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Sr Bridget Wenta OP |
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July 12, 1917 - September 27, 2004 By Elaine Osborne OP Sister Bridget entered our Community at 15 years old. She brought with her the homemaking skills learned in her family from a very early age. Most of her life she served her sisters and others in domestic work. Sister Bridget’s whole life was about service in love, a simple love, a humble love. Jesus washed feet, and Bridget’s Christlike service was so evident as she cooked meals, cleaned homes, did the laundry, sewed, visited the sick, gave baths, washed feet – whatever was needed for each person. “Her life was about taking delight in the humble encounter,” said Sister Lorena Bolte in the wake homily. She was extremely prayerful. Always she was telling us she would pray for us. And she believed in miracles. She had no gifts of college degrees or special skills training, but she always tried the very best she could to do what was pleasing, holy, and sacred. Sister Lorena reminded us that “We have no way of measuring all the ways her love was effective in bringing about miracles, peace, and understanding.” “The death of loved ones provokes us to ask deep questions: Who is God? What is death? Why are we here? Why are we not just at Sister Bridget’s funeral, but why are we alive today in the 21st century, so busy with work, connected to family and Community? St. Paul’s lyrical answer,” said Sister Gemma Doll, “is that we are here because we have been chosen, called by name, blessed with every spiritual blessing, to be holy and spotless, to live through love. Sister Bridget’s total life response led her to make profession as a Dominican Sister. She gave it her best. When her human life seemed to fade with aging, illness and suffering, still she believed in the Son, that she would have eternal life. She died as she had lived – she simply melted into her Beloved, quietly, without much ado, not wanting to create a fuss. With ‘Thank You’ in her soul, she grasped the miracle of resurrection to eternal life and entry into Paradise.” |
