By Kaitlyn Holdmeyer, Central Pacific Province
The way each sister is called to a ministry varies. Some go through a long discernment process, carefully planning and thinking about the challenges of taking on a new ministry, while others just show up and figure it out as they go. Sister Mary Kennedy is one who just showed up to Honduras 34 years ago. She has been helping indigenous populations there for the past 12 years.
Sister Mary has served in Monte Verde, a small village in the San Francisco de Opalaca municipality of Honduras, since 2006. Sisters serving there opened the mission because they wanted to serve a rural area where there were no religious men or women present and where the needs of the poor were not met. They contacted the bishops of the poorest archdioceses in Honduras, and selected Monte Verde as their new mission, but did not yet know how they would help. Sister Mary and Sister Reina del Carmen Rodriguez were the first to arrive, with Sister Emelina Maradiaga following four years later.
The sisters came to Monte Verde without any pretense or agenda. They began listening to the townspeople to find out what they needed. The sisters did not want to teach in a classroom setting, as they felt called to serve the people beyond the walls of a school and developed ministries to support education in the broadest sense.
Read more about the Sisters and their work in Honduras on the Central Pacific Province website.