iN mEMORY OF PAGE

Sister Mary Michelle Cale (Miriam Patricia) was born on February 21, 1929, in Macomb, Illinois, the eldest of the four children of Ora and Helen Lois (Howd) Cale. A convert to Catholicism, she was baptized on November 30, 1947, at St. Paul Church, Macomb. She had two brothers, William and Laurence, both of whom are deceased; and one sister, Oralee Miller of Macomb.

Miriam Patricia attended Wilson and Grant elementary schools and graduated from Macomb Public High School in 1947.

She entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Francis at Mount St. Clare Convent, Clinton, Iowa, on September 8, 1948, and received the name Mary Michelle at her reception on June 20, 1949. She made her first vows on August 12, 1951, and her life vows on August 12, 1956.

Her novitiate classmates were Sisters Mary Paul Hummer, James (Eleanore) Birmingham, Karlene Hughes, Roseanne Gant, Marie de Lourdes Davenport, and Rosalie Noder.

She received an A.A. degree from Mount St. Clare College, Clinton, in 1957, and a B.A. degree in biology from St. Ambrose College, Davenport, Iowa, in 1967. She did further study at Marycrest College, Davenport; the University of Nebraska, Omaha; and Texas Women’s University, Dallas. She held an R.N. for Iowa and Nebraska and was a member of the American Nurses Association.

Sister Michelle’s ministry included both teaching and nursing. She taught in elementary schools in Toluca, Illinois; Maysville, Kentucky; and in Varina, Hawarden, Victor and Fonda, Iowa. She also worked with Native Americans in Porcupine, South Dakota, and with Special Education students in St. Louis, Missouri.

After nurse’s training at Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, Burlington, Iowa, she served in Burlington Hospital; Creighton Memorial Hospital, Omaha; St. Thomas More Hospital, Cañon City, Colorado; and Jane Lamb Hospital, Clinton. She also served as nursing instructor at Marycrest College and at Mount Marty College, Yankton, South Dakota. Most recently, from 1997 through 2000, she served as hospital chaplain at Samaritan North Hospital, now Mercy Medial Canter, Clinton.

She retired at Mount St. Clare Convent and lived at The Canticle from 1997 until moving to The Alverno in May 2007. She died there at 12:40 A.M. on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2007.

THE JOURNEY

Take my hand
That I may stand
And walk with You upon the land.
You are my all.
How easily I fall.
Yet, I hear your call,
Come, follow Me!

Come and see
Then you will be free.
The pathway will be rough
And at times very tough.
My grace is enough.
Come, if you are to grow.
It is the risk you know,
This letting go.

Help me then to keep pace,
The false self erase,
Sweep me up in your loving embrace.

Sister Michelle Cale

Fr. William McNichols
The Cord. December 1985. Vol. 35, No. 11, p. 323-326

Wake Reflection for Sister Michelle Cale
Thursday, December 27, 2007, The Canticle

Francis is in awe of what God does for us in Jesus, the gift of salvation. But even more amazing for Francis is the way in which God accomplishes this – through the gift of Jesus, whom literally Francis sees as moving toward us in the embrace of humanity: “From heaven the worthy, holy, glorious Word, IN the womb of Mary, becomes incarnate in the FLESH of OUR HUMANITY AND FRAILTY.” Not just any human nature, but a frail, weak, vulnerable, limited human nature. And, joy of joys, God chooses to move down toward us in compassion, to be with us, and in being with us, he saves us – as a story of the companions makes especially clear:
Blessed Francis held the Nativity of the Lord in greater reverence than any other of the Lord’s solemnities. For although the Lord may have accomplished our salvation in his other solemnities, nevertheless, once HE WAS BORN TO US, as blessed Francis would say, IT WAS CERTAIN THAT WE WOULD BE SAVED. (Assisi Compilation 14).
In other words, Francis understands salvation in terms of what it means to be human. The life of Jesus was salvific from the moment of his conception. The cross and Easter celebrate the accomplishment of salvation in that they continue to express the meaning of the Incarnation – God for us, God moving toward us in love and compassion! The Incarnation is Redemption!
. . . For Francis and Clare, the Incarnation of Jesus was an incarnation in human flesh that was very familiar, close to home. It focused on the way things were in terms of human existence in a concrete, real, and ordinary experience of being human – birth and death, struggle and suffering, joy and defeat. The Christ of Francis and Clare is not so much the sleek, satisfied human being as the beggar by the wayside, the face ignored in the crowd, the sick and the leper on our streets.
In other words, the Incarnation does not so much show us what we are not, but rather what we are. We were created in the image of Jesus Christ, says Francis. Christ shows us to ourselves. And the entire lives of Francis and Clare attempt nothing more than to be simply human, and in being simply human to be for other people.

Taken from: “Francis’ and Clare’s Joy in Being Human: The Mystery of the Incarnation,” Michael Blastic, OFM Conv., in THE CORD, v. 50, No., 6, Nov./Dec. 2000,
The Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure, N.Y.

