Editor's Report

Her Journey to Consecrated Life Began Here

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As she prepares to receive her first vows as a Sister of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George on the morning of Friday, Aug. 14, Sister M. Veritas Wilks couldn’t help remembering the time Cardinal John O’Connor, then the Archbishop of New York, visited St. Charles Borromeo parish in Gardiner, Ulster County, 21 years ago when she was only 9 years old.

She recalls joining with members of her family and other parishioners to help clean the church the day before Cardinal O’Connor came. That was not unusual because the Wilks—her dad Mark and mother Peggy and she and her four brothers—were active parishioners.

As it happened, young Theresa Wilks, as she was known then, was one of the altar servers for the cardinal’s Mass. Near the end of the celebration, Cardinal O’Connor announced to all present that she would become a future religious sister. All these years later, she recalls his words as a “big deal.”

“It was in front of the whole parish,” she explained.

She would hear echoes of his simple statement from her fellow parishioners at St. Charles for the rest of her years there.

“God has been planning this,” she said of her religious vocation. “That was when he started to reveal his plan.”

Through her work as an altar server, young Theresa developed “an appreciation for the liturgy that I might not have.” It was fostered by Deacon Harold Carroll, the coordinator of the altar servers and a close friend of the Wilks family.

Faith became more than a Sunday practice; it was an everyday reality, she said. As she got a little older, her participation in CYO’s Teenage Federation (TAF) fostered her growing spirituality by introducing her to a group of like-minded young people from around the archdiocese. She took part in the TAF retreat program at Blair Lodge, and served on county boards and then eventually in positions of archdiocesan leadership. She attended youth conferences and traveled to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. In the process of those activities and responsibilities, she made the best friends of her high school and college life. (Her undergraduate years were spent at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill.)

One person she counts as very influential during those years was Toni Kerins, who ran the Blair Lodge retreat program and was adult coordinator of the Teenage Federation. Mrs. Kerins will be there when Sister M. Veritas professes her first vows along with three other sisters at St. Mary’s Church in Alton, Ill. Three sisters will also make their final vows.

Sister M. Veritas is looking forward to that day, confident in her decision and with profound faith in the Lord who has accompanied her every step of the way. She is one of nine sisters in the two-year novitiate of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George. “The Holy Spirit is at work here, affirming and comforting,” she said. “It does make a difference.”

She has a perspective well beyond her 30 years. Before entering religious life in 2012, she worked at a camp and retreat program run by the Diocese of Madison, Wis. She also earned a master’s degree in theological studies from Ave Maria University.

This past year, she was sent on a six-month mission to the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C., where she was an assistant cook. After professing her vows, she will teach religion to middle school students at a Catholic school in Wildwood, Mo.

In whatever apostolates she serves, she said her first priority will be to share God’s merciful love with others. Professing her first vows during the Year of Consecrated Life is “an extra bonus, like we won the lottery,” she said.

“It’s a time of special outpouring of the Spirit in the Church. It’s an extra grace that we get to do it this year.”