"Peace is receiving each moment as it is and welcoming all."
-Sister Marcella Anibas
Sister Marcella Anibas learned early on what it meant to be part of a community, long before she entered the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She grew up on a farm in western Wisconsin, the middle of five children. In addition to other crops, the family grew strawberries to sell in town, and beans and cucumbers for the nearby canning factory. Everyone was expected to pitch in with weeding and harvesting and other chores based on their unique abilities. Sister Marcella recalled, “I learned that life isn’t free. No matter your age, you are called to contribute.” At the end of the summer, her parents would reward the children for their hard work by taking them on a picnic to a nearby park. In this way, their contributions were recognized and honored. “What a gift to grow up on a farm!”
From second grade on, Sister Marcella knew she wanted to be a nurse. After high school, she worked in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a year in order to earn money for nursing school. Then, gradually, the idea of entering a religious community that had nursing as one of their ministries entered into her heart. All through Catholic high school her teachers had constantly asked her if she wanted to be a sister, and she always answered with a resounding “No!” But deep prayer and a visit to the FSPA convent, where her aunt was a member, changed her mind. Her parents were surprised by this sudden change, but they had a deep trust in God and in her. The night before her departure, her mother made a nice dinner with a special cake, and the next morning her family gathered around her and blessed her with a ritual that had been in their families for generations when a young adult left to pursue their vocation. As Sister Marcella quipped, “Dad was one of sixteen children, so there was a lot of blessing going on!” When Sister Marcella got to the convent, she discovered that four or five young women who arrived ahead of her had stated that they wanted to be nurses. When it came to her, she was informed that the community had no more need for nurses, so she would be a primary school teacher. What a blow! Sister Marcella felt devastated! But she remembered what her mother had always told her, “God is in here somewhere.” Jokingly she added, “But it sure takes a lot of looking sometimes!”
Her first year as a teacher was difficult, but the next years were fairly good. “However, I never really liked teaching. I never felt like it was my natural gift.” This also was a difficult time in the congregation, which also affected Sister Marcella. Retreat directors would often ask her, “Why do you stay?” Remembering her mother’s words, she answered, “For some reason, this is the path I’m on, and whatever comes is somehow meant to keep me on the path.” One day, Sister Marcella was accompanying her superior to a sister’s burial, and out of the blue she said, “I feel as dead as that woman being buried. I cannot go back to teaching children.” It was 1967, a tumultuous summer of riots, with Detroit burning. “I don’t even know what’s going on in the world [having been in small rural schools and not allowed to watch TV.] This is wrong! I can’t do it!”
Subsequently, Sister Marcella was allowed to pursue a different path, first in helping to integrate an inner-city school in Minneapolis and later in religious education and pastoral ministry in St. Paul, much of it in a public housing project connected with the parish. “I loved it!” Her path next led her to the Franciscan Center for Wholistic Living in St. Paul as a spiritual director. “That was a wonderful experience for me. I learned that when we can engage in authentic transparent conversation, sharing our woundedness as well as our strengths, we connect at a soul level that somehow binds us.”
Later, she was asked by the community to research and begin a lay affiliate program for FSPA. This again was a very challenging time for her; she didn’t always know what to do. But she recalled, “I had a conviction that this was a work of the Spirit. Even in the bleakest times, I felt the path open before me, leading me into the next step.”
Sister Marcella, middle, is pictured here with Mary Burkey, left, and Jude Collins.
Jude and Mary were FSPA's first and second affiliate, respectively.
Sister Marcella had not been allowed to be a nurse, but in the ten years before her retirement, she volunteered with hospice. It was there that she realized that she had already been involved in healing ministry much of her life. “I always knew that I was called to be a healer, and I was. That gave me peace.”
Sister Marcella summarized, “In many ways, life is what you make of it. I believe that as long as we are true to ourselves and live the Gospel in love, we will be led on the path. And peace is receiving each moment, just as it is, and welcoming all.”
About Wells of Wisdom
Communities of Catholic Sisters realize 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. Read more from our Wells of Wisdom collection ...
Wells of Wisdom with Sister Luanne: "Recognize the call from God..."
Wells of Wisdom: What is, is, and it's good, featuring Sister Maria Friedman
Wells of Wisdom: Everybody needs to pitch in, featuring Sister Marcella Marie Dreikosen
Wells of Wisdom: When you pray to God ... miracles will happen, featuring Sister Malinda Gerke
Wells of Wisdom: Allow the answers within you to emerge, featuring Sister Marlou Ricke