Victory Noll Sisters
1900 W. Park Dr.
P.O. Box 109,
Huntington, IN 46750-0109
phone
260-356-0628 - fax
260-358-1504

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A Catechist Never Retires

Sister Ruth Ellert, OLVM

Sr. Ruth Ellert, a native of Waterloo, IN is no stranger to California. She has served for many years in various missions up and down the state. For the past five years, she has been stationed in San Bernardino. Sr. Ruth is living in a twelve-story apartment building for senior citizens: St. Bernardine’s Plaza, next door to St. Bernardine Church. The small apartments, sponsored by the diocese, are conveniently located near shopping areas and near the library, and of course, the church.

Sr. Ruth Ellert, OLVM

Sr. Ruth is one of 150 residents who are of all ethnic and racial groups as well as of all faiths. She says that her living there makes the Catholic faith community more visible. She checks up on the various residents to make sure they are all right, does favors for them, shares food (and gets gifts of food in return) and participates in the house meetings. The facility is well run and is a safe place for the residents.

Sr. Ruth’s ministry goes beyond St. Bernardine’s Plaza. She volunteers in the parish with the RCIA program, which is dear to her heart. The program is for those interested in the Catholic faith and is offered in both English and Spanish. Sr. Ruth trains team members for the RCIA program and helps them become effective ministers. Besides that, she also visits assisted care homes in the neighborhood. Residents in those homes appreciate her stopping by and sharing life with them.

Sister Ruth with study group

In her spare time, Sr. Ruth does sacristy work in church, preparing for Mass and cleaning up afterwards. During Advent and Lent, she invites people to participate in a Bible Study group and gets good response. Another project is the annual parish fiesta, a communal effort that brings many people together. It is a fund raiser but more importantly, a community builder. Sr. Ruth also enjoys getting together with the other Victory Noll Sisters in the area.

When asked what stands out for her in these past five years, she responded how happy she is when people remember our Sisters and their work out of Redlands, our center house. 

Some of them come up to her and tell her that they were trained by our Sisters and are still active in catechetics and youth ministry. There is joy in knowing that our work has borne fruit. We hope Sr. Ruth’s ministry will continue to bear fruit, too.

Modern Catechesis

by Sister Margarita Moreno, OLVM
 

“Meet modern needs with modern means.” Fr. John J. Sigstein, Founder

Sr. Margarita Moreno

For Victory Noll Sisters, this quote from our founder has been our motivation as we seek new ways and new forms to incarnate our charism in today’s world. Pope John Paul II also suggested that a New Evangelization could only be achieved with “new ardor, new methods and new forms of expression.”
In the past, catechist formation included the theory and practice of using resources, such as posters, murals, enlarged photographs, etc. Slide projectors were a great improvement, putting image and sound together. Then came videos which added movement to the image. The overhead projector helped to make presentations even more attractive. Thanks to science and technology, today our methods are even more advanced. For some time, I have been involved in the formation program for Ministry Coordinators (CMFP) for the Diocese of San Bernardino, CA. The formation classes are transmitted interactively through closed circuit TV and preparing my classes includes using PowerPoint. I must confess that it was easier for me to use filmstrips. I admit, however, that there is no comparison with Television, the Computer and PowerPoint!

For several years, the Diocese of San Bernardino has been using these modern means in its ministry formation program. Without a doubt, we reach many more people that way. It all begins in a small
room in the Pastoral Center, with a technician, a facilitator and the
teacher who will teach – Mondays in English and Tuesdays in Spanish. There are five centers (Apple Valley, Sun City, San Bernardino, Ontario and Palm Springs) where students and a facilitator gather weekly. It’s marvelous to be in five places at the same time, with five different groups! What a great way of investing time and energy!

Sr. Margarita Moreno prepares a PowerPoint presentation

Once I visited a parish and the person who welcomed me greeted me like a long-lost friend. She said, “Sister Margarita, your last class was so interesting!” I was surprised and asked myself: Where? When? “I am a student in the CMFP program,” she told me. This has happened in various places and I am so happy to have these kinds of relationships. Interactive closed-circuit TV is a new method and a new way to be connected long distance. TV and PowerPoint have helped us share knowledge and life experiences with large numbers of people. But what is most important for me is that it is a new means to evangelize!