Mary Ellen Ryan
September 9, 1900 - January 7, 1994Sister Mary Emily said of her, "She never got old."
In 1933 when Ella Ryan, the eldest of six, joined the Dominican sisters at age 33 she would have been considered a "delayed" vocation. Sr. M. Gertrude Ryan (no kin) had entered in June at 23, Sr. M. Emily Barraco, in August at 17. There were fourteen novices, a record number. On January 11, 1994 after the funeral, Sr. M. Emily said of her novitiate companion, "She never got old."
It was holy obedience that brought Sister Mary Patrick to Louisiana State University to begin graduate work in her late forties. Sister Mary Damian Cazale recalls the grueling ordeal it was. Evidently the graduate students took the same courses as the undergrads, but with heavy additional requirements. There were only four to earn the MBA; she was the first sister.
Several sisters recalled her devotion, energy, enthusiasm, humor and her patience in enduring pain without complaining, as when she suffered severe injuries in a car accident.
Sister Mary Patrick left us a rare treasure. She had been in the community fifty years on December 8, 1983, when at the close of the motherhouse retreat she completed a booklet on her life. Her chosen theme was "Faithfulness: to God, to prayer, to duty, and to love." Asked to name "burdens on the journey that stand in the way of my peace," she wrote with characteristic directness, "Indeed not. Life is too short. I would rather give the time to prayer." For "people the Lord has given me to support me on my journey" she lists seventeen categories, including "those I taught, those who taught me," and "authors of spiritual works."
In counting her blessings, she gets up to fifty: "good eyesight, a fit environment, comfortable surroundings, joy, happiness, peace of mind and soul, patience of others, God's mercy, daily Mass and Holy Communion" to name a few. The page ends, and she fills the back; clearly she could have continued.
Her word of wisdom from the booklet of 1983 for us who stay behind: "If one does not lay up her treasures for heaven in the springtime of her life, when will she? Not in the winters of her old age, most assuredly." Perhaps Sister Mary Patrick was the exception, who did both.
