Sister Martina Casey
Sister Martina Casey and Sister Patricia McNicholas.
Picture taken in March, 2004
at a meeting for the Ursulines of Toledo, Cleveland, and Youngstown.
Early Wednesday morning (November 3, 2004), on the feast of St. Martin De Porres,
Sister Martina died quietly in our Health Care Center. Sr. Martina had
only returned to the Motherhouse on Tuesday afternoon from St. Elizabeth
Hospital.
Over the past several months and especially since Martina moved
to Humility House in June her attention has always been on the present moment.
The gift that was hers these last several months was a gift of living in the
present.
Nearly ten years ago Sister Martina realized that she was
struggling with memory loss. In 1995 she began to participate
in a program for Alzheimer Disease Research at the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center. She hoped that her experience might contribute to medical
progress for future generations. Despite her frustration with Alzheimer disease, Sr. Martina was able to maintain a hopeful attitude. She
practiced the habitus of gratitude when those around her were helpful;
our sisters who attended to her, our Health Care staff, the Antonine Sisters and
the at the Day Care Center, and the staff at Humility House.
During her last years with us as she lived with Alzheimer's
disease her attention gradually became focused only on the moment.
Always faithful to her vowed life as an Ursuline, Sr. Martina carried about in
her body "the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested"
in her body (2 Corinthians 4:10). We who remember Martina are
comforted by St. Paul's words: "therefore, we are not discouraged; rather
our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being rewarded day by day (2
Corinthians 4:16)."
During November the church remembers in a special way those who
have gone before us in faith. These holy ones already share God's reign.
We trust that Sr. Martina is now among the holy ones giving all of her attention
to the glory of God. Soli Deo Gloria.
This picture of Sister Martina
was taken in October, 2004, when one of her nephews visited her at Humility
House.
