"When you pray to God, 'Make me your instrument,' miracles will happen."
-Sister Malinda Gerke
Sister Malinda Gerke realizes that she has become an instrument of God, and miracles have happened. But life for her did not start out that way. As she recalls it, “When I was born, my mother was disappointed in me because I wasn’t perfect. I couldn’t see out of one eye. She even wanted to name me in German, ‘the blind one.’ Thankfully, her sister talked her out of it.” Sister Malinda carried this burden most of her life. “The message was I am not good enough, in anything, ever.” Consequently, she tried to prove herself in everything she did so that people would like her. She often went above and beyond in her studies.
But she continued to encounter adversity. Most of her life she heard messages like these:
• “You can maybe enter the convent, if they’ll have you.”
• “You can’t be a nurse because you have only one eye.”
• “You could teach music, but not above sixth grade, because you can’t perform.”
While messages were extremely painful, they made Sister Malinda try even harder. Luckily, she had Catholic Sister mentors at a number of missions who encouraged her. Through being asked to help out with musicals, she found out that she could read the music and play piano. “I could do it!” At one school, Sister Malinda inherited a “chorus” of twenty-eight eighth grade students, and what they produced musically sounded like twenty-eight discordant parts. “It was awful!” But she believed they could become better, and she challenged them. By October of that school year, the students were singing in four-part harmony. Then they knew they were a real chorus, and Sister Malinda knew she could teach chorus.Sister Malinda gradually gained confidence as she was allowed to move to high school teaching, and she passed that new-found confidence on to her students. She believed in them. “The students knew that I would never humiliate them. And I somehow knew what to tell them to produce good results.” Her students came through with many first place finishes in music contests.
Sister Malinda directs a chorus in Mary of the Angels Chapel.
By this time, Sister Malinda knew she could be successful. But still she often encountered pushback from members of her community. For example, in the late 1990s, she was asked to be the liturgy coordinator at the motherhouse. She didn’t know anything about liturgy, but as she had done throughout her life, she moved mountains to get herself educated in the field. However, the old image of her that some sisters had popped up again. Sister Malinda said, “I always felt they didn’t think I was good enough.” Often she didn’t feel listened to or supported. But gradually Sister Malinda learned to trust deeply in God’s direction in her life. She often prayed the Franciscan prayer, “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.” She began to realize that good things, miracles, were happening. She gradually began to relax into the fact that she was indeed an instrument of God. One leader even called her a prophet. Sister Malinda described the realization this way, “Be at peace with the truth, even when someone else says differently.”
And as time and age would have it, Sister Malinda became more and more of an instrument in her Beloved God’s hands. Literally, she learned to play the harp. She began to play her instrument in the corridors and patient rooms of the hospitals. The music seemed to soothe patients, and even led to some miraculous healings. Sister Malinda was astounded and so thankful to God. She began to produce well-received CD’s of her music so that others could be consoled and uplifted. She also published a book about her healing harp experiences, perfectly titled “Instrument of Peace.”
Sister Malinda's book, "Instrument of Peace" and CDs are available at our partner's RuahMedia shop.
Sister Malinda loves sharing her harp skills with new learners.
As she embraced more fully her God-given wisdom and talent, Sister Malinda wanted to share it more broadly. She wrote a beautiful book about Mary of the Angels Chapel, and now is finishing another book titled “The Bible, Some Untold Stories.” Her writing doesn’t just help others, it also has deepened her understanding of herself and her relationship with her beloved Jesus. She acknowledged, “My writing has changed me completely, upside-down!”
Sister Malinda is now full to overflowing with the goodness of God. She has come to see that all the challenges she faced throughout her life led her to deep growth. They were opportunities. When she was asked recently to write a six-word personal life history, she wrote, “Challenges accepted; blessings received; God praised.” She adds, “Do the best you can. That’s all God wants.”
Enjoy the sounds of Sister Malinda Gerke's harp music
About Wells of Wisdom
As many more women religious in the United States are entering their 70s, 80s, and 90s, women’s communities are realizing what a wealth of wisdom there is among us. It is too rich to be ignored. So in “Wells of Wisdom," author Sister Karen Lueck features a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration in her golden years who is willing to share some of her wisdom with a world desperately in need of it.