July 5, 2008
New Mercy sisters followed different paths to religious life
By Liz Dossa
Special to The Herald
New Sisters of Mercy of the West Midwest Community who recently professed first vows are, left to right, Charmaine Jayawardene, Shari Roeseler and Mary Oladimeji. Sam Wood photo
The Sisters of Mercy in California celebrated three new vocations in June.
In the midst of their religious sisters and families, Mercy Sisters Mary Oladimeji and Charmaine Jayawardene made their first professions June 20 in the motherhouse chapel in Auburn with Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto attending.
Two days later, Mercy Sister Shari Roeseler professed her vows in the motherhouse chapel in Burlingame before an overflowing crowd.
As Sisters Oladimeji and Jayawardene professed their vows before Sister Sheila Browne, president of the Sisters of Mercy of Auburn, a poignant moment occurred when Oladimeji, a native of Nigeria, knelt before her mother who sat in the first row of the chapel in a striking white headdress. Sister Oladimeji bowed her head, asking for her mother’s blessing.
Her mother was in good part responsible for Sister Oladimeji’s joy that day. As a young woman in Nigeria, she became a School Sister of Notre Dame. Unhappy with her community after 12 years, she left it and came to the United States to be with her sister and family.
Hearing a homily on Good Shepherd Sunday by Franciscan Father Anthony Garibaldi at Sacramento’s St. Francis Parish, she was struck by his personal vocation story, but was reluctant to call him. “My mother urged me, and I decided to share my story with him,” she said. “I went the next day and spent three hours talking to him.”
“He told me, ‘Your heart is still with religious life. I know just the community for you — the Sisters of Mercy.’” Father Garabaldi picked up the phone and called Mercy Sister Michelle Gorman, vocation minister for the Auburn regional community, who came to visit Oladimeji the next day. “Michelle was so happy, interested and compassionate,” Sister Oladimeji said. “She listened and drew me to explore. The rest is history!”
In the fall Sister Oladimeji will continue to teach English at Sacramento’s Cristo Rey High School, which matches students with work-study programs and academic support. “My reflection led me at novitiate to the conclusion that educating the poor would be my way of balancing the gap between the rich and poor,” Sister Oladimeji said.
Growing up in Sri Lanka as the daughter of a university professor, Jayawardene and her husband came to California in 1974. They lived in Fairfield, and she worked for Bank of America in international and private banking.
After her husband’s sudden death in 1981 at age 42, Jayawardene continued to work. “It was a panacea,” she said. She also had the comfort of her family living with her teenage sons, who one after another left for college.
She loved living alone during this period of her life and discovered contemplative prayer as taught by Father Thomas Keating. She entered into vocation discussions with both Mercy Sister Michelle Gorman and the Carmelite sisters, and for two years tried to discern her path.
“I went into the Carmelites for six years and a few months before final profession I decided it was not for me,” Sister Jayawardene said. “I wonder now how I lived in silence. I yearned to be in community, praying and being with like-minded women.”
Sister Jayawardene will continue her ministry post in hospitality at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael and as a leader of centering prayer.
“I feel that Mercy is the ground I have been searching for,” said Sister Jayawardene, whose grown sons are happy they now can visit with her freely. “It gives me joy that the community can say yes to me.”
Mercy Sister Shari Roeseler also felt the yearning to live in religious community. A native of Wisconsin who had moved to California in the early 1990s, she began working in fund raising for the Mercy Foundation.
“I met sisters on the Mercy Foundation staff and at Catholic Healthcare West. I saw a way of life I hadn’t been exposed to, and it spoke to me,” she said. “It was giving your whole life toward God and living out the Mercy call. I liked the communal aspect and the faith sharing.”
She left a position as vice president of resource development for Mercy Housing in Sacramento to enter the Mercy Institute novitiate in Laredo, Texas, with Sisters Jayawardene and Oladimeji. She will work part time at Mercy Housing in San Francisco in the major gifts department and attend classes at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.
Sister Roeseler summed up a feeling all all three sisters seemed to share. “I feel content and at peace,” she said before the ceremony. “This feels right.”
The Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community will launch July 1, bringing together nearly 900 Mercy sisters and 500 associates in a newly-formed community that stretches from San Francisco to Detroit. It is one of six geographic communities in the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas formed by merging 25 regions.
