SISTER PERPETUA MOELLERING, SAC

Sr. Perpetua resides in Laurel, Maryland. She has served our congregation for over 50 years, celebrating her golden jubilee in 1991. Highly energetic and extremely sensitive to those she visits, she has insights to offer those who want to further their understanding of what it means to be a missionary in the United States.

"Will we ever get there?" This was my recurring question many years ago as I traveled the two-lane highway from St. Louis, Missouri to Huntington, West Virginia. The purpose behind this venture was to enter the Pallottine Sisters.

My goal was to be a Pallottine Missionary Sister. The other four sisters in my family all entered religious communities, too, but they did not enter a missionary group. This desire was one that God had placed in my heart and what I wished to fulfill.

So, did I go to foreign lands and exotic countries? No, but I did broaden my understanding of what it means to be a missionary. Though I never had the opportunity to go to faraway missions as such, our Founder, St. Vincent Pallotti's idea made my wish fulfilled. St. Vincent envisioned a universal apostolate that has taken me further than I could have imagined. I feet that my Pallottine life as a teacher, a catechist in Appalachia and now as a Pastoral Minister, has served as a witness of God's immeasurable love. Visiting the elderly in the nursing home, the sick in the hospital, the disabled at home in the parish--cheering them, listening to their problems, and bringing them Christ in the Eucharist have been most rewarding and life-giving to me.

I have my Pallottine community with who I share my joys and sorrows. They support me as I support them. I am never alone in my missionary journeys, for my sisters are at my side.