late 19th century and have been influential in the Church here ever since.
“We are educators in the broadest sense, sometimes in the classroom,” said Sr. Mary Ruth. “We try to help people reach their full potential with special attention to women, youth and the marginalized, always through our commitment to the Gospel and our call to carry out the mission of Jesus.”
With her parents’ blessing, she entered religious life in 1961 at Sancta Maria in Ripa, the SSND Motherhouse overlooking the Mississippi River near St. Louis.
She professed first vows in June of 1965, promising God to remain poor in spirit and hold every earthly possession in common with the SSND community; to forego romantic relationships and marriage; and to be obedient to God through obedience to her religious superiors, in keeping with the constitutions of the SSND congregation.
She professed final vows, making them permanent, in 1970.
“We get sent where the needs are, and that can be because our superiors see a need and they see a good fit.” she noted.
Being a sister 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 said. “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.”
Gifts and presence
True to her childhood aspirations, Sr. Mary Ruth did serve as a Catholic school educator for 32 years — mostly in the Jefferson City diocese, but also in other schools in Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in music theory and a master’s degree in elementary administration.
She hesitated when asked 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.
The same thing happened when she took on the role of pastoral minister for Annunciation Parish in California in 1999 and again when she did so in Sedalia in 2020.
She described her ministry as “serving by being present and helping out where and when I can in the parish and school.”
Being a pastoral minister puts her in 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.
She is involved with the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults for people preparing to join the Church, and tries to remain involved with the different aspects of the parish, Bible studies and simply being present with various civic organizations.
She spends plenty of time at Sacred Heart School, mentoring the students with her kind and understanding manner.
“I love the kids and of course, that’s my background.” she said. “Just being present to the kids, I think that’s important to see religious and priests also try to be involved as much as they can.
“It’s important for Catholics to know that religious exist,” she said, “because we’re few and far between.”
“The Lord’s work”
Father Kevin Gormley, a retired priest of the Jefferson City diocese, has known Sr. Mary Ruth for over 55 years.
“She is there in the homes and hospitals, in the nursing homes and funeral parlors, with people who are in need, be they Catholic or Protestant,” he stated.
He described her as down-to-earth and having great empathy for people.
“Her whole personality shows excitement both to the young and old alike,” he said.
He pointed out her “great facility with words,” which enables her to offer tidings of comfort and encouragement to those who are hurting.
Sr. Mary Ruth couldn’t be happier than to have spent the past six decades answering her call to holiness as a sister.
“I’ve been very blessed, I’m blessed here, I love people, everywhere I’ve been, people are just good,” she said.
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.”
Abundant blessings
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.
Accordingly, she now asks everyone to hold her up in prayer and to remain grateful for God’s love.
She also encourages parents and other adults not to hesitate to ask the girls in their life if they feel God “calling them to another family.”
“I am grateful for my 60 years of SSND life,” she stated. “I have experienced blessings in every mission, every ministry.
“I appreciate my ministry with and for people in furthering the mission of Jesus,” she said.
