By Paula Day

For 23 of her 24 years as a teacher, Sister Julia Ann Walsh, a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary congregation of Immaculata, Pa., has taught first grade.

“I love them,” she said. “I asked to stay in the first grade. They’re very special. Like sponges, they’re open to everything you want to teach them.”

It was her own second-grade teacher who made a lasting impression on the young girl.

“I loved her and wanted to be like her,” Sister Julia Ann said, explaining her choice of the Immaculata, Pa., congregation as her religious family.

Sister Julia Ann, a native of Darby, Pa., celebrated the 25^th anniversary of her profession as a Religious April 1 in St. Joseph’s parish, Athens, where she has been teaching for two years. Her two sisters arrived at the last moment from Pennsylvania for the special Mass and reception, helping to make the celebration even more festive.

The congregation, as a whole, honored its jubilarians at the motherhouse May 6. Because the Athens parish was having First Communion that day, Sister Julia Ann did not return for that celebration.

The Sister, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are a teaching community and Sister Julia Ann has taught in schools in California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. During the summer months, after she earned a master’s degree in education from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, she became involved in the religious education of young people in Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.

Sister Julia Ann entered the congregation after high school, in 1961, just as the Second Vatican Council was being convened. At the time the sisters wore a long habit which has seen several modifications since then. She cited a relaxed regulation for home visits as another change in the congregation’s customs.

“Then we could visit home in time of sickness,” she said. “Now we can go home regularly.”

She is close to her two sisters; her parents are deceased. She says they have been very supportive of her, even when her commitment has meant separation.

The two Religious sisters with whom Sister Julia Ann lives “have gone out of their way to make this such a special year for me,” she said. The congregation has staffed the Athens school for 20 years. The present principal is Sister Helen Dores Gilroy, IHM.

Sister Julia Ann spoke simply of herself. “I’m just a little Darby girl who became a sister,” she said.

“I’m not the kind of person to see this as a milestone. The celebration is really more of an opportunity to reflect on how good God has been to me. I wanted to use it to draw everybody together in praise and to thank Him for all His love. In this day and age, for anyone to stay in religious life is only by the grace of God.”