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Kane Native Gave It All Up to Serve God Daily |
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Written by Publisher
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Saturday, 21 November 2009 |
Sister Judith of the Eucharist gave up her material possessions to serve
god at a convent
Growing up in the small town of Kane has influenced many career choices
throughout a Kane native’s life.
Sister Dr. Judith Jacobus is now a member of St. Ann’s Novitiate, a
convent. She left her own medical practice, because she said she knew that
her God was calling for her to serve him and the church through a lifetime
commitment.
Jacobus played the organ at the St. Callistus Church for two morning
masses, three times a week before going to school. During the 10 or 15
minutes of quiet time between masses, Jacobus said she had realized her
god was calling her to work as a full-time instrument, living and sending
his message.
“I had known since I was about fifteen that God was calling me to be a
sister.” Jacobus said. “I’d explored several communities of sisters over a
period of nearly three decades, always enjoying my time with them, but
never able to picture myself as one of them.”
Jacobus said that changed when she met with the Little Sisters of the
Poor. They care for poor, elderly people in their own homes with a “family
spirit.” Jacobus said that after experiencing the group’s prayer life and
community life, she came realize that she finally found the community she
was being called to spend her life with.
Jacobus learned about the Little Sisters of the Poor while reading an
article in the Wall Street Journal during December 2005. She recalled that
the Little Sisters of the Poor were an order that she had never heard of,
and she said she was intrigued.
The article discussed sisters in the Pittsburgh community. The Little
Sisters of the Poor are an international order that care for poor elderly
people worldwide. The order does not accept endowments as a continuous
income source.
“For one who was just developing a surface interest in investments, I was
mystified by this particular aspect of their ‘financial plan,’” Jacobus
said. “ I didn’t immediately feel attracted to become one of them.”
Jacobus continued to research the order for two months before arranging to
meet with one of the sisters in Pittsburgh. She spent time for a couple of
months with the sisters and residents in the Pittsburgh home.
“I was attracted to the Little Sisters of the Poor more than any of the
other congregations of sisters I’d visited, primarily because of the
balance I saw in their prayer, community, and apostolic life,” Jacobus
said.
Jacobus also said she found their practice of caring for the poor and
elderly appealing. She especially liked the idea that they resided in the
same building as the residents that they cared for. She also knew that her
physician background could be used with the clients.
“I realized that my background as a physician could be utilized directly
if and when necessary, and that regardless of what I was eventually asked
to do with or for the residents, my past experience would always play a
role in how I
approached that task,” Jacobus said.
She is currently located at St. Ann’s Novitiate in Queens, N.Y. In order
to become a Little Sister of the Poor, one must undergo several years of
preparation before taking vows of chastity, poverty, obedience and
hospitality. Jacobus has been involved in the order for two years. For
the first eight months, one is considered as a postulate in order to show
that she is sincere in her commitment.
Jacobus spent her first five months in Washington D.C., where she lived
with sisters introducing her into their way of life and prayer. The last
three months Jacobus was considered a postulate she was in Queens at the
novitiate. The residents do not live in the same building there, but they
are located on the same grounds.
Jacobus said that the last three months of a postulate and the two years
at the novitiate are “meant to be a time of separation from the world and
to plunge deeply into our prayer which will be our solid foundation for
the rest of our lives.” She compared this time to the preparation of
marriage; she said we spend this time with Jesus, as they feel he is
calling them to be his bride.
They also study scripture, the church’s and congregation’s history,
hospitality, their rule of life and French, since the international
community began in France and if the official language of the
congregation. She also still gets to play the organ. All sisters must
learn to play the organ because their prayers are typically chanted in the
home with organ accompaniment. Jacobus hopes to profess her first vows
next summer.
All sisters must spend a year at the motherhouse in France before their
perpetual vows, which are the final vows, can be made. Jacobus does not
plan on coming home for a several more years until she leaves for France,
because she has entered the congregation two years ago and has not visited
Kane at all during that time.
Her family has gotten to visit her twice since she has been in Queens.
Each time they stayed for several days. A couple of times her siblings
have visited while they were in New York or the D.C. area and were allowed
to visit for a couple of hours. Once Jacobus gets professed as a Little
Sister of the Poor, she can look forward to a visit home once every three
years.
“Growing up in a small town allowed me personal contact with my physicians
- the late Drs. Charles and Betty Cleland, and it was that contact that
influenced me to study medicine,” Jacobus said. “Witnessing the compassion
with which Dr. Bruno Sicher treated my late father confirmed in me the
choice to emulate him in caring for my own patients.”
Sister Jacobus graduated from Kane Area High School. When she finished
high school she attended Gannon University in Erie, where she received a
bachelor’s degree in biology. She went onto complete medical school at
Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, which is now part of Drexel
University. The program was a joint program between Gannon and Hahnemann,
which was created to increase the number of family physicians practicing
in northwest Pa.
Jacobus stayed in Altoona, where she had her own practice, for 20 years.
She said she had wonderful patients and a dedicated, competent staff as
well as super medical associates including physicians and physician
assistants. But she left all that behind to follow the path she feels her
God has chosen for her.
While she was in Altoona, she was very involved with the church in various
ways. She worked on the diocesan level serving on the bishop’s Commission
for Life and Justice for many years, and she was involved in the Annual
Catholic Appeal process.
In the community, she volunteered for Operation Safety Net, which is a
hospital-sponsored, free clinic for uninsured individuals. She said that
one of her favorite volunteer activities was being a big sister in the Big
Brothers/Big Sisters program for 12 years.
She also served on several boards such as; the Academy of Sacred Music,
which provides training in vocal and instrumental music of all genres for
people who want to provide music support in their faith community, St.
Leonard’s Home, which is a personal care home for the elderly, and the
Susquehanna Rural Free Clinic, which is sponsored by the Community of
Anawim in Frenchville, Pa.
Jacobus has also visited inmates in the Blair County Prison, as a member
of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. She is still a member of the American
Academy of Family Physicians in an inactive status so that she can still
have access to continuing medical education information material on-line.
Jacobus has had many influences throughout her life. Teachers that she
accredits some influence to is Mr. Bob Boyer and Mr. Tom Finnefrock, who
she said gave her a great foundation in problem solving and taught he to
ask questions until she understood a concept.
Her late Aunt Pauline Jacobus was influential in instilling a love for
music. Her father, the late Paul Jacobus, a local car salesman, taught
her to be generous with her time, as he was with the five kids, their
friends and the community. He mother, Greta Jacobus, a retired Kane High
English teacher, still lives in Kane and taught Jacobus commitment and
flexibility.
She also said she loved the close friendships she was able to make and
maintain in a small town, which allows that one privilege. She recalls
that positive peer pressure kept her out of trouble, like her lifelong
friendship with Anne (Bamat) Mitchell. Their mother’s we also friends and
kept tabs on the girls.
“Success is giving oneself wholeheartedly to the will of God,” Jacobus
said. “One of our speakers on prayer, Archabbot Lambert Reilly, OSB, said
that ‘success in prayer is not in succeeding, but in not giving up
trying.’”
“There is no greater peace than in knowing that one is doing the will of
God,” Jacobus said.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 December 2009 )
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