Religious Life: A Journey of Love

Religious life: Today we will bury one of our Sisters, Sister M. Flora Scheurer, age 98. One of the employers here at our assisted living facility described her as “a pure soul.”  She was lauded in ao many ways, one of which was that she was  one of the best primary grade (first and second graders) teachers ever known in my religious community. She was a woman who loved beauty and created it in so many different ways: poetry,  art, song, loving people and animals, enjoying gardening and producing all kinds of plants, engaging in mischievous behaviors and playing tricks on people,  serving the poor and needy or being engaged in creating things to sell in our gift shop to raise money to support our ministries to the needy.

She left us the following poem to be read at her wake:

I’m Free

Don’t grieve for me, for now I’m free

I’m following the path God has laid you see.

I took His hand when I heard His call

I turned my back and left it all.

I could not stay another day

To laugh, to love, to work or play

Tasks left undone must stay that way

I found the peace at the close of the day.

If my parting has left a void

Then fill it with remembered joys—

A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss

Oh yes, these things I too will miss.

Be not burdened with times of sorrow.

I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life’s been full, I savored much,

Good friends, good times, a loved one’s touch.

Perhaps my time seemed all too brief—

Don’t lengthen it now with undue grief.

Lift up your hearts, and peace to thee—

God wanted me now; He set me free.

She began her journey to become a woman religious as a teenager.  She would fall in love with Jesus many times and pass that love on to others over and over again.  She personified childlikeness that Jesus speaks about in the Scriptures when He says to us, his disciples: “Unless you change and become like little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3). Sister Flora heeded those words and, without a doubt, I believe the gates of heaven flew open when Jesus came to earth, took her by the hand, and said: Sister Flora, come. It is time!”