A Change Of Habit by Patty Ptak Kogutek

Author:Patty Ptak Kogutek [Kogutek, Patty Ptak]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781452542829
Publisher: Author Solutions Inc.
Published: 2011-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Igniting Things Buried Deep

The heavy air of anticipation weighed on me as I waited for Mother Imelda to share my future teaching assignment. After our junior year of college, the convent deemed us ready to teach school. We would finish up studies for our diplomas during the summer. Beads of perspiration ran down my cheek on that hot humid August afternoon in her office, the heat making me glad that I no longer wore the warm heavy veil of last year. One thing for certain: Mother Imelda made the choice about my future without any input from me. I was assigned; I had to go. I awaited my mission, my duty. I owed that obedience to God.

“Sister Mary Patricia,” the Mother began, sitting forward in her chair ready to dispense the direction of my life. “I need your help next year. I’m assigning you to one of our smaller missions in Iowa.”

The Mother, reading the blank look on my face, painted the location for me. “Our order has staffed Salix, a rural community right outside Sioux City, for many years. As a matter of fact,” the Mother confided, hoping to elicit my confidence, “the four nuns presently assigned there have been working longer than they should have, becoming overly tied to the people and their staunch ways.” She paused to see if I understood before daubing my future with broad strokes of color.

“The parishioners are very devout Catholics, proud of their church and school, but the new era of change in the church as not been well accepted in Salix,” she divulged. I squinted at Mother Imelda, wondering why she would send me, a young first year teacher, into that position fraught with potential antagonism.

“The present staff of nuns has chosen to remain in the traditional habit only reinforcing resistance to the renewal movement. I’m swapping out three of the four nuns that have been there, hoping your new faces will bring in the fresh air of the Holy Spirit,” Mother Imelda put the final dabs on her painting of my assignment. The small quaint convent of four nuns sounded blissful—almost like a real home, but the atmosphere of the parish cried out anything but Eden.

“Now, about your teaching assignment,” she motored right on, without waiting for a response from me. “The elementary school consists of grades one through eight, with four combination classrooms. You will be teaching grades three and four. Sister Mary Sylvia will be the school’s principal and your superior in the convent.” I smiled at the mention of Sister Mary Sylvia, who broke into laughter with ease—the opposite of Mother Monica in the novitiate.

Mother Imelda’s agenda was clear—to send a cadre of younger nuns donning modified habits to transform the people mired in older traditions of the parish. I sat up a little straighter recognizing her confidence in me.

The four of us assigned nuns drove into Salix. The elementary school, convent, and church with three contrasting types of architecture stood side-by-side, but together the dominant center of the life in the tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town.

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