THERESIAN TESTIMONIES

My Theresian journey for almost 50 years has been my privilege from the beginning to know and love Our Founder, the late Msgr. Elwood Voss and experience his vision for Theresians as a Christian women’s organization for women by women. I am also most grateful to have served my Theresian life with the First Executive Director, Patricia Mullen, then Sister Rose Ann Barmann, OSB and the present Executive Director, Vicki Schmidt, all great leaders who are talented in empowering Theresian women around the world.

At this moment in time...I have a heart full of gratitude for my way of life as a Theresian. It has enhanced every facet of my life.  The greatest impact for me in Theresians was post Vatican II when all vocations, single, married and religious were recognized equally.  This new outlook gave women the respect and unity to be women in support of women. 

The challenges and responsibilities in our respective vocations would make such an impact as we ventured into the 21st Century together.  The Theresians excelled and expanded world wide as we  experienced  the joy of recognizing each others way of life.
I loved Theresians for the education that we received in enriching our own individual spiritual lives.  Theresians gave me hope and belief that I could use my giftedness to be the woman that God called me to be. 

It was my privilege to serve in many Theresian positions locally, nationally and Internationally. My Theresian life was enhanced with my family who were included and shared in many of my Theresian experiences and travels.

A memorable highlight was to be present at the Basilica of St. Therese on October 19, 1997 in Lisieux, France with 38 Theresians when St. Therese was declared a Doctor of the Church.   My greatest Joy is to love and serve my God via The Theresian Way.

Agnes Pino,
Theresians of the Rockies
Denver, Colorado

Some twelve years ago, I was introduced to the Theresian Way of Life.  It was a learn as you go process for me, mostly by observation, listening and becoming a member of a community of women.  As I settled into that community I became aware of the deep caring and concern of each member for all other members.  They had been a community for about 30 years then, the oldest community in the Phoenix area.  Their life stories had become interwoven, their journeys had been shared for so long that their Theresian sisters were the bedrock of their coping skills, their sounding board for discerning responses and reactions to life’s exigencies.  I learned by being present among these amazing women.

As my involvement expanded to include a place on the District Leadership Team, I observed and learned again.  This time it was to sense the individual gifts of each community.  There was not a ‘cookie-cutter’ uniformity to Theresian Communities in the Phoenix area.  Each had its own gifts and expressions of their understanding of the Five Dimensions.  Each had found their own expression of Community by sharing their lives and stories, journeys and discoveries.  The honesty among us, the willingness to work together to do Valley-wide activities drew me into another level of appreciation for the concept, the structure and the connectedness of Theresians Sisters.

The first community I mentored was for me the experience of sharing the rich tapestry of ‘women in support of women with Gospel values’.  It is said that if you can teach something, then you really do know it.  So, developing a deep awareness of the Five Dimensions gave me the span of time to embrace in totality the gift that this way of life offers, the solidarity and connectedness that is in a sense - ‘Home’ wherever Theresian Sisters are.  

My first National Conference was Houston in 2002.  There, I was drawn into the much wider circle of Theresians of the United States.   Met women from all over the country, I met women who came from several foreign countries to participate with us and share their experience of the Theresian Way of Life.  Once more, my eyes were opened, my heart included in a wider world.

Serving now as the President of the National Board in 2007, the year of transition is both challenge and gift. The strength to lead comes from the deep sense of solidarity and community I experience among us as we develop a new understanding of how to be Theresian Women for the Twenty-first century.  It is a privilege to share this Way of Life with you.
Anne Murphy,
Phoenix, AZ

To be a Theresian means I have a loving, God-filled relationship with other Christian women.  It means I can get food to grow closer to God through my Theresian community.

Many other women groups have high ideals and good purposes, but Theresians is ONE organization that gives back to me.  It is one that nourishes and affirms me as a Christian wife, mother, and grandmother.  St. Therese’s Little Way really works!  Because I receive so much, I feel enabled to give back some of this love to other women in my community and Theresians in other cities and countries.   Praise the good Lord for Theresians.

When cancer hit home, the Lebh Shomea Theresian community kicked into gear, because a loved one was affected.  First, there was an appeal for prayer--not just within the local community but an appeal for prayer globally.  This is what my community did for me and my mother.  My mother's spouse (my dad) was diagnosed with primary liver cancer and there was little that could be done.  Prayer sustained us.  Our secondary worry was that Dad did not have a Church.  I cried and I prayed because I worried about his relationship with God.  The hospice nurse was channel surfing on the television and stopped to hear a reading from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:  There is season for everything and a time for every affair under the heavens.  Dad died listening to this. 

