I don’t know the real beginning of my journey to priesthood. Maybe it was my devotion to the Eucharist and the Church Year that I had developed from grade school days.
One thing I do know is that the convent was not the right fit for me. I stuck it out for 15 years, because I thought being a Sister of Mercy was what would fill my longing for some way to serve God and help people in need. When I was assigned to teach fourth grade in an inner city Catholic school I thought that would was be the answer. It wasn’t!
Besides teaching, the sisters at St. Bridget’s visited the children in the homes, including some in public housing high rise apartments. I chose to visit one of the girls in my class. I had trouble holding my breath all the way up in the elevator to the eighth floor so I wouldn’t have to smell the stale urine. The father of the student I visited sat with a long whip next to him to deal with his children when they wouldn’t obey him. His children sat quietly in his presence. You can imagine how they acted when he wasn’t around.
Some of the children lived in public housing row houses. One of my students lived in one that was across the street from where we lived. t The police staked out the place from the front window of the row house where the sisters lived. The police were looking for a drug dealer.
There was never a dull moment. However at the end of the school year I was reassigned to a school in a middle class neighborhood. I figured I must have been a failure as an inner city fourth grade teacher. I was very upset.
Within a few years I was teaching high school religion but that wasn’t really satisfying either. I chose to leave religious life and set out on my own. I taught high school religion and other subjects to fill up my schedule. But life was still not satisfying. I didn’t have the right romance either. It was then that I saw an ad in the National Catholic Reporter for a Director of Religious Education position in Indianapolis. I took it.
That work was more interesting but I soon got tired of counting crayons and glue sticks. By that time I was married and still a DRE. I was reading in the National Catholic Reporter a lot of what was going on in the Church and was fascinated by the stories of women becoming priests in various places in the world like Czechoslovakia. There Ludmilla Javorova was ordained a Catholic priest by her bishop so she could minister to the priests in prison for their faith. She served in the underground Church during the Communist regime until Communist rule ended in 1990. Her courage and dedication were an inspiration to me. I followed her story.
. About that time I attended a Call to Action Conference and actually met a real American womanpriest. I quizzed her about her preparation and her credentials I went to the Roman Catholic Women Priest booth in the Exhibit Hall, picked up literature, and went to a Mass the next day presided over by a man and woman priest. It was beautiful and felt like this was the way it should be. It was an ah ha moment for me.
When I got home from the conference I read one of the books about womenpriestsI had bought and found the name and contact information of a womanpriest in the United States. I called her and asked her explain to me more about their ministry. When I told her about myself she suggested that I get a group together of those interested in women’s call to priesthood. I did that. It led to the celebration of the Feast of St. Mary of Magdala at a local Catholic high school in July 2009.
Several of the people there expressed an interest in gathering again soon to pray and study together. That group formed the beginning of St. Mary of Magdala Catholic Community in Indianapolis. I was ordained a deacon in 2010 and a priest on April 15, 2012. My journey was complete. I had found a home where I belonged. I can live out my faith and serve others for as long I am able.
Maria Thornton McClain, RCWP
2021
One thing I do know is that the convent was not the right fit for me. I stuck it out for 15 years, because I thought being a Sister of Mercy was what would fill my longing for some way to serve God and help people in need. When I was assigned to teach fourth grade in an inner city Catholic school I thought that would was be the answer. It wasn’t!
Besides teaching, the sisters at St. Bridget’s visited the children in the homes, including some in public housing high rise apartments. I chose to visit one of the girls in my class. I had trouble holding my breath all the way up in the elevator to the eighth floor so I wouldn’t have to smell the stale urine. The father of the student I visited sat with a long whip next to him to deal with his children when they wouldn’t obey him. His children sat quietly in his presence. You can imagine how they acted when he wasn’t around.
Some of the children lived in public housing row houses. One of my students lived in one that was across the street from where we lived. t The police staked out the place from the front window of the row house where the sisters lived. The police were looking for a drug dealer.
There was never a dull moment. However at the end of the school year I was reassigned to a school in a middle class neighborhood. I figured I must have been a failure as an inner city fourth grade teacher. I was very upset.
Within a few years I was teaching high school religion but that wasn’t really satisfying either. I chose to leave religious life and set out on my own. I taught high school religion and other subjects to fill up my schedule. But life was still not satisfying. I didn’t have the right romance either. It was then that I saw an ad in the National Catholic Reporter for a Director of Religious Education position in Indianapolis. I took it.
That work was more interesting but I soon got tired of counting crayons and glue sticks. By that time I was married and still a DRE. I was reading in the National Catholic Reporter a lot of what was going on in the Church and was fascinated by the stories of women becoming priests in various places in the world like Czechoslovakia. There Ludmilla Javorova was ordained a Catholic priest by her bishop so she could minister to the priests in prison for their faith. She served in the underground Church during the Communist regime until Communist rule ended in 1990. Her courage and dedication were an inspiration to me. I followed her story.
. About that time I attended a Call to Action Conference and actually met a real American womanpriest. I quizzed her about her preparation and her credentials I went to the Roman Catholic Women Priest booth in the Exhibit Hall, picked up literature, and went to a Mass the next day presided over by a man and woman priest. It was beautiful and felt like this was the way it should be. It was an ah ha moment for me.
When I got home from the conference I read one of the books about womenpriestsI had bought and found the name and contact information of a womanpriest in the United States. I called her and asked her explain to me more about their ministry. When I told her about myself she suggested that I get a group together of those interested in women’s call to priesthood. I did that. It led to the celebration of the Feast of St. Mary of Magdala at a local Catholic high school in July 2009.
Several of the people there expressed an interest in gathering again soon to pray and study together. That group formed the beginning of St. Mary of Magdala Catholic Community in Indianapolis. I was ordained a deacon in 2010 and a priest on April 15, 2012. My journey was complete. I had found a home where I belonged. I can live out my faith and serve others for as long I am able.
Maria Thornton McClain, RCWP
2021
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