James Lawrence Kilcoyne, husband of Eleanore Kilcoyne and a Clinton Franciscan Associate for 18 years, passed away Thursday, August 2, 2007, at the Alverno Health Care Facility. Visitation was Sunday, August 5, 2007 at Lemke Funeral Home, Lyons Chapel, Clinton. The Knights of Columbus led a Rosary service at 5 PM and Rev. John Haugen, Eleanore’s nephew, presided at a Scripture service at 7 PM.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held Monday, August 6, 2007, at 11:00 AM at The Canticle in Clinton. Father Haugen presided at the Mass. Pallbearers were Joseph, Charles, and Patrick Kilcoyne, David Barr, John Kostka, and Richard Schroeder. Burial was at St. Irenaeus Cemetery, Clinton.

In 1989, Jim and Eleanore were among the first group of Chicagoans to join the Clinton Franciscan Associate program. They remained active associates following their move to Clinton in 1992. They served as Eucharistic Ministers to the home bound in Chicago and Clinton. Jim was also a member of the Knights of Columbus and of Prince of Peace Parish.

Jim was born on April 28, 1921 in Shullsburg, Wis., to James W. and Anna (Harte) Kilcoyne. He was a 1941 graduate of Highland Park High School, in Highland Park, Ill. He served in the United States Army Air Signal Corp from 1942-1945. He and Eleanore were married on January 22, 1971, at our Lady of the Brook Church in Northbrook, Ill.

Jim was a professional photographer with the Archdiocese of Chicago for 36 years. He traveled extensively with Archdiocesan officials, including several trips to Europe, and received several national awards for his photography.

He is preceded in death by his parents; one brother; one sister; and his first wife, Marol (Mitchell) Kilcoyne. Jim and Marol were the parents of three daughters; Rev. Christa (Tom) Landon of Minneapolis, Minn., Patricia (John) Kostka of Milwaukee, Wis.; and Margaret “Meg” Barr of Omaha, Neb.; one son; James M. Kilcoyne of Omaha, Neb

Jim is survived by his wife Eleanore and his children, five grandchildren, two brothers; Charles Kilcoyne of Weaverville, N.C.; and Joseph Kilcoyne of Wheeling, Ill.; many nieces and nephews and his Clinton Franciscan family.

Sister Mary Agnese was born on October 24, 1913, in Chicago, Illinois, the third of five children of William Henry and Mary Agnes Powers Bowden. She was baptized Ada Agnes on November 1, 1913, at St. Thomas Apostle Church in Chicago. She had two brothers and two sisters. Lillian lives in Lisle Illinois; John, William and Mary Margaret (Sister Catherine, a Clinton Franciscan) are deceased.

Ada Agnes received her elementary and high school education in Chicago, Illinois. She attended Cornell Public and St. Francis de Paula Schools, and graduated from Mercy High School in 1932.

Ada Agnes entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Francis at Mount St. Clare Convent, Clinton, Iowa, on October 28, 1934, and received the name Mary Agnese at her reception on April 22, 1935. She made her first profession on June 13, 1937, and her final profession on June 13, 1940. Her novitiate classmates were Sisters Charlotte Rattler, Aquin Leonard, Mercita Deacon, Susanne Wulff, Regina Seidl and Irene Lickteig.

Sister Agnese attended Mount St. Clare College, Clinton, and taught eighth grade for one year in Fonda, Iowa, before entering nurse's training at Mercy Hospital, Burlington, Iowa. She received her R. N. in 1941, and did post-graduate work at Mercy Hospital, Chicago. She held nursing certification for Iowa and Illinois, and was a Fellow Member of the American Nursing Home Administrators.

Sister Agnese ministered in nursing for 50 years. She worked as surgical floor supervisor at Mercy Hospital, Burlington, from 1941 to 1948, and at St. Francis Hospital, Macomb, Illinois, from 1948 to 1967. Returning to Clinton, she served for four years at the former Mount Alverno Home for the Aged, and for six years at The Alverno Health Care Facility. She also served at Mercy Hospital in Chicago from 1977 until retiring from active ministry in 1988 and moving to Mount St. Clare Convent. She lived at The Canticle from April, 1997, until moving to The Alverno in 2004. She died there at 8:35 P.M., Tuesday, July 24, 2007.

For Sister Agnese Bowden and the Rev. Robert Eagle, Sister Agnese’s 70th jubilee was a grand reunion.
Bob Eagle was born at Mercy Hospital, Burlington, Ia., in November, 1943, when Sister Agnese was the surgical floor supervisor there.
A month later his parents rushed him back to the hospital. He was diagnosed with cardiac stenosis and was not expected to live. His parents had earlier lost a baby girl. But Bob Eagle did survive, thanks in part to emergency medication administered by Sister Agnese.
He was so ill, the hospital superior baptized him—a ritual his Methodist minister grandfather
repeated later in his church in Galesburg, Ill.
Bob is now a Methodist minister himself and a hospital chaplain in Madison, Wis., and his wife is a nurse.

