Meet Sister Ellen McRedmond, D.C.

Before Christmas of my eighth year, my family decided to adopt a family and get each child a gift.  We chose the gift for the person whose name we drew.

I was so surprised to see the name that appeared on the paper I picked out: Jesus!  I said to myself, "Oh! That's what the Gospel means when it says whatever we do to others, we do to Jesus!  I want to do this for the rest of my life!"

Our parents passed their outstanding faith to us.  Together we attended Sunday Mass and prayed at home.  We were involved in school and parish activities.

My two main dreams about my life surfaced when I was in the fourth grade: to live in the country and have 12 kids and to be a Daughter of Charity!  It took me until my junior year in high school to realize these did not go together.

What attracted me to the Daughters of Charity who ran the grade school my family attended was that they were so down to earth and real.

They not only taught us and disciplined us but also laughed and cried with us, played softball and soccer with us!  We could talk to the sisters about anything.

We knew them as spiritual leaders, women of prayer, who cared about us and the poor.  They involved us in various service activities through the Miraculous Medal Association.

I remember they cooked a full breakfast for all 12 of us in our home when my parents celebrated 25 years of marriage.

They were there for us when my sister, Alice, was diagnosed with leukemia.  She was in a Daughter of Charity hospital for two months where the sisters at the hospital and the school prayed with us for her healing and saw us through when she died nine months later at the age of 21.

The semi-cloistered nuns at Ursuline, where we attended high school, also were great educators.  As much as I appreciated them, I knew I was drawn to a life of both prayer and direct service of the very poor, the charism of the Daughters of Charity.

By eighth grade a Serra Club essay contest made me think a bit about what it meant to lay down one's life for a friend.  I felt called to lay down my life by serving Jesus in others.

Because I wanted to be a nurse, I took and passed the entrance exam to nursing school when I was a senior.  I also knew in my heart that I was being called to be a Daughter of Charity.  There were questions and uncertainties.  I sat down with a pen and notebook; wrote yes on the left and no on the right.

I had 23 reasons not to become a sister and only one yes - I believed that that this is what God was calling me to do.

The ensuing years have been full of grace!  I served about 18 years as a registered nuns, about the same number of year as a parish minister and seven years working with persons who are elderly, disabled or homeless.

Ministries have taken me to various states.  My present ministry is working for Bexar County Detention Ministries as chaplain for women and men in the county jail.

My call has been the same through these years as it was when I drew Jesus' name that Christmas.

It is God's love that energizes us.  "The charity of Jesus Christ Crucified urges us" is our motto.  There are nearly 20,000 Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul throughout the world.

Our founder, St. Vincent de Paul, said, "What greater joy is there than to do as Jesus Christ did on earth."  This has been my experience.

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