I called Ike, who is a member of our community and certified spiritual director.  With her help, we planned the eulogy and memorial service.  Dad's wake was on the second Tuesday of the month-the night of our Theresian meeting.  Each member-even those who have not visited in a while, attended Dad's Eulogy service.  With Ike officiating, this was our Theresian gathering.  Dad had a Church!  The Eulogy was beautiful.  The body of Christ, our Theresian sisters, made certain of this.  The memorial service, again with Ike officiating was supplemented by the Houston Firefighter Department Chaplain whose sermon evolved around the last scripture from Ecclesiastes, that dad heard the night he died, and the traditional ceremony complete with fire truck and bagpipes playing Amazing Grace.  It, too, was beautiful. 

Now, a time for healing.  Mom and I have our Theresian Community to help us through the hurting.  Our hearts are full and our "listening hearts" (which is what Lebh Shomea stands for in Hebrew), await us at our next gathering.  What does Theresians mean to us?  Our community is so much more than it's members, it is our spiritual connection to God.  Our members are the guides.

Chris Whitcher and Marcela Judd
Lebh Shomea Community
Houston, Texas

I have been in Theresians for many years and I feel it is very rewarding.  I have had many God moments that touched my heart, and I am growing in my faith.  It enriches my knowledge of St. Therese and how we all are capable of doing God’s work.  It is very simple but priceless.  I have grown to know my Theresian sisters as family.  We share good times and bad, we miss that one sister if she can’t be present.  We all are very dedicated and try to help one another.
It has given me Holy Ground to go to, and find comfort in my soul.  The bible readings and the witnessing from my Theresian Sisters give me hope for the future.  It is very worthwhile and I recommend going to Theresians highly.  You will find peace within yourself, and will be helping others than need you more than you realize.  I’m glad I kept going, because I finally realized that this is my time to be a better Christian and a woman of faith.
Thank God for Theresians ... they helped me become who I am in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Sheila Blatz,
Evening Embers Community
Dubuque, IA

Theresians foster the possibility for women to BE rather than DO and have taken me on a most wonderful journey of spiritual and personal growth.

Theresians taught me to ‘PAMPER MY SOUL’! WOW! ... Pamper my soul! How does one pamper one’s soul?

It took me a long time to figure it out! … I would not have done so, if Theresians had not opened the door to meditation, contemplation and Spiritual Direction and offered such a variety of opportunities at Theresian meetings, retreats, seminars and conferences.

Pampering my soul has been all about being attentive to all that happens within me and around me, looking for God and God’s way in it. This requires the practice of SILENCE.  Pampering my soul is also about honouring who I am and recognizing rather than dismissing my giftedness and holding it with open hands. This I call  “Grace” and it is given with no strings attached! For one’s appreciation and delight! The secret I learnt from Therese’s spirituality is to accept and receive this “Grace” graciously, with gratitude and a ready generosity. The more attentive and receptive to ‘Grace’, the more ‘Grace’ comes surprising with creative beauty, goodness and unexpected consolation.

This Spiritual Dimension of Theresians underpins an opportunity for personal growth through the Education, Vocation and Community Dimensions. It meant, for me, taking on pastoral and spiritual studies that eventually led me, by a most tortuous path, to the Ministry of Spiritual Direction. Calls to leadership, both locally and globally, enabled me to discover a global sisterhood and fostered a wider understanding of “World Ministry”.

The support Theresians offer each other through the Community Dimension is one of the greatest gifts I have come to appreciate. It has allowed me to meet beautiful women from around the world, who’s innate creativity blossoms within a Theresian community and who’s steadfast prayers have carried me and my family for many years.

I believe that it is in community that the Spirit of Jesus is alive, in all its beauty and its power, for inner healing and the enabling of women.

Anna Mansbridge
Melbourne, Australia

What does Theresians mean to me?  Let me count the ways!  For me, Theresians is about how much I love our patroness, St. Therese.   It’s about how she inspires me to practice the Little Way—performing the routine, ordinary stuff involved with family life and a career plus laundry, cooking, household chores, computer work, volunteering at church, the hospital and in the community—and doing all that with joy in my heart and a smile on my face.  Theresians is about how I interact with my Ebbtide community of some twenty other women who share the same moral, ethical, and faith values that I do; these “sisters of the heart” encourage me, support me, nurture me and empower me to be the best human being that God intends me to be.  It’s about how we grow together spiritually, intellectually and psychologically by infusing the five Theresian dimensions—spirituality, education, community, vocation, ministry—into our lifestyles, and then how we step out side by side, arm in arm, to make a difference in the world.  It’s about learning how to live in the present moment as we age wisely and gracefully and cope with grown children and grandchildren and tend to our elderly parents.  Theresians is about the excitement and enthusiasm of sharing what I’ve discovered in this organization with other women who are seeking more of God, more of love, more of humanity.  Then clothed with our Christian baptism it’s about serving and leading other women to be priests, prophets and kings in a world that cries out for peace and justice and compassion.   And now it’s about reaching out to my Theresian sisters around the world as we unite in a stronger organization to meet the needs of women across the globe with truth and love and faith.  And that’s just the beginning of what Theresians means to me!