Sister Margaret Mary Kerrin

“You are our Father. We are the clay. You are the potter.” Isaiah 64:8

August 12, 2015, Sister Margaret Mary Kerrin,
in religion Theresa Frances
went home to God.

She was 90 years old and had been professed for 58 years.
Born in Montreal, Quebec
She was the eldest of the five children
of Hugh Francis Kerrin and Ellen Teresa Kearns.

As a child Margaret Mary attended daily Mass with her parents. She enjoyed skating and skiing in the winter and swimming and boating in the summer.  Margaret Mary attended St. Madeleine’s Academy and then Outremont Convent. After graduation, she worked for two years in the income tax and succession duties departments of the federal government.

Margaret Mary heard God’s call to religious life on the feast of Corpus Christi: “I need you to help educate young people in their faith.”  So, on July 24, 1945, at the age of twenty, she entered the SNJM Novitiate in Outremont.

Following her profession, she embarked on her teaching career: Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, St. Dominic’s, Ste-Eulalie, Outremont Convent and St. Thomas High School. She taught at every grade level except grades one and eleven. She also served as principal at Holy Names High School and John F. Kennedy Comprehensive High Schools.  During her teaching years, she took evening classes and summer courses to obtain various teaching certificates as well as her Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Arts and Master of Education degrees.

As a teacher and principal Margaret Mary was known for the special attention she gave to students who were troubled or in need. She was also recognized as being very efficient, effective organized, and very dedicated, as can be seen from the following testimony of one of the directors at the Montreal Catholic School Commission: “The young were privileged to benefit from your devotion and expertise. . . .”

After Margaret Mary retired, she generously got involved in various ministries in the community: sacristan, infirmarian, local superior, bursar, person in charge of maintenance, and animator of a group at the Motherhouse infirmary. She was the first superior at Résidence Marie-Rose Durocher when it opened in 1984 and oversaw the organization and the moving in of approximately 30 Sisters. Quite a task!

For twelve years she also served as pastoral visitor to the sick and elderly residents of Centre d’hébergement Father Dowd where she was greatly appreciated.
 
In the latter years, Margaret Mary lived at Maison Jésus-Marie and continued a ministry of prayer and presence.  Throughout her life, her daily prayer was, “Yes, Father, I come to do your will.”  She is now with her Father in the home prepared for her from all eternity.