By Paula Day

“A vocation is a gift that you keep giving back to God and others.” That is how Sister Elizabeth Racko talks abut her calling as a Daughter of Charity.

The silver jubilarian is a pastoral assistant in St. Bernadette’s parish in Cedartown, where she helps Father Patrick Bishop in the Church’s outreach to the poor of Polk County. Before coming to the archdiocese a year and a half ago, she taught primary grades for 21 years in Washington, D.C., and Richmond and Portsmouth, Va.

Sister Elizabeth was born in Schenectady, N.Y., where her parents still reside. She has two brothers. Although she felt a calling to a life of service to others in the Church when she was a junior in high school, she graduated and attended the College of St. Rose in Albany, N.Y., for two years “to give myself time to think about this decision.”

Eventually she decided to become a Daughter of Charity because she was struck by “their joy and happiness that I saw. Now I know it comes from the virtue of simplicity. I didn’t know that then, I just saw it as happiness.” The fact that the congregation is involved in many different apostolates and does mission work also influenced Sister Elizabeth’s decision to become a Daughter of Charity.

The congregation’s members take a vow of service to the poor. In her ministry in Polk County, Sister Elizabeth lives out this vow in a variety of ways. She coordinates the parish outreach to the poor which includes assisting with utility and rent bills. She directs the Samaritan House food pantry and oversees a community free lunch program. In order to be of more help to the 150 to 200 Mexicans who have settled in the area, she has learned Spanish.

“I’m really happy in this work,” she said. “I enable so many people to help the poor and get joy from serving others.”

Sister Elizabeth finds a special spiritual aspect in pastoral ministry in a parish. “The privilege of being spiritually close to people striving in their faith is a beautiful experience. It’s an experience you don’t get as deeply when working with children. Being totally available is part of the charism of the Daughters of Charity and that surely is lived in this new apostolate.”

Explaining this complete availability, Sister Elizabeth pointed out that the poor who come for assistance do not realize that a sister has a community life. Whereas a Religious teaching in a school setting has a much more regular schedule, one who works as a pastoral minister requires an adaptable time schedule.

“The poor’s needs cannot wait,” she added. “For example, somebody being evicted yesterday – Sunday – someone needing their amnesty papers, my availability is important to them.”

Sister Elizabeth lives with four other Daughters of Charity in Rome, in adjacent Floyd County. As sister servant of the group, she accepts the responsibility of ministering to them in a special way.

Sister Kathleen Dauses, who lives with Sister Elizabeth, enlarged upon this: “She is a very understanding listener. She would drop anything she’s doing to help. She’s a total giver of her time and talents – very attentive to individual needs and abounding with energy and enthusiasm. St. Vincent (the founder of the Daughters of Charity) says the sister servant should be the ‘spiritual animator’ – she truly is that to us. She takes that role seriously and personally. She is a delight to live with.”

In January the Cedartown parish helped Sister Elizabeth celebrate her jubilee with a special Mass of Thanksgiving at which her parents and immediate superior in her area of ministry were present. Of her 25 years as a woman religious she says, “It has brought out of me many capabilities I never knew I had. I knew who I was and wanted to give that, but I didn’t realize all my capabilities. What has each day been like? There were times of difficulty – the difficulty has been in doubting my capabilities, not doubting my vocation.”

“I feel very happy to be in this archdiocese. I have experienced the outreach of love from the sisters and people. I feel there are many more religious vocations existing within the young people of the archdiocese. Maybe they feel afraid to pursue this calling, but association with Church apostolates would give them an understanding that a way of life of devotion is possible with God and faith. It is very rewarding.”