DENVILLE Pre-kindergarteners at St. Mary Prep here sat cross-legged on the floor with eyes fixed on two religious sisters dressed in blue and white at the front of their classroom: Sister Charity and Sister Norbertha, both from Tanzania. Soon, the inquisitive minds of these well-behaved children took over, as they peppered the nuns with questions about lives in their east African homeland — “How do you celebrate Christmas?” “What do you do during the summer?” and “What types of foods to you eat?”
These attentive pre-k students, along with their teacher, Debbie Butler, who moderated the question-and-answer session, listened to Sister Norbertha, a student at nearby Assumption College for Sisters, also in Denville. She struggled to speak in English about her family’s Christmas traditions, which include attending Mass from 10 a.m. to midnight. After, Sister Charity, also ASC student, spoke about how people in Tanzania spend their summers.
“The summers are different for us. We harvest our main crops, which are maize, corn and rice. We eat many types of food,” said Sister Charity, before showing students the location of Tanzania on a colorful map and leading them in prayer and in song, accompanied by a small drum, both in her native language.
Welcome to a new partnership forged between St. Mary’s and ACS — now housed in the former convent at Morris Catholic High School a few blocks away — cleverly called “Sister Sessions.” The two schools kicked off the initiative on Thursday, Jan. 21 with a visit by six ACS students, all religious sisters, who are studying to be teachers and who originate from counties, such as Tanzania, Vietnam and Uganda. They spoke to pre-kindergarteners and fifth- and eighth-graders about life in their homelands and their ministries and led them in native songs and prayers. In turn, students told them about Catholic schools, culture and religious traditions in the U.S. The pre-kindergartners spoke about their hobbies, such as sports, video games, ice skating — and Mass.
“We live in a multicultural world. You bring wonderful stories. Our students also want to share with you about Catholic schools here. I hope that we can learn from each other,” Margaret McCluskey, St. Mary’s principal, told the group of religious sisters — many of whom were unsure of their English skills — before their classroom visits. “Don’t be nervous. Just share what you know. We are so glad that you are now part of our community,” she said.
The next day, another 14 religious sisters from Vietnam, Burundi, Tanzania, El Salvador and Uganda visited the remaining grades. In June, ASC moved from Mallinckrodt Convent, Mendham, motherhouse of the order, to Morris Catholic, where the Sisters of Christian Charity served when the high school opened. Sister Joseph Spring, president of ACS, which educates religious sisters from nations around the world, including Africa, South America and Asia, accompanied her students during the visits. Father Martin Glynn, pastor of St. Mary Parish, also met the visiting religious sisters.
Down the hall from pre-k class, Sister Catherine from Vietnam wrote out for fifth-graders on a white board the prayer, “Holy Spirit, come to me!” in both English and Vietnamese. Sister Mary Cecilia of Uganda then described schools in her homeland as “like boarding schools. Parents pick up their children on weekends or holidays.”
“This is wonderful. It shows a sense of culture. The students get to learn what school is like in other countries from these new teachers,” said fifth-grade teacher Christina Corsetto, as her students made posters about what they love about Catholic schools with help from the religious sisters.
Up on St. Mary’s second level, eighth-graders told Sister Marie-Therese and Sister Lucia, both of Vietnam, about “learning lots of math, including factoring” at the Morris county school. The two sisters fielded questions from students, helping each other to translate or receiving assistance from the teacher, James Hitchings. Sister Lucia told them that the school day in Vietnam runs from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Also, students there have only one month of vacation, she said.
“We are happy to be teachers in Vietnam,” Sister Lucia said. “Many people there do not have houses or parents. Many elderly don’t have children to care for them. So we [religious sisters] care for them. I work to earn money. I share my salary with them. God gives me good things, so I have to share with others,” she said.
After the conclusion of the eight-grade session, Sister Marie-Therese remarked, “It was good. They listened to us, even with our trouble with the [English] language. They also shared.”
“It was cool. We got to learn a different language and that the names [of people in Vietnam] have different meanings,” said Jacob Powlan, an eight-grader.
The “Sister Sessions” will continue until May, when the ASC religious sisters complete the semester, and will resume in the fall. Future sessions might focus again on the culture of the religious sisters and students, along with the nuns’ views on U.S. culture and stories about their vocations. McCluskey, who called this first-time collaboration a “win-win partnership,” invited the sisters to visit St. Mary’s as part of their training as educators to observe teachers in class or help students.
“Maybe, when these sisters return home, we can write, email or ‘video chat’ them and their students in their classrooms. Our students could take a virtual tour of their countries,” said McCluskey, who met last year with Sister Joseph and Father Glynn to make plans for the “Sister Sessions.”
Almost immediately after their arrival in Denville, the Sisters of Christian Charity “felt welcomed” at St. Mary’s and Morris Catholic. They attend and participate in 10 a.m. Mass on Sunday at St. Mary’s and have joined in for its parish picnic, said Sister Joseph.
“We are in a Jubilee Year of Mercy, which is about mercy, but also about evangelization,” Sister Joseph said. “This is evangelization — on both sides.”