Sister Marie Antoinette Mason

Sister Marie’s vocation story started before her conception. Her parents had three sons and wanted a daughter. They made a novena to the Blessed Mother and nine months later, on the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, September 24, Marie Antionette was born. Another son and daughter rounded out the family.

The Mason children were all born at St. Mary Hospital, Kankakee. After Sister Mary Angela Carabin, labor and delivery nurse, presented beautifully knitted baby sets made by Sister St. Leon to Mrs. Mason, the young mother asked to meet the talented Sister. The two formed a life-long friendship. Little Marie was included in visits with Sister who was homebound. Chats through Sister’s window on Marie’s way home from school strengthened the love between them. In addition, Sisters Mary Joseph and Mary Ann Hughes, who so lovingly attended Sister St. Leon, were Marie’s first examples of SSCM family spirit. Mother Rosemary Dufault, who Marie found “absolutely charming”, and Sister St. Pierre, who was “delightful,” also added to her impression. The loving family spirt she found with the Sisters epitomized religious life to Marie. Also, a deep Marian devotion was nourished in Marie’s early years. She remembers “spectacular and beautiful” May crownings at her home parish.

Holy Family Academy in Beaverville, Illinois, was Marie’s next stop. There she became an aspirant of the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary. Under the direction of Sister Mary Christopher, she and other students had special tutelage in prayer and spirituality. Mass was also a part of their day. Sister Mary Christopher directed the group with love and common sense.

Sister Mary Christopher, now Sister Anne Bridget, left Holy Family Academy for another assignment as novice mistress. Happily, the next year Marie entered the congregation and Sister Anne Bridget continued to be Marie’s mentor and formator. Sister’s approach was “solid, well balanced and encouraged leadership.” Sister Marie affirms that she is extremely grateful for Sister Anne Bridget in her life.

The road to ministry did not hold the usual choices for Sister Marie. She was not drawn to teaching. Nursing was out because, to quote her, “I don’t do the blood and guts thing well.” Sister Marie set out to use her gifts and talents in any way she could be of service. During her apostolic year as a novice at Mercy Hospital in Urbana, Illinois, she rotated among different departments and found her niche in the admitting office.

The Sisters were experimenting with a new form of community—a place where those who wished to enter the congregation lived together with professed Sisters. Sister Marie was asked to be a member. How providential that the Sisters of Mercy sponsored a hospital only miles away. There Sister Marie worked the night shift in admitting. Later, she was able to work a day shift in the psychiatric division of a new facility that had opened. It was there that Sister Marie had the most powerful experience of her ministerial life. The position demanded a great deal of discretion, compassion, respect, and caring. Patients and their families were traumatized, and Sister Marie gently walked them through the admitting process. One had to be pastoral as well as professional in the role that went well beyond paperwork.

As Sister Marie reflects on the charism of the congregation, she notes that each person drawn to the Sisters holds a nuanced bit of the charism. In that recognition lies a mutuality: the charism resides in the whole and the individual is a unique expression of the charism. It is highly important, she adds, that the whole and the unique are balanced in a way that will allow growth and newness of life. To know the charism intellectually is good but to realize its reality everyday life is immensely more important. Sister Marie lives that truth each day as the charism of merciful self-giving grows in her life.