Sr. Pat Dowling, Vocation Director

“A religious vocation is a gift from God, requiring a response in faith. Like a seed whose growth is dependent on the soil and diligent care, a religious vocation depends on the person who receives it, those who guide her, and the Holy Spirit who assures its growth.” MT 13:8

Growing with those seeking their calling

“I feel I’m going through the discernment process myself with each woman who discerns her call with me,” Sr. Pat reveals in describing how personally she takes the steps alongside a woman interested in joining the Bon Secours community. “I can’t help them on their journey unless I challenge myself to grow as well.”

Sr. Pat’s own vocation wasn’t apparent in high school or college. “My cousin, a Holy Child Sister, likes to take some credit for my decision,” she kids, but it was more of a gradual realization that something was lacking in her life. Armed with a degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration, she began a career in that industry. Stimulating though it was, she wanted more, and as her prayer life developed so did her attraction to a life dedicated to serving God.

She considered a teaching order, but wasn’t drawn to their ministry. As she continued to discern, she had occasion to meet the Sisters of Bon Secours at their hospital in Massachusetts. Our warmth, sense of humor, inclusiveness and humanness reached out to her. Who we are inspired her more than what we did and she felt confident we would find a use for her.

She became a Sister of Bon Secours in 1977, and went on to earn a Master’s in Health Care Administration. Her newfound skills served her well as Assistant Administrator at a new Bon Secours Nursing Care Center in St. Clair Shores, Michigan and later as Administrator at St. Joseph Nursing Care Center in Port Charlotte, Florida.

Standing with the poor and those in need

Making a dramatic departure from managing facilities, Sr. Pat spent the next three years in Riobamba, Ecuador where she and two other sisters tended to spiritual needs in a parish of barrio residents. “I was able to accompany people in ways I had never done in the past, at gravesites, in prayer, leading groups in liturgy, at birth and death. It is so humbling to stand in solidarity with the poor at the most joyful and sorrowful days of their lives.” While there Sr. Pat also brought together Ecuadorian professionals to establish a health and dental clinic.

Feeling a special affinity for impoverished and troubled women, upon her return to the States, Sr. Pat was inspired to open a Women’s Resource Center in inner city Baltimore. One day a rather wary woman dropped in, curious and lonely. She reluctantly revealed that she had HIV and Hepatitis C, and had lost her job. But little by little with a listening ear from Sr. Pat, her self-esteem returned. She stopped smoking, worked hard in becoming self-sufficient and volunteered to help others as she had been helped herself.

“She showed real courage in sharing her story, and then doing something about it,” Sr. Pat recalls. “The drop-in center fit our mission to show caring, compassion and to liberate people’s potential.”

Helping other women discover God’s path

As the current Vocation Director and co-chair of the Vocation Formation Team, Sr. Pat develops programs such as the “Come and See” and “Hospitality” weekends open to women initially considering religious life or who are already active pre-candidates. She also helps build relationships between interested women and other Sisters of Bon Secours, matching an interested woman with a “prayer partner” sister so that they pray for each other and share life experiences. Later, a “Companion Sister” accompanies the woman as she continues discerning with us and they share focused conversations about what being a Sister of Bon Secours means and how the woman understands her call.

“I always recognize the sacredness of the individual, pondering if God is calling her, discerning what is best with her and if she is growing. I’ll never forget the first recommendation I made for a woman to enter; I knew in my heart that this is God’s work and how honored I was to have accompanied her through the process.

Sr. Pat is often on the road in her role, representing the Bon Secours Sisters at job fairs, young adult programs and speaking in parishes and at universities. She challenges herself to create a vocation culture in her community and energize the sisters to remember that, to an interested woman, a personal invitation to visit them makes all the difference.

Many ways to reach out

As a child, Sr. Pat, her two sisters and three brothers grew up all over the country and overseas, moving often because her dad was in the Air Force. Nowadays she lives in a Baltimore row house with Sr. Mary Rita Nangle where they share chores, prayer and are active in community building in their neighborhood. In what spare time she has, she really likes watching movies, especially comedies and foreign films, and she likes to dip into a good novel before bedtime. She also finds playing with computer graphics stirs her creative juices.

On being a Sister of Bon Secours she sums up, “I love being able to touch so many lives. With our charism there are so many ways to reach out. I was able to do things I never would have imagined, like being a missionary in South America, running a clinic, opening a women’s center and helping women discern their path in life. For me, it’s very freeing not to have an exclusive relationship with one person such as a husband.”

For Sr. Pat, a life combining service and prayer is exciting and fulfilling.

She adds, “If a God-centered life appeals to you, listen to your heart and be open to the call. You’ll never meet a more human, down to earth, and compassionate group of women than the Sisters of Bon Secours.”