Light of Christ illuminates golden years for seniors at St. Augustine Home

Msgr. John Duncan, chaplain at the St. Augustine Home for the Aged in Indianapolis, places chrism oil on resident Jackie Cooper’s forehead as part of the sacrament of confirmation during the Easter Vigil on April 23 at the chapel in the home operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor. St. Augustine Home residents Rita Flowers, left, and Helen Marsh were also confirmed and received first holy Communion. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

It’s never too late to answer God’s call to join the Catholic Church.

Three residents of the St. Augustine Home for the Aged in Indianapolis—Helen Marsh, Jackie Cooper and Rita Flowers—began the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) process last October then came into the full Communion of the Church during the Easter Vigil on April 23 at the chapel in the home operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor.

The women, who were baptized as members of Protestant congregations many years ago, have found new life in Christ as Catholics during their golden years while living with the Little Sisters and residents.

Sister Judith Meredith, superior of the St. Augustine Home, hugged the women and welcomed them into the Church after the Mass.

“We’re thrilled, of course,” Sister Judith said during the reception. “We’re so happy to think that they’re now able to receive the sacraments, especially the blessed Eucharist. It was expressed by them that all the love they have experienced here at the home, and seeing the other residents so happy going to Mass and receiving holy Communion made them decide to share this spiritual joy.”

Formerly a licensed practical nurse, Helen Marsh, who is 78, worked as a temporary nurses’ aide at the St. Augustine Home for a few days many years ago.

She was raised as a Baptist, and is overjoyed to be living with the Little Sisters and sharing their Catholic faith.

“What a blessing it is to be here,” Marsh explained. “God engineered the whole thing. I started going to Mass after I moved here two years ago. He wanted me to come here to learn about the Catholic Church.” (Related: Welcome, new Catholics | New Catholics follow varied paths to the Church)

Reading books about the Catholic faith that she found in the library at the home and the opportunity to watch the Eternal Word Television Network helped inspire her to begin RCIA classes last fall.

She also appreciated a spiritual retreat presented at the home last summer by Father James Farrell, pastor of St. Pius X Parish and director of Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House in Indianapolis.

“All the things that I learned in the Baptist faith—forgiveness of sin, Jesus in your heart and the divine life—is all the same that they taught me [during RCIA classes], but it’s so much deeper,” she said. “What a deep well to draw from. For God to illuminate that into my heart, it wasn’t hard to believe in the [real presence of Jesus in the] Eucharist. After you hear what it is, you have to believe.”

Resident Bitsy Landis recommended Catholic books, and Marsh read them eagerly.

“She would say, ‘Here’s a good book. Here’s another good book,’ ” Marsh recalled. “So I read these good books and I thought, ‘This is just great. This is the Church that God built with Peter as the rock.’ It isn’t hard to understand after God gives you the grace to understand.”

Marsh was excited to receive “the real body and blood of Jesus Christ” for the first time during the Easter Vigil.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” she said. “This is just where God wants me. Now every day I can live the divine life of Christ, … and go to Mass in the chapel, the daily walk with God.

“The Little Sisters are the kindest, sweetest, nicest people I have ever met in my whole life,” Marsh said. “I have seen such love for God and for the residents in them. They pray for us. They feed us. They take care of us in every physical way. They are phenomenal. … This home is the anteroom to heaven. It’s heaven on Earth. Jesus is here in the chapel in the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit leads this place. We’re truly one in Christ.”

Resident Mary Ann Phelan, who also volunteers as a member of the Little Sisters’ Association Jeanne Jugan, served as Marsh’s sponsor.

“I am thrilled for her because now she can receive the Eucharist, which I think to her is one of the greatest joys of her life,” Phelan said during the reception. “It was a great honor to be her sponsor. To go on this journey with her has been beautiful, and has deepened our friendship immensely, spiritually and in other ways.”

New resident Rita Flowers, who is 82 and was raised as a member of the Church of Christ, moved to the St. Augustine Home last August from her longtime home in Downers Grove, Ill., where she regularly attended Mass at Holy Trinity Church not far from her apartment building.

“I have met some of the most wonderful people here,” she said. “I’m so thankful that I live here.”

When she learned that catechetical instruction would be offered at the St. Augustine Home by Msgr. John Duncan, St. Augustine Home chaplain, and Father Philip Bowers, pastor of Holy Spirit Parish in Fishers, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese, she decided to join the full communion of the Church.

“I had been going to the Catholic Church for a long time,” Flowers said. “I would go to Mass, and I used to go to church by myself in the afternoon and light candles and say my prayers. … I enjoy church. I used to watch the Mass on TV if I couldn’t go to church, and I always enjoyed it. After I moved here, I realized that I can go to Mass every day.”

One of her three daughters, Sister Judy Flowers, is a Daughter of Charity and registered nurse who ministers as the sister servant at the Seton Residence, the order’s home for retired sisters in Evansville, Ind., in the Evansville Diocese.

“I felt total awe and surprise when she told us a few weeks ago that she was going to join the Church,” Sister Judy recalled after the Easter Vigil. “I was thrilled. She frequently read the Bible to us when we were young.

“I think she got interested in the Church when she spent about four months living with [the retired Daughters of Charity] in Evansville,” Sister Judy said. “One of our sisters really took her under her wing. … I think that made a big impression on her.”

Barbara Gregor, a member of St. Maria Goretti Parish in Westfield, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese, and the hair stylist at the home, was Flowers’ sponsor.

“I’m so proud and so happy for the women,” Gregor said after the Mass. “It made me cry to see them receive the Eucharist. It was so wonderful.”

Resident Jackie Cooper, who is 66 and was a Methodist, felt called to learn about the Catholic faith after she moved to the home two years ago.

“Living in this home with the sisters and seeing the people go into the chapel, I felt like I wanted to be one of them,” Cooper said after the Mass. “I am a religious person, and I was active at St. Luke United Methodist Church, but I felt like the Catholic religion is for me.

“I just love being around the sisters,” she said, “and the priests are wonderful. They’re holy men of God.”

After receiving her first holy Communion, Cooper said she “felt overjoyed, fulfilled and blessed.”

Her sponsor, resident Catherine Bates, had tears in her eyes as she watched three of her friends join the full Communion of the Church during the Easter Vigil.

“They’re really devoted women,” Bates said at the reception. “They were really good Christians even before joining the Church.” †