CATHOLIC SISTERS WEEK

The Evangelist continues its interview series with Sister Teresa Grace Baillargeon, CR, who has served as vocation director of the Sisters of the Resurrection New York Province for the last 21 years. Staff Writer Franchesca Caputo talks with Sister Teresa about her upbringing, love of sports and much more. Catholic Voices features a wide range of men and women in the Diocese and will appear periodically in the paper and online.

TE: Tell me about your upbringing? 

ST: I was brought up as a cradle Catholic. I grew up in New Hampshire and there are six siblings; I have four brothers and one sister. I fall at number five in the group of six and we had a good Catholic upbringing. First and second grade (I went to) Catholic school, and then the school closed, and it was public schools from there on in. I grew up on Chapel Street, that’s kind of funny, right? My name is Grace, and if you take the word Teresa and mix up the letters, it spells Easter, and I’m a Sister of the Resurrection. Who could’ve planned that?

TE: What was it like being a part of a big family?

ST: It was pretty cool. We had one bathroom, two bedrooms; one for the girls and one for the boys. Sometimes it was frustrating because you had to do a lot of sharing and I didn’t always get my way, but in the end I think it was cool because you had friends, built-in friends, especially with the larger family with cousins. My mother is one of 14, my dad is one of 8, and just on my mother’s side I have 54 first-cousins. So we had family reunions every year and being in a big family was just a tremendous gift. And I think as far as religious life, it really helped me to live with other people. There was that sharing of the bathroom; I was sitting at a table with more than just one person. When it was time for the meal, I ate what I was served. You know, not to say you can’t have variety, but I learned sacrifice. I learned what it was to sacrifice living in a large family, that’s for sure. 

TE: Sounds like it. Can you remember your first ­religious memory? 

ST: My first religious memory truly was making First Holy Communion. I was 7 years old and I received Holy Communion in May, Mother’s Day, 1971. Receiving Holy Communion was very special and my family made it very special. There was the ceremony itself, and we had sisters in the second grade and they taught us how special it was to receive Jesus. I can remember feeling Jesus’ love for me. Then my family made it special because we had a gathering of family and friends afterwards, so there was a little party, which I think a 7-year-old is pretty excited about.

TE: Did you always want to be a sister growing up?

ST: I wanted to be a sister from when I was 12 years old. I wrote to Dear Abby when I was 12. I asked her what I should do, like was it normal for someone like me to want to be a sister? And she never answered my letter, so I was very disappointed because if she wasn’t going to tell me, who was? So I had the feeling of wanting to be a sister off and on for many years. I had an uncle who was a priest (Father Albert Baillargeon), he has since passed away, but he left a good impression on me because he was pretty normal and down to earth, and he often visited us. He was my ­father’s brother. 

TE: What were your ­experiences like before you got involved with the Sisters of the Resurrection?

ST: I did go to the University of New Hampshire. I got an associate’s degree in accounting and I worked; I did part-time college and I worked for an engineering firm as a secretary. I was getting a lot of experience with working with computers and office equipment and answering the telephones. I was a real extrovert, so it was a fun kind of job to have. After getting my associate’s degree, I was dating and I actually became very serious about someone. Our paths were kind of pointing toward marriage, but the more we talked about getting married, the more I felt called to religious life. I told him it’s the uncanniest thing, the more we talk about children and weddings and futures and all this together, I feel more called in a desire to become a religious sister. So, I think it was God saying, “You’re looking at two very good things but I have something I really want you to do.”

TE: Even when you began working, the call to religious life never left?

ST: I went to work for the VA (The Veterans Administration Medical Center) in Manchester, N.H., and I was chief of the accounting department. I did that for three years. I had a great car, a great apartment, a nice salary, super friends; I went out on Friday nights and enjoyed myself. I had a great life, but toward the end of those three years I was realizing there was something missing. There was an emptiness. A job opportunity came up within the VA. I left New Hampshire, and in January 1990, I lived in Albany. As I left New Hampshire, I gave God an ultimatum. I said, “I need you to leave me alone for a year,” and God did. Fifty-three weeks later, I was back in New Hampshire and my brother said to me, “Do you still think about being a sister?” and I said, “I don’t know,” and he said, “I think you’d make a good one.” Now that was the first time that I ever heard somebody in my immediate family say words of affirmation. So, of course, I said, “Wow, maybe this is God talking.” So talk about voices, right?

TE: How did your parents react to your decision to become a sister?

ST: Dad was supportive, but he said, “If you’re going to do this, you’ve got to stop being the center of attention.” When I asked him about that, he said, “Well, you’re not the center of attention, God is.” I liked to be the center of attention, he read me well. That was dad’s take on it, so that was a little bit of self-knowledge I had to grow into. Then with my mom, she was rather quiet at first, but one evening watching television, she softly said to me, “Do you have to change your name?” Now, my given name when I was born was Teresa Grace. I said, “No, I don’t have to change my name,” and she’s like, “Good.” It was like a sigh of relief. It was so sweet; I think she cried when she said that to me. Some communities do ask that you change your name and some do not. As Sisters of the Resurrection, we look at keeping your baptismal name because the religious vows are an extension of your baptismal promises. 

