November 5, 2024 at 10:35 a.m.
A JOYFUL JUBILEE
Sister Miriam Ann Thompson, PBVM, is having a very joyful year.
On Oct. 12, Sister Miriam Ann celebrated a special milestone: her golden jubilee, marking 50 years with the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The celebration Mass was held at her home chapel in the St. Coleman’s Presentation Convent in Watervliet and was attended by friends and family from across the United States.
One of eight siblings, her sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews came from Maryland, Virginia, and Missouri to celebrate the special day.
“I’m getting chills thinking everyone did that for me,” Sister Miriam Ann told The Evangelist.
Sister Miriam Ann even chose a theme for the day: joy. She designed and drew the artwork used on the cover of her Mass invitations — something she is not a stranger to; she drew cards for all her friends and family that included elements of the Holy Spirit, the Eucharist and Holy Mother. When you have all three, she said, you have joy.
“Happiness comes and goes, but joy is deep inside, even in those dark, challenging moments,” she said. “Because we all have moments of unhappiness, but joy is being rooted in the Lord Jesus.”
As National Vocation Awareness Week nears its end on Nov. 9, Sister Miriam Ann is just getting started on her yearlong celebration of her vocation, an experience that she says has brought her great joy.
“It’s a jubilee year,” she said. “And recalling the joys, the struggles, when I’m called to do something and I don’t want to do it, it’s scary, it’s hard, but if I just take the time and know God’s going to be with me. God’s gotten me through everything.”
A native of Maryland, Sister Miriam Ann grew up with her own little community; living in a house with 10 people will make for that kind of closeness. But there was plenty of fun outside the home too, a busy neighborhood full of kids to play with and a creek just down the road for exploring the outdoors.
Sister Miriam Ann said the seed for her vocation was planted during her Catholic education, which she attended from first to sixth grade. In her bedroom is an autobiography she wrote in the fourth grade, saying when she grows up, she wants to be a nun in an orphanage.
“That’s kind of scary,” she laughed.
But the desire to connect deeper with her faith didn’t happen until later. When she was 15, her brother died. It was one of her biggest struggles to overcome and it made her examine what life and loss were all about.
“It was the whole, ‘What’s happening? What is the whole purpose of life?’ And it was that (question): ‘Why are you created?’ ” she thought. The answer she found was to turn to God.
Her brother’s death also taught her that joy, in times of heartache, is something one has to work for.
“Joy is a choice,” she said. “You have to choose (joy). As I’ve gotten older and experienced more, life is not always going the way I expected it. There’s the saying have a good day, and then there’s a saying make it a good day. And I like that. That’s your choice. Joy, to me, is a choice that you work on. And yes, I have to remind myself each day and look for it throughout the struggles and challenges, but look at my cover: I have the Blessed Mother, the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit. Those are things that fulfill my purpose.”
In high school, Sister Miriam Ann worked at Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home in Hyattsville, Md., run by the Daughters of Charity. After graduating, she continued to volunteer there for her own enjoyment. Working with children was something she always loved, and when she started to consider entering religious life seriously, she knew she wanted to continue that.
“I was looking for a habit and I was looking to work with children,” she said.
She read about the Sisters of the Presentation in a book that listed a collection of religious orders. Sister Miriam Ann sent a few letters out to various convents. When the Presentation sisters invited her to visit Watervliet, she told herself she would go but not get too excited.
“I promised myself I’d make no commitment when I came because you’re excited; you’re wrapped up in it,” she said. But when she got home, she looked at the booklet of the sisters she was given and said: “I’m going to be one of these.”
Sister Miriam Ann entered on Sept. 1, 1974. She started working in the St. Coleman’s Day Care Center and Early Childhood Program. She then moved to Cobb Memorial School in Altamont (now closed), where she lived in-house and took care of residential students with mental disabilities.
She felt like a mother to the students and found it hard to leave when she was called to the classroom to teach at St. Helen’s School in Schenectady (now St. Kateri Tekakwitha). But listening to God’s call served her again, as she found she loved teaching.
Sister Miriam Ann taught on and off at St. Helen’s until 1997, when she returned to Cobb Memorial School. In 2005, Sister Miriam Ann came back to St. Coleman’s and worked with children in their educational and autistic programs until 2022.
Sister Miriam Ann hasn’t slowed down since. She still helps out with the students, serving them lunch in the dining room. She gets to talk with the kids, and many of them help her clean up when they’re done.
“I can’t see my life without children,” she said. “We don’t retire, the sisters; we just keep going.”
She is also the designated “Uber” driver of the community, helping the sisters get to doctor’s appointments or other personal visits. She teaches Faith Formation at St. Ambrose on Sundays and volunteers at St. Mary’s Corner on Tuesdays.
And even with her busy schedule, Sister Miriam Ann knows there’s still more to be done in her vocation — and more joy to be found from it.
“I think the greatest joy is to stop and listen to what God’s asking you to do,” she said. “He could take you to a direction you never thought of, but you could find it very fulfilling. We (could) get up in the morning and say, ‘I’m going to do this,’ or wake up and say, ‘God, what do you want me to do today?’ It’s hard to remember because you have all these responsibilities, but (ask), ‘What do you want me to do today?’ ”
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