Precious Blood Sisters celebrate jubilees |
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Saturday, 07 August 2010 00:00 |
Three sisters who are natives of the Diocese of Toledo are among the Dayton-based Sisters of the Precious Blood celebrating 75, 60 and 50 years of entrance into the congregation.
Celebrating 60 years are Sisters Rita Herman and Lou Ann Roof. Sister Nancy Recker is marking her golden jubilee of 50 years.
Sister Rita (M. Ralph) Herman, 60 years
Born in Lima, Sr. Herman attended Ottoville Local School and then entered the high school aspirancy of the Sisters of the Precious Blood from her home parish, Ottoville Immaculate Conception.
She formally entered the congregation Aug. 30, 1950, and made her first profession of vows Aug. 15, 1953.
Sr. Herman earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Dayton and a master’s degree in math education from the University of Detroit. She began her ministry as an elementary school teacher, serving in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. After almost two decades in the classroom, Sr. Herman became a school librarian and office assistant. Tutoring individual junior high school students in math was one of the highlights of her later years in education ministry. She also enjoyed hosting two large book fairs each year.
In 2001 she moved to Flint, Mich., and began ministry at St. John Vianney Parish. There she also taught adult high school education classes and served as a eucharistic minister.
In 2009, Sr. Herman retired to Salem Heights, the Precious Blood Sisters’ motherhouse in Dayton, where she still enjoys volunteering and helping others wherever there’s a need.
Sr. Herman says that a highlight each year is a family reunion. “All eight of us ‘Herman’ siblings are blessed to be alive and well,” she recounts, noting that all are living in Putnam and Allen counties.
Sister Lou Ann (M. Charmaine) Roof, 60 years
Born in Miller City, Sr. Roof (formerly Sister M. Charmaine) hails from Glandorf St. John the Baptist. After graduation from Glandorf Elementary School, she attended high school as an aspirant of the Sisters of the Precious Blood in Dayton.
She formally entered the Sisters of the Precious Blood in Dayton Nov. 1, 1950, and professed her first vows Aug. 15, 1953.
For 25 years Sr. Roof was a teacher and/or principal in schools in Arizona, Ohio, Indiana and California. After ministering among God’s youngest people for a quarter-century, she moved into service to the parish community as a pastoral associate in Englewood, Antwerp, Hicksville and Lima.
 Beginning in 1984, the master’s degree she earned in counseling equipped her for her next ministry as a psychiatric social worker at the Oakwood Forensic Center, which served inmates from across the state of Ohio. In July 1987 Sr. Roof joined the staff of the Allen Correctional Institution, offering workshops for nurses, social workers and counselors and supervising field placement through 1995. She then had a decade of counseling ministry at Pathways Counseling Center in Ottawa.
Although officially “retired,” Sr. Roof continues ministering in many volunteer capacities, primarily at Columbus Grove St. Anthony of Padua. There she heads the RCIA program, coordinates eucharistic ministry to the homebound, reaches out to grieving families, sings in the choir and works with the parish school community. Since 1995 she has also been a volunteer at St. Rita’s Medical Center in Lima where she brings Holy Communion to Catholic patients.
Sister Nancy (M. Rachel) Recker, 50 years
A native of Leipsic, Sr. Recker (formerly Sr. M. Rachel) grew up on a farm near Glandorf. She attended Glandorf St. John the Baptist Parish and Glandorf local schools.
It was there that she first met the Sisters of the Precious Blood who were her teachers, and she joined the congregation’s aspirancy in her sophomore year of high school. She formally entered the congregation Jan. 6, 1960, and made her first profession of vows in 1962.
Her first ministry was as a cook at the Dayton motherhouse and at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral rectory in Cincinnati. She attended the University of Dayton where she earned degrees and certification in dietetics. After a year’s internship at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati she became a member of the American Dietetic Association.
From 1971 to 2005, Sr. Recker served in Ohio as director of the dietary departments at several congregational ministries as well as at Timken Mercy Hospital and Brunnerdale Seminary in Canton; Community Hospital in Coldwater; St. Charles Seminary in Carthagena; Bristol House in Springfield; Maria Stein Retreat House and Maria Stein Center. For eight years, from 1998-2005, she was director of the dietary department at the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Francis in Tiffin.
“I learned that the most important ingredient of each meal prepared and served is the love and respect with which I served others,” she says. “My love was the hands-on aspect of preparing and serving the actual food that nourished both body and soul.”
After 40 years in food service, Sr. Recker entered a new field: pastoral care. She completed clinical pastoral education training at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo in 2005. She then returned to Dayton, where she began her current ministry: pastoral care for ill and infirm Sisters of the Precious Blood.
With the exception of two brothers who are Benedictine monks in Oregon and another who lives in Texas, all of Sr. Recker’s siblings still live in the Diocese of Toledo, in the Ottawa-Cloverdale-Continental area.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 07 August 2010 00:00 |
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Middle School Rally
Click the image above to watch a video about the first Diocese of Toledo Middle School Rally March 24.
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