Religious life likened to marriage

Press, 12 October 1988, Page 19

Religious life likened to marriage

Sister ildephonse Heaiy, aged 58, of the Sisters of Nazareth, lives the religious vocation in a more traditional way. She and six others run an old people’s home for 76 people in Brougham Street.

She wears a white habit with a mid-length skirt. A little grey hair escapes the veil.

The seven Sisters do not move among people as social workers but work in their own surroundings. They have always looked after the elderly but nowadays they can’t cope with the number of applications.

Most of the cases are very needy and are more incapacitated now than they used to be, she says. Although it is not a hospital, patients are looked after by trained staff as in a hospital. The

home gets some Government subsidies, but is largely supported by donations from private individuals. Residents have recently moved to a new spacious and modern complex which is all on one level.

Sister Ildephonse has no regrets for the beautiful but condemned House of Nazareth. She says the atmosphere of the old building has been conveyed to the new facilities.

The home for the geriatric and senile does have a happy aura. Sister Ildephonse sees the old people filling vital roles. “People say, ‘What’s the use of them?’ But they pray and the world certainly needs people to pray for it,” she says.

Many enter the home to be close to the chapel, but patients don’t have to belong to any Church and there is no pressure

for them to become Catholics. The opportunity for prayer and quiet reflection is what Sister Ildephonse values in her life, along with the companionship of the other Sisters. Religious life has not always been easy for her — it wasn't meant to be, she says. “Without the grace of God you can’t succeed. Left to myself, I wouldn’t have come in the first place.

"It’s a partnership. In some ways you can parallel it with marriage because it takes two to make a good marriage. The Lord is always faithful so the individuals have to do their bit.” She has thought about other things she might have done, but has decided it’s not the work but the dedication that’s important. “I don’t think it matters what you do; it’s the amount of love you put into it.”