{"id":4668,"date":"2024-10-18T13:38:30","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T11:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/?p=4668"},"modified":"2024-10-18T13:41:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T11:41:41","slug":"sister-mary-kelly-osf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/sister-mary-kelly-osf\/","title":{"rendered":"Sister Mary Kelly, OSF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Sister Mary Kelly, OSF<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I was born on July 27, 1932, in Kincaid, Illinois, the daughter of Clarence and Mary Rose (Ferrari) Kelly. My father was a coal miner, and my mother raised my brother and me and oversaw our home. In grade school, I began to sense God\u2019s voice for me to consider religious life and since I did not have the nerve to tell my parents about my feelings, I ignored them. I laughed with my friends who were thinking about religious life while thinking that it was a possibility for me.

I wanted to be a nurse, so I enrolled at St. John\u2019s Hospital School of Nursing, Springfield, Illinois, and began my nursing education on September 8, 1949. In this Catholic setting with the presence of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, my calling to religious life was enhanced. Sometime around 3:45 p.m. on January 1, 1951, I felt the need to visit the chapel at St. John\u2019s Hospital (Springfield) and as I prayed before beginning my shift as a nursing student, it was clear to me that God was calling me to enter this community.

There was a class of women entering in February 1951 but since my brother was entering the military at the same time, I did not want to add to my parents\u2019 loss. I waited to tell my mother until April and then told my father in his August 19 birthday card with this message: \u2018Happy Birthday, Dad\u2026I\u2019m entering the Convent.\u2019 I entered on September 12 and professed my first vows on June 13, 1954.

As I reflect on my 70 years as a Franciscan Sister, I am blessed with a ministry in nursing leadership, nursing education, pastoral care, and leadership. I also was blessed with experience in serving with our hospital boards and at the corporate office of Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS). In addition to graduating from St. John\u2019s Hospital School of Nursing in 1955, I earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in nursing from Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) in 1958 and a master\u2019s degree in nursing service administration from The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, in 1965.

Throughout our life, God speaks to us. I found that all we must do is be open to listening to God and have faith in how the path before us will unfold. We never walk alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
Back to overview<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sister Mary Kelly, OSF, from the U.S. Canonical House, born in 1932<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocation-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4668"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4680,"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4668\/revisions\/4680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generalat-hsosf.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}