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Sisters celebrate vows in 2017

Congratulations to Sister Yvonne Gehant! 

Sister Yvonne celebrates 70 years of religious life in 2017. Sister Yvonne was born in West Brooklyn, Illinois where she attended St. Mary Grade School and West Brooklyn High School. She transferred to Mount St. Clare Academy in Clinton, Iowa her senior year and during that year she decided to become a Sister of St. Francis. Thinking back to that time she said, "What influenced me to join the Sisters of St. Francis was the good example of the Sisters at Mount St. Clare Academy when I was a student there.”

Sister Yvonne spent many of her years of active ministry teaching students at the junior high level. "I’ve enjoyed all my teaching years,” she said. She began teaching sixth grade students at St. Francis de Paula School, Chicago, Illinois, and later taught in Riverside, California; Rochelle, Illinois; and Macomb, Illinois, serving as principal for twelve of those years. In Clinton, Sister Yvonne taught at Sacred Heart School and at Mount St. Clare College. For an additional 28 years she served in various capacities at Mount St. Clare College as an English instructor, business office manager, and assistant in the office of the academic dean. She was the director of the Mount St. Clare Elementary Tutoring Program from 1991 until its closing. For nineteen years she was the General Secretary of the Sisters of St. Francis. She served in that capacity until 2008, when she retired from full-time ministry.

Congratulations to Sister Michael Marie Burns! 

Sister Michael Marie celebrates 60 years of religious life in 2017. Sister Michael Marie was inspired to become a Sister when she was in the first grade. At St. Boniface Grade School she met many Clinton Franciscan Sisters, including her first-grade teacher and inspiration, Sister Mary Lacy. Discussing her many years of caregiving, teaching, ministering on campuses, mentoring in religious education, and her current ministry as a spiritual director, Sister Burns said, "I am very happy. I feel like God has treated me like a vessel. Things were handed to me in so many ways, even the place where I began. I didn’t look at other congregations sixty years ago but this was the right one. How lucky can you be?”

The Clinton native began her ministry teaching elementary students at St. Francis de Paula School in Chicago, Illinois, and at parochial schools in Vail and Akron, Iowa, and Riverside, California. She served as a campus minister for college students for ten years, first at the University of California, in Riverside; California State College, in San Bernardino; and the two community colleges in Riverside and San Bernardino, and later at Viterbo College in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She earned a master’s degree in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University, and at St. Bonaventure University, she completed a second master’s degree in Franciscan Studies. For the next eighteen years she ministered as Director of Religious Education at three different parishes: St. Gerald Parish, Oak Lawn, and St. Benedict Parish, Chicago, in Illinois and at St. Pius Parish in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her final nine years of full-time active ministry were spent as a caregiver, house manager, and qualified support professional at Sophia House Esperanza, Chicago, Illinois a residence for people with developmental disabilities.

Sister Burns resides at The Canticle, where she serves as a member of the Liturgy Committee. She is also a member of the Spiritual Life Committee for L’Arche, Clinton, and leads a monthly prayer service for residents of Mercy Living Center - South. A certified spiritual director, she is available for individual spiritual direction.

"It’s as if God allowed me to know when to move and when to stay,” Sister Burns said of her different ministries. "That’s the special thing about the sixty years. We say ‘serve’ but I’ve gained so much. When I began all those years ago I saw rules as rules but over time and especially with college students, I found in our unique creation each of us is drawn to the Divine. They came to help me understand people aren’t made for the law, the law is made for the people. Love God and love your neighbor. Everything else falls under that rule.”

Congratulations, Sister Emily Brabham! 

Sister Emily professed vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience for the first time during a Mass on July 29. Sister Brabham has been in initial discernment for four years. She has participated in the life and mission of the Sisters and the intercommunity programs for pre-novitiate and canonical year while serving as Director of Youth Ministry for the parish of St. Francis Xavier in LaGrange, Illinois. She lives in community at the Franciscan Dwelling place in Chicago.

"I am grateful for the Sisters continuing to journey with me through this discernment process,” Sister Brabham said. "The gift of the Clinton Franciscan Family is an indescribable joy that I thank God for every day. I am excited to see where this journey takes me as I seek to serve God’s people and live out the mission through peacemaking and active nonviolence while embracing the charism of conversion of heart.”

The Sisters of St. Francis celebrated Jubilee for Sister Michael Marie and a profession of First Vows by Sister Emily on July 29 at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Clinton. Bishop Thomas Zinkula presided at Mass.