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Sister Maureen Fagan, OSF
This year as I celebrate my Golden Jubilee, I reflect on my 50 years in Community.
I was born on December 25, 1945, and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I wanted to be a nurse but was curious about religious life. However, I realized that most Sisters were teachers, nurses, or social workers and knew that I could not be a teacher because I was too shy. So I thought about looking for a congregation of nursing Sisters. During high school, I worked at St. Joseph’s Hospital (Milwaukee) where I met the sponsoring Franciscan Sisters. I attended a diocesan high school conference and met the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis; I picked up a brochure and mailed the postcard. When the Hospital Sisters returned to Milwaukee, we met and I was invited, along with other women from the area, to visit St. Francis Convent in Springfield, Illinois. I was interested and eventually was on my way to Religious Life.
I made my First Profession of Vows on August 22, 1967. I earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Marillac College (St. Louis, Missouri), was certified as a Neonatal Nurse Clinician, and completed studies from the Institute for Religious Formation (Catholic Theological Union) and the Institute for Spiritual Leadership, Chicago, Illinois. My nursing assignments were at our hospitals in Decatur, Sheboygan, and Springfield in addition to ministry in Peoria, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. Furthermore, I served as the Pre-Novitiate Minister.
Presently, I am a spiritual director in Chicago. As a team member of the Ignatian Spirituality Project, I give retreats to homeless women and utilize my knowledge of nursing, religious formation, the 12 Steps and community outreach. I enjoy living and working with others from various cultures as this gives me a broad world view. I serve on the Board of Directors of HSHS St. Vincent Hospital and HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center (Green Bay, Wisconsin), and HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital (Sheboygan, Wisconsin). Lastly, I am also a SoulCollage® Facilitator, a process where you make your own deck of cards—each collage card representing one aspect of your personality, family, community, and world. You use the cards intuitively to ask life's questions and participate in self-discovery.
It is hard to believe that 50 years have passed. I am grateful to the people I have served because they taught me a lot about life and God’s healing love.
