Lifetime as nun leaves her open to change

Airplanes were invented just two years before she was born; the space shuttle, only five years before her retirement.

But at 93, Sister Mary Naomi Amrhein, CSJ, still declares herself ready for whatever new experiences come her way.

"They say that if you don't change, you stagnate," she told The Evangelist, gesturing at a book on her desk titled, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff -- And It's All Small Stuff!"

"It's like that," she said. "The changes in religious life have been just fascinating, but I've loved every one of them."

Jubilee

This weekend, Sister Naomi will celebrate her 75th anniversary as a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Three dozen other sisters are also marking their jubilees during ceremonies at the St. Joseph Provincial House in Latham.

Although she admitted offhandedly to having leukemia, Sister Naomi was more concerned with the cold that she feared might keep her from attending the festivities. She had a word with her "boss" about it.

"I'm ready any time the Lord calls me to step out and step up," she explained, "but not until after Saturday!"

First steps

It was another wintry day three-quarters of a century ago when the petite, spunky Kathryn Ruth Amrhein took her first vows as a woman religious. A native of Utica, Sister Naomi had known she was going to enter the convent since a visiting sister came into her grade-school class. "How many of you want to be sisters?" the nun asked the girls.

"And my hand went up," Sister Naomi remembered. "I also always knew I wanted to be a teacher; I used to teach my dolls."

After she graduated from high school at 16, however, she delayed entering the convent because her father begged her to take some time to "see the world."

A year and a half later, he told her, "You know, you don't have to go out every night to prove you know what the world is about!"

"I still want to go into the convent," she told him. With pride in her decision, he replied: "Then make a go of it."

Adventure begins

Soon, she was off on the train from Utica to Albany, then from Albany to Troy. Since three of the sisters in her class at the convent were named Ruth, she took her name in honor of the mother-in-law of the biblical Ruth, who traveled with her daughter-in-law to Bethlehem. Today, her room at St. Joseph's Provincial House is sprinkled with cards, samplers and signs about that first Naomi.

As she'd hoped, the second Naomi became a teacher, serving in Troy, Saratoga Springs, Watervliet and Catskill, among other assignments. One of her favorite teaching stints was at the former St. Joseph's Infant Home in Troy: "I loved the children."

Later, she moved up to the high-school level, teaching math and French at Catholic Central High in Troy. She remembers her students as "very mature," but added that today's teenagers have changed a bit: "I don't think I'd like teaching now, but I did then!"

Changing world

As Sister Naomi's teaching assignments changed, so did the world. She recalled the switch from oil lamps to gas lights to electricity, and the growing popularity of cars.

"There were so many things we didn't have, and now we take them all for granted," she said.

Religious life was changing as well. Sister Naomi joked that while she enjoyed wearing a full habit because "you didn't have to worry about what you were going to wear," she also welcomed the opportunity to wear street clothes when the time came.

As the women religious shed their habits in favor of dresses and skirts, Sister Naomi said, the schoolchildren would rush to their classrooms every Monday morning "and see who'd changed." Even her father had a word on the subject. When she visited him in the hospital in civilian dress, he exclaimed, "You look like a million dollars!"

Vows

Today, Sister Naomi believes that even the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience that women religious take are interpreted differently than when she entered the convent.

"Instead of talking about poverty, we talk about simplicity of life: You shouldn't have things you don't need," she explained.

She has been most pleased to have a monthly allowance to spend on charitable causes, personal needs and gifts. While her typical Christmas gifts were once holy cards, "now, we can give anything we want -- if we save for it," she said.

On Sister Naomi's wing of the Provincial House, the sisters pitch in part of their allowance each month to support a charity of their choice. This year's recipient is the food pantry at St. Patrick's parish in Troy.

In terms of chastity, Sister Naomi remembered that women religious were once expected to be "stand-offish." Today, she said, "We're freer to show affection for people."

New generation

Sister Naomi both envies and feels sorry for the latest generation of sisters.

"I think anyone who enters the community now is very brave," she stated. "We went from a home where you obeyed your father and mother to a community where you kept on obeying. We used to say we shunned the world. Now, we don't shun it -- we live in it."

Still, she added, "I never had to apply for a job. I don't know how I would have reacted to that."

Commitment

One thing that hasn't changed is what Sister Naomi calls the "perpetual commitment" to her vows as a Sister of St. Joseph. She is saddened that for many prospective candidates to religious life, the idea of devoting one's entire life to being a woman religious is off-putting.

"It's so easy for them not to be committed," she mused. "There's a frightening sense that `it's going to be forever.' Well, why not?"

For Sister Naomi, "forever" has meant nearly eight decades of ministry. Her later assignments included serving as an administrator in the Utica, Rome and Syracuse areas in addition to several years as superior at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, where she was in charge of 65 sisters.

In the years before her retirement, she went back to Utica to work as a library aide, and care for her ailing father and two of her three brothers, who eventually passed away.

Waiting for God

Sister Naomi retired in 1986 to the Provincial House, which she firmly calls "holy ground. We're here waiting for God to decide whether it's time for us to go to heaven or not."

However, the retiree hasn't spent her time in a rocking chair. Until last year, she worked in the building's library and is still one of its best customers. In addition to spiritual books, tapes and crossword puzzles, she keeps up with Time magazine each week.

She is also a Mary Higgins Clark fan. "I always keep a novel on hand," she said. "I have a bad habit of liking to read while I eat. I like mystery stories and historical books."

Solitaire and a pinochle club fill her spare time. "I played [solitaire] once on a computer," she admitted. "I'm not the computer age. They fascinate me, but I'm in awe of them!"

Reflections

Her 75th jubilee has given Sister Naomi pause to think about the future -- her own and her order's.

"We have marvelous women in this community," she told The Evangelist. "I think there may be changes, but the Holy Spirit has always guided us in everything we've done so far, and He's not going to let us down. We're going to be around -- maybe not in such large numbers, but we're going to be around."

As for her own prospects, Sister Naomi has her eyes on heaven. "I have three thoughts about heaven," she said with a smile. "I've never driven, so in heaven, I'm going to drive a pink cloud. I've never been able to carry a tune very well, so I'm going to sing, regardless of what other people like. And I'm never going to have to bother about my hair!"

Aside from that wish, she is unconcerned about her welfare. "I've accepted all the changes that have come along, and they've all been good," she said. "When you can live to be 93 years old, you know they must have treated you pretty well!"

(03-12-98) [[In-content Ad]]