†Sister Monica Meyer, OP

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I dedicated you . . .” (Jer: 1:5)

“I left a community to join a community,” said Sister Monica Meyer, who grew up in a large “yours, mine, and ours” family. Her father, John, a native of Germany and a widower with eight children, married Apolonia, a widow from Austria, with four children, and together they had six more, of whom Josephine was the second youngest. She was born September 22, 1928, on their 80-acre farm near St. Charles, Michigan.

Josephine grew up in this merged family with seventeen brothers and sisters playing outdoors and enjoying a life close to nature amidst animals, crickets, and grasshoppers. She called herself a country girl at heart and never lost her love of the soil and the beauty of nature.

At her Baptism, a Dominican Sister in the parish predicted that the child would become a Dominican. Her mother, a prayerful and devout woman, was thrilled to think of the possibility and prayed that it would come true. Josephine often said that her mother prayed her into the convent.

Her early years of education were in a one-room country schoolhouse with catechism class on the weekends. Then she attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help High School in Chesaning where the Dominican Sisters from Grand Rapids taught. She felt called to be a Sister at an early age, but high school brought with it the enticing allurements of dating and dancing. Eventually, she stopped struggling with her call, and Sisters Perpetua Maria, John Dominic, and Joseph Ann helped her take extra classes to graduate after her junior year. Two weeks later, on June 17, 1946, she entered Marywood as a postulant at the age of 17. The following March, on the Feast of St. Joseph, Josephine was received into the congregation and given the name Sister Mary Monica. One year later she made her first profession.

Sister Monica then began a life of varied teaching ministries: primary teacher, elementary school principal, Workshop Way consultant, Director of Religious Education, and Pastoral Minister. She gained competency through studies: B.A. from Aquinas College, 1964; M.A. in Elementary Administration and Supervision from Western Michigan University, 1971; license in Workshop Way, Xavier University; certificates in Pastoral Studies, Loyola University, New Orleans, and Clinical Pastoral Orientation at the Southern Baptist Hospital, New Orleans.

Her teaching included preschool, kindergarten, elementary grades and principal in schools throughout Michigan. At Xavier University, she taught pre-K classes and collaborated with Sister Grace Pelon, foundress of Workshop Way, in writing two handbooks for teachers. She was also religious education director for the International Shrine of St. Jude for three years. In that capacity, she traveled to more than a dozen states.

Returning to Michigan in 1989, Sister Monica served as pastoral minister for St. Paul Parish, Owosso, and then principal at St. Joseph School, East Tawas. Her achievement in this capacity is attested in a letter from a colleague: “Sister Monica has accomplished an inexplicable unity and cohesiveness in our school that was not as apparent six years ago. She, along with her great staff and supportive parish, has taken tremendous strides in improving and growing our school.”

In 2000 a serious case of pneumonia caused Sister Monica to retire from full-time ministry. Two years later, she moved to Marywood, where she served as a tutor and hospitality volunteer at Dominican Center.

At the time of her Golden Jubilee, Sister Monica wrote: “True happiness consists in having found one’s rightful place—that place for me was the Grand Rapids Dominican Sisters, the followers of that joyful friar, St. Dominic.” Always a joyful follower of St. Dominic herself, Sister Monica will be remembered for her gentleness, kindness, and attentiveness to the needs of others. Two special gifts were her ability to inspire others and to bring harmony to what may have been described as chaos.

She enjoyed walking, reading, needlepoint, traveling, bowling, and being with people who were lively and in possession of a sense of humor. Her own hearty laugh was contagious. “My day is not complete unless I have had a good laugh, and I thank God for calling me to a joyful community.”

On another occasion, Sister Monica reflected: “I think our Dominican vocation of contemplation and action can be summed up in two everyday words: COME and GO. We come to the Lord to listen to His Word and then we go forth to speak His Word…We hear and we act. We are ‘hearers’ and ‘doers’ of the Word.”

The epitaph she composed during the Gathering Days of 2002 fits her perfectly: “She aged with joy and was forever young in spirit.”

Sister Monica will be missed by community, family, and friends alike, and her memory will be a continued blessing for all who knew her.

Sister Monica is survived by many nieces and nephews, many friends, and members of her Dominican Community.