SISTER THERESA MOLCHANOW, MSC
Theresa Mary and Dolores Ann were born twins just shy of Pearl Harbor Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Seven and a half years later their twin brothers, Paul and Michael, were born. I, Sister Theresa Molchanow, now reside at Saint Joseph Villa, Reading, Pennsylvania with other retired MSC Sisters.
God gave me parents and faith-filled grandparents of East-European origin who loved me, a Catholic School Education and an adventurous, persevering spirit. As a twin I learned early in life that the world was bigger than myself, awesome and inviting!
It was the word “missionary,” along with information about a high school for girls interested in becoming Missionary Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in an ad printed in The Sunday Visitor Catholic newspaper, which became, for me, God’s clear invitation into the rest of my life. Then, it was not uncommon for teens to have some sense of their life’s orientation.
I became a Missionary Sister of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus with my first profession of the evangelical vows of consecrated obedience, chastity and poverty in 1961.
My life as a Missionary Sister of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus these past many years has sent me to live and serve within the U.S.A., in Papua New Guinea, Italy and Mexico. Any list of what I may have done as a nurse, nurse-educator, pastoral minister, spiritual companion, servant or friend was possible only because I have been loved and blessed and called to love and to be a blessing among my brothers and sisters in Christ everywhere! Into retirement now, my mind and heart roam the world in prayer, see every bird and snowflake. Within my soul there are so many faces and names engraved, so many concerns for families and nations, so many tears!
Whatever I may do or become now, and for as long as I may live, I know I have been promised the means, the grace in God’s Holy Spirit and within my consecration to live one day at a time and in communion with others, to be the Heart of God on earth!