He and his parents not only credit his life to Sister Agnese, they agree that her love and care for all of them changed their attitude toward persons of other faiths.

Sister Agnese Bowden and long-time friend, Rev. Robert Eagle, at her 70th Jubilee celebration in 2004.

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Sister Agnese’ 70th jubilee was the first time she and Bob Eagle had met since he was an infant, but they had exchanged letters many times, and Sister Agnese even wrote a poem about one of those letters—a poem Bob framed and hung in his office.

Your letter, Bob, brought tears to my eyes
And joy to the depths of my heart,
And I thank our God most sincerely
That in your life I’ve had a small part.

So many patients I’ve treated as well,
But the results were not always so good.
Tears came then, too, to your nurse’s eyes
And she wondered, “Did I do all I could?”

But faith in God’s help makes a nurse’s life
The joy I can’t begin to explain.
But one of the joys sometimes
overlooked
Is sharing in the family’s pain.

I remember so well your Mom and Dad
It was so hard for them to think —
They who had lately been saddened by death —
That their son was now at death’s close brink.

I need not explain to you
That God had a special plan
And that innocent “hypo needle”
Just got you ready to become a great man.

As a minister in a hospital you work;
I’m sure you serve with care
The sick, the dying and the families
Who much need you with them to share.

Now Bob, could I have a little share
In the life you have chosen to give
That so many lives touched by you
Will with God in Eternity live.

Sister Mary Carmella was born on August 17, 1909, in Tiskilwa, Illinois, the youngest of five daughters of Timothy and Ellen (Gorman) Cahill. She was baptized Elizabeth Ann on August 26, 1909, at St. Mary Church in Tiskilwa. Her sisters Mary, Josephine, Jane (Sister Timothy OSF) and Margaret (Sister Winifred RSM) all preceded her in death.

Elizabeth Ann attended Providence Elementary School in Tiskilwa, and graduated from St. John High School in Victor, Iowa, in 1927.

She entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Francis at Mount St. Clare Convent, Clinton, Iowa, on July 16, 1927, and received the name Mary Carmella at her reception on April 9, 1928. She made her first profession on April 22, 1930, and her final profession on April 17, 1933. Her novitiate classmates were Sisters Mary Jeanne Curtsinger, Cortona Phelan, Assunta Coomes, Henrietta Lodder, Catherine Lodder, Fleurette Spain, Georgia Wieck, Paula Hederman, de Lourdes Walsh, Louise Higdon and Catherine O'Connor.

Sister Carmella obtained her Associate of Arts degree from Mount St. Clare College in 1930. She graduated from St. Francis School of Nursing, Macomb, Illinois, in 1936, and obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from St. Louis University in 1940. She obtained certification as a Registered Nurse Anesthetist from St. Francis Hospital School of Anesthesia, Peoria, Illinois, in 1941. She did further study in anesthesia and surgical floor supervision at St. Anthony and Cook County Hospitals, Chicago; and at Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.

Sister Carmella spent most of her active ministry working in hospitals owned and operated by the Clinton Franciscans. Before entering nurse’s training, she taught upper elementary grades for three years, serving in Marceline, Missouri; Greene, Iowa; and Rochelle, Illinois. After becoming a nurse, she served at St. Francis Hospital, Macomb, Illinois, for 29 years, and at St. Francis Hospital, Grinnell, Iowa, for 12 years. Returning to Clinton in 1979, she worked part-time at The Alverno until her retirement at Mount St. Clare Convent in 1987. She lived at The Canticle from 1997 until moving to The Alverno in 2004. She died there on Thursday afternoon, July 5, 2007, at 12:08 P.M.

Services for Sister Mary Michelle Cale at The Canticle
WAKE	Thursday, December 27, 2007 4:00 P.M. – Rosary 6:30 P.M. – Scripture Service
MASS	Friday, December 28, 2007 10:00 A.M. Rev. Thomas Hennen, presider
BURIAL	St. Irenaeus Cemetery, Clinton, Iowa

August, 1997 -- Sister Carmella at her 70th Jubilee celebration at Sacred Heart Church along with other Clinton Franciscan jubilarians – (from left) Sister Catherine Lodder (her classmate), Sister Carmella, Sister Teresa Ruggle, Sister Dominica Coakley (seated), Sister Clotilde Jones, Bishop Gerald O’Keefe, Sister Paula Hederman (her classmate) and Sister Blanche Quinlan.
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Sister Carmella cracked and shelled walnuts at Mount St. Clare Convent – in her “spare time” after retirement – providing for LOTS of walnut fudge.	Sister Carmella (left) celebrating the jubilee of Sister Winifred Cahill, RSM (center) along with Sister Timothy Cahill. Three Cahill sister Sisters.
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Services for Sister Mary Carmella Cahill at The Canticle
WAKE	Monday, July 9, 2007 4:00 P.M. – Rosary 6:30 P.M. – Scripture Service