|
By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer
ATLANTA—Sister Maureen Gunning, MM, still speaks with the
soft Southern drawl she inherited from her family’s deeply rooted Georgia
heritage.
Of course, it’s not often that she gets to use it. It’s
rare to never when strolling the open-air markets of the Taiwanese neighborhood
where she lives that she addresses the merchants as “y’all.” And
it’s not the statistics of the 1995 World Series’ Braves or the
virtues of choosing between sweet or unsweet iced tea that the Maryknoll
sister, who is celebrating her golden jubilee this year, hopes the people of
Taiwan gain from her presence in their country.
Living in community with three other Maryknoll sisters in a
neighborhood where she said there “must be 10 or 12 temples within three
or four blocks” and very few Catholics, Sister Gunning’s goal is to
learn more about the people and their culture and religion while at the same
time showing them a face of Catholicism.
Sister Gunning, 70, shares the neighborhood with Taoist priests,
humble shop owners, even a Buddhist nunnery—a far cry from the Buckhead
neighborhood where she was raised.
Sister Gunning, from a family of five girls and two boys, entered
Christ the King School, Atlanta, in the middle of the third grade after
attending St. Anthony’s School in the West End for two years.
“When we moved, one of the priorities that mother and daddy
had was finding a house near church and something near school,” she said.
All five girls attended the now-closed Christ the King High
School, while the two boys went to Marist.
It was during her high school years that the impressionable
Maureen first learned of the Maryknoll order.
“I was reading a book about a Maryknoll priest,” she
said, adding that she was drawn to the order’s missionary life. “That
was what attracted me right away. It hit me that this is what I wanted to do.
The first thing I said was ‘I guess I better find out if there are
Maryknoll sisters.’”
Indeed, and to her delight, the Maryknoll community was made up of
both priests and sisters. She wrote to the order her senior year of high
school, and received a reply encouraging her to gain experience in the world
first before joining the convent immediately out of high school.
She went to work for an insurance underwriter with one of her
sisters for a year and a half. Throughout her work, she never lost sight of
Maryknoll.
“That was my goal,” she said. “I really didn’t
change that at all.”
She entered the novitiate in 1951 in Valley Park, Mo. In 1953, she
made her first vows at the order’s centerhouse in New York. She earned a
bachelor’s degree in education from Maryknoll Teachers College in 1958.
Her first assignment was as a teacher in a Japanese school in Los
Angeles. The young sister said that she was moved by the strong family bonds
that kept the third-generation Japanese families together.
“It was really my first experience of another culture,”
she said. “I liked it very much.”
After working at the school for six years, Sister Gunning was sent
to Taiwan. Thirty-five years later, Sister Gunning now speaks nearly fluent
Mandarin and Taiwanese.
In Taiwan, she first ministered in a dormitory for college women.
During this time she taught English at two different schools. She then spent 12
years working with and ministering to factory workers.
Since then, she has been in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ministering in a
modest neighborhood there. The city is a port, she said, and the second largest
city in Taiwan, which she calls a “very, very modern country.”
Kaohsiung, she said, is a “bit old-fashioned” with
shopkeepers lining the street. There is a small supermarket, several barber
shops and hairdressers, a video rental store, a dentist, a post office and
other establishments you’d expect to find in small-town America.
The sisters usually begin the day by going to the open market,
where they are friendly with the merchants and owners. Though Sister Gunning
has been in the neighborhood for several years, she said that people are often
curious about her faith and why she wanted to leave America.
“The people are inquisitive, but they are very welcoming and
extremely hospitable,” she said. “The people are gracious. They look
on America as a place of success and are sometimes surprised that I would want
to be (in Taiwan).”
Sister Gunning is often reminded of the welcoming spirit of the
people of Taiwan. She recalled a story in which a woman named Jenny, who sells
and makes noodles in the open market, invited her and her fellow sisters to a
Chinese New Year celebration in her home. As the sisters do not have a car and
travel by motorbike, Jenny sent someone to pick them up and bring them to her
house. The group, including five other people, sat around Jenny’s modest
home with the noodle machine churning. The only Christians in the room were the
three sisters.
“Jenny was picking people with no family and bringing them to
her home for this important celebration. It was a magical moment, where we all
just shared what we had,” she said. “To me, it was just graciousness
personified.”
Sister Gunning reflected on this experience and her own ministry.
“I feel like what I’m doing in my life is building the kingdom. That
is my job. To me, Jenny epitomized what I am doing there. It gave me the
feeling of kingdom.”
The sisters minister each day in the sub-tropical climate, where
the temperature often climbs above 100 degrees. They talk to the people in the
community and visit those who are ill. In the evenings, the sisters share a
meal together and make time for prayer. On Sundays they take a 20-minute
motorbike ride to Our Lady of Victory Parish.
“That’s what holds us together,” Sister Gunning
said of her prayer life. “It keeps the goal in front of us and that’s
our relationship with God. Prayer brings you back to that and brings stability
to your life. That is the important part of the day.”
Recently Sister Gunning made the almost 20-hour journey back to
America. She celebrated 50 years as a Maryknoll with her fellow sisters at the
order’s center in Ossining, N.Y., on June 11. She then made the trip back
to her roots to celebrate a special Mass with her family June 23 at her home
parish of the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta.
It had been three years since Sister Gunning had been home. Over
80 people attended the festive celebration, which included three generations of
Gunnings.
Barbara Johansen is eager to offer praise for her sister, who is
just a year older than she is.
“She is so fun, just a good person. To me, she just
personifies eloquent simplicity,” Johansen said. “She has just
blossomed into who she needs to be. She’s just a wonderful person.”
Johansen said that she was surprised when her sister, with whom
she often double-dated, decided to join the Maryknoll order.
“I had no idea she was interested, but she just moved about
very quietly and did her thing,” she said. “That’s just how
she’s always been. At home, when things need to be done, they just all of
a sudden are done. She never says a word.”
Johansen was able to visit her sister in Taiwan in 1999 and was
touched by the neighborhood and especially the other Maryknoll sisters.
“They are down to earth, full of life, full of joy—just
simple, wonderful people,” she said.
Johansen, who still lives close to the Cathedral, said that she
was overjoyed to have her sister visiting.
“She was with me for three weeks,” she said. “I
almost feel like I can’t live when she leaves.”
Sister Gunning credits her upbringing and her parents, the late
Gladys and George Gunning, for her vocation.
“My family has always been very supportive of me,”
Sister Gunning said. “I can remember from way back my mother and daddy
always told us that if one of us were to become a Religious, they would
consider it an honor. I always had that in the back of my mind.”
Though Sister Gunning enjoys the culture, people and food of
Taiwan, it wasn’t noodles that were served at the jubilarian’s
celebration. Only one place could satisfy the cravings of a true Southerner who
only returns home every few years. Partygoers were more than happy to dine on
the “naked dogs,” burgers and onion rings of the Varsity. |
