Jubilarian – 2010
Gemma Therese Harvey, SSND
Professed in 1960
Sister Gemma Therese Harvey celebrates 50 years as a School Sister of Notre Dame. She has served in parishes in the Midwest and in Washington, DC, in addition to doing freelance writing. The most important lessons she has taught had more to do with living a meaningful life than completing a curriculum.
A meaningful time in my ministry…
When I think about meaning, I really do not think in “career” terms. For me, “meaningful times” come when I have been teaching the truths of our faith and a student comes to a new awareness of God’s presence in his/her life or masters a new skill. For example, when I was preparing a group of middle school students for First Communion, a mom who was present (and had just finished the RCIA program) spoke of how she tries to take ideas from the homily and apply them to her everyday life. “Ah”, I said to myself, “this was not a superficial conversion.” Another meaningful time occurred when two of my Confirmation students were lectors at the Easter Vigil Mass. Instead of thinking of the Confirmation program as a culmination of religious instruction, I view it as a beginning answer to the question,“What are you going to do for the rest of your life?” We had talked about taking an active role in Church, and there they were!
What drew me to the SSND Community…
‘Twas strange! The Notre Dames taught me in CCD (religious education classes) and, for one year, in Catholic grade school, in Worthington, Minn. When my father was transferred and our family moved to Bemidji, 350 miles away, I missed the Sisters very much. Although I had Benedictines for the next seven years and actually was in class with their aspirants and postulants at Regis, somehow I still felt drawn to the Notre Dames.
One thing you might like to know about the School Sisters of Notre Dame…
We are dedicated to all aspects of education in the broadest sense. Aware of the challenges of our times, we seek to address not only the symptoms of injustice, but also the causes.
In my current ministry…
Currently, I am a part-time director of religious education for the small, intergenerational Family Program at Saint Therese, in Appleton, Wis., which is the Hispanic parish for Appleton. Our program participants speak English…mas o menos. They include Anglos, Hispanics, Micronesians, and a few Hmong.
Looking back and looking ahead…
It did thrill me in the 1980s when several of the articles I had written were published in different magazines, such as the Review for Religious. Thus began my free-lance writing career.
Sister Gemma Therese’s missions:
St. Frances Cabrini, West Bend, Wis.
St. Mary, DePere, Wis.
St. Mary, Port Washington, Wis.
Mount Calvary School, Washington, DC
St. Mary, Menasha, Wis.
St. Joseph, Oconto, Wis.
St. John Nepomucene, Prairie du Chien, Wis.
St. Peter, Port Washington, Wis.
St. Charles, Hartland, Wis.
St. John the Baptist, New Haven, Ind.
All Saints, Logansport, Ind.
St. Joseph, Fort Atkinson, Wis.
St. John, Searles, Minn.
Sacred Heart Parish, Shawano, Wis.
SSND Residence, Appleton, Wis.
How to Reach Jubilarians
Cards and letters may be addressed to:
Sister's name c/o SSND Jubilarians, Provincial Offices, 13105 Watertown Plank Road, Elm Grove, WI 53122-2291.
If you would like to honor sister with a tribute gift, please click HERE.