Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • September 17, 2021 11 Sister Joan Maureen Landry, RSM, celebrates 60th jubilee BY SISTER JOAN MAUREEN LANDRY, RSM (Religious Sister of Mercy) Per Eum, Cum Eo, et In Eo (Through Him, With Him, and In Him) The grace of God brought me into the world on September 27, 1943, second child and oldest daughter of Lloyd and Mary Landry. Dad was fond of saying that I would have been the end of the line as far as siblings go if the bomb had not been dropped on Japan. He was preparing to be part of the force that would invade the Japanese home- land, and he did not envision return- ing home from that experience. My early years were spent in my grandparent’s house, where my mom and one of her sisters shel- tered while their respective hus- bands served overseas. My grandfather, William E. Lund, operated a local restaurant where Mom and her sister would help. All I know of these days is that I am told I loved to sit in my grandfather’s lap, exclusively, and that I frequently dined from the gar- bage can if I could get away with it. This I did while living in the home of two outstanding cooks! Go figure. I regret have no memories of either experience. I remember that I was a “tom boy,” more comfort- able outside climbing trees and playing in the woods. I was a great trial to my mother, who expected her daughter to be her second-in-command in all things housewifely! I later found that the most difficult part of entering the convent was having to wear shoes ALL DAY, EVERYDAY! I would frequently quote Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Nor can foot feel, being shod,” to our direc- tors, to no avail. Nor was there any climbing of trees in floor-length habits, although, God knows, we tried. When I was seven years old, a neighbor blessed with a large back porch and boundless time and patience, established a troop of Girl Scouts known as Brownies. I was invited to join, beginning a 10-year period that contributed as much to making me who I am as any of the major influences in my life. I participated in experiences that were not possible in any other way, guided by outstanding women who could not only put up with adolescent girls in large numbers but could also love and inspire them. I completed my Scouting years with a six-week bus tour of our northwestern states in the company of Scouts from all over the world. It was an experience that I treasure even today. How could a teen-age girl from Biloxi, MS, with only babysitting money in the bank, visit the redwoods in California and Crater Lake in Oregon, wade in the Pacific Ocean, swim behind Grand Coulee Dam, hike the Columbia River, strip a redwood of its bark in a lumber mill in Oregon, attend the Spearfish Passion Play in South Dakota, view Mt. Rushmore, tour the Badlands of South Dakota, picnic at Mt. Rainier, watch Old Faithful spout, and admire the Northern Lights? The Girls Scouts of America made all that and more possible. I attended Sacred Heart Academy from kindergarten until sixth grade, when the school became Sacred Heart Girls’ High School. The boys were banished to Notre Dame to complete their schooling down on the bayou while the elementary grades went to the newly com- pleted Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Elementary School. The building that stands behind Nativity Cathedral today became my second home for the next six years until graduation in 1961. In my senior year, John F. Kennedy was elected president, with almost the entire student body of our all-girls’ school solidly in his corner. The exceptions were myself and my best friend, who campaigned dili- gently for Richard M. Nixon, even to the extent of working in his local campaign headquarters after school. If a democracy represents all voices, someone had to make sure the other side was recognized. Or else I just enjoyed being contrary. Take your pick. Personally, I favor the latter explanation. 2 / 4 Whatever brought me to the belief that I was being called to the religious life is a mystery to me. I can only say that, in those last years of high school, my feet were drawn to the path I have followed even to this day. As a sheep feels the tap of the shepherd’s crook or is guided by the sound of his voice, or as a compass needle always points North, so I have moved along the journey that began 60 years ago. Some might say that I was influenced by the example of the many tremendous Sisters of Mercy that guided me through 12 years of school, but in my mind, there was no way I could even begin to think I might be like them. Still, I collected the funny shoes, the strange, black outfit, my hope that I could make a difference in this world, and packed my bags and set off for St. Louis, MO, and the motherhouse of the Religious Sisters of Mercy in September of 1961. Since that day 60 years ago, this nondescript girl from Back Bay, Biloxi, MS, with not much of an idea to bless herself with about what she was going to do with her life, has: 1. Taught art to eighth grade boys. (It would not have been a problem if I had known anything about ART!) 2. Ditto with science, reading, Church history. (Remember, my college preparation was to teach English. I cannot think of anything I learned in my fours of college that I actually used in the classroom. Religious life is like that. The essential teacher is not the professor in the college classroom.) 3. Taught third grade! 4. Shepherded countless students through the mys- teries of their own language and literature. 5. Weeded and hoed countless young souls in the effort to plant the seeds of faith their lives. 6. Led two elementary schools as principal. 7. Taught Latin at Biloxi High School. It seems strange to be working at a public school, but it has been one of the most spiritually fulfilling of my teaching experiences. 8. Generally met the challenges of each day, some- times successfully, sometimes not. 9. Met and been inspired by so many of the God’s people in my life. The tale of 60 years of religious life is made up of the step-by-step living of each of those days. Where those steps have been productive and successful, there the grace of God can be seen. Where there were foul- ups and messes, behold the work I attempted alone. I wasn’t born on the Point, nor baptized at St. Michael, but I got here as fast as I could. I am so very grateful for these years of worshiping and serving with the members of this Faith community. You have become my spiritual home. God bless you all. Deus vos bened- icat omnes. SEE SISTER JOAN LANDRY, PAGE 12 Msgr. Dominick Fullam, pastor of St. Michael Parish in Biloxi presents a framed certificate from Bishop Louis F. Kihneman III to Sister Joan Maureen Landry, RSM, in recognition of her 60 years of ministry during a Sept. 12 celebration at St. Michael Church. Photo/Audrey Christina