TE: What drew you into the Sisters of Resurrection?

ST: I think when I first met the Sisters of the Resurrection, there were a couple of things. First I saw a group of women who were joyful, happy, very loving, but also down to earth and funny; down to earth was probably the key. I could see myself in this group. When I asked myself could I be here in five, 10, 15, 20, 40 years from now, the answer was yes. And the other piece of that was that I felt at home. It’s a really strange feeling, one that is almost hard to put into words, but when I would come to visit I didn’t want to leave. It took a little bit, but after six months of visiting I was like, “I don’t want to go home I want to stay here,” or “Do I have to leave at 2 o’clock? Can’t I stay until supper?” I didn’t want to go home.

TE: How did the Called by Name retreat influence your discernment process?

ST: I came back to Albany after that long weekend home in New Hampshire and went to see my parish priest at St. James, which is now St. Francis of Assisi in Albany, and Father (Dominic Ingemie) told me about the Called by Name program (which shows people how to begin an active prayer life). I met with Sister Rosemary (Cuneo), CR, who agreed to meet with me in Castleton, because I told her, not that I felt attracted to the Sisters of the Resurrection, but I needed someone to teach me how to pray, because I didn’t feel I had a personal relationship with Jesus. And if I was going to be a sister, I needed to know who was calling me and how I could reach out to this one who was calling me. 

TE: What was the process like when you were learning how to pray? 

ST: I started slow. I already knew my Hail Mary, my Our Father, but the actual prayer that brought me into a relationship with God and Jesus — I started with the psalms — the very first psalm that I really prayed was Psalm 63 and Psalm 139. So Psalm 63 is “O God, you are my God, for you I long, for you my soul thirsts.” So it’s a psalm of longing and desire. And Psalm 139 is “The Lord knows everything about me, and he still desires me; You know when I sit, you know when I stand, you know everything there is to know about me.” Those were the two psalms I started to pray to create this relationship with God and then I worked my way into the New Testament, to pray with Jesus. What I focused on was the call-and-response readings and I put myself in those readings, because that’s part of prayer, it’s using your imagination (hearing Jesus say): “Teresa, come down from the tree, I plan to stay at your house today,” and it’s like, “Wow! Me?” My gradual in with Jesus was the call and response to Jesus.

TE: Your ministry is centered around business ­administration and accounting in both health care and ­education. Could you talk about that?

ST: My first ministry was at Resurrection Nursing Home, it was long-term care, (and I did) payroll, accounting, billing, secretarial work, so administrative-type duties. In education, I always did accounting, billing, invoicing, bank reconciliations. I was a finance manager at a school. And currently at the Pastoral Center, in the Finance Office, I am working as a parish bookkeeping support specialist, and what that means is that I help to support the 126 parishes in the Diocese of Albany. I support them in their work and in their computer work with PDS (Parish Data Systems) software. 
My best job I’ve ever held was jayvee softball coach at a high school. I did that for five years (2007-12), and we actually won a championship in my last year. I wore my habit, white sneakers and it was great. And sometimes the umpires would tip their hats at me.

TE: That’s amazing. What school was that at?

ST: It was at Maria Regina High School in Hartsdale. I absolutely loved it. I still keep in touch with the alums — on Facebook, I’m friends with them — and they’ve all had babies and it’s fun. I was a big softball player when I was in high school and junior high; softball and baseball are my passions. I’m a huge Red Sox fan. I’ve been to a couple of games between the Yankees and Red Sox. I have a Red Sox jersey with my name across the shoulders that says “Sister T” that my JV team gave me as a gift. I’ve been to Fenway Park once to see the Yankees vs. the Red Sox and the Red Sox won. I went with a friend of mine; somebody bought us tickets and paid for our train tickets, it was fantastic. 

TE: Currently you are the vocation director of the Sisters of the Resurrection. what do you like most about being in that position?

ST: The thing I love most about being vocation director is sharing my passion and my story with other women and helping to walk with them in this journey of discernment. Every vocation is from God and I don’t try to sell religious life, but I try to encourage someone to journey with God, to discover what God has in mind for them. So that’s the best part. It’s a privilege to be able to journey with a woman who trusts me. It’s a privilege to be able to walk with them in the discernment process. We’ve had Zoom calls, we’ve had inquiries within our website, I get involved with their lives. 

TE: Do you have a life ­philosophy? 

ST: My life philosophy I take from Psalm 40:9: “To do your will, O my God, is my delight.” I think no matter what we do, if it’s in line with God’s will and God’s desire, we can’t go wrong. And for that we need to listen, and I don’t always do that well, admittedly. So I need to bring myself back to that phrase often. 

For more information, visit resurrectionsisters.org.