Sister Lilla Hull, MM
Born: May 11, 1920
Entered: December 7, 1939
Died: September 19, 2025
With the precious spirit and memory of our Sr. Lilla in our midst, we come together today to honor her 105 years of loving, including her 86 years as a Maryknoll Sister! We express our profound gratitude for the priceless gift of living-love we have touched and have known in and through our sister and friend, Lilla. We welcome with loving gratitude all who are with us at this Mass of Resurrection, including those on livestream.
Our beloved Lilla had a slight stroke during the night of September 13, and in the early morning of September 14, Lilla could not speak, but was so peaceful as she entered into her last sacred mission journey to her loving God. Lilla was anointed that morning by our Maryknoll Father John Lange, surrounded by her Maryknoll Family. On September 19, 2025, at 5:45 p.m., Sr. Lilla, with her Maryknoll Family around her bedside, reached a ripeness for more than this life could give her, and God embraced her totally into Eternal Love! Released was Lilla’s spirit, dancing was her soul, and to the One who Called, Jesus the Christ, she joyfully ran, whispering to the Christ: I am loving YOU and the world forever, as You are loving me and the world forever!
Lilla Marie Hull was born on May 11, 1920, in Glencoe, Illinois, the second of five children of Loretta Cassidy and Sanford William Hull. Her oldest sister, Alice, married Bob Lynch, and Lilla’s three younger siblings: Sanford (Sandy) John Hull married Helen Moloney, Betty married Michael Gillespie, and James (Jim) Hull married Evelyn. Her siblings and their spouses have all predeceased Lilla. However, she has many loving and generous nieces and nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews, who kept in touch with her through the years! And we are blessed to have with us today Lilla’s grandniece Jenna Martinez, who is representing Lilla’s Hull-Gillespie-Lynch family, and Jenna will be praying the Responsorial Psalm at our Mass.
In 1938-1939, after graduating from Siena High School in Chicago, IL, Lilla worked at a Radio Station in Chicago. There was someone who was responsible for getting newspapers from around the USA and the world, and these were left on Lilla’s desk. Her task was to gather news from these different national and international newspapers, clipping out what was most relevant, and having it ready when the newscaster was to broadcast the One Hour News Show over the radio. At an early age, Lilla had managerial and editorial skills and did all the preparation work for the newscaster! This job contributed to Lilla’s Call to the Maryknoll Sisters’ worldwide mission work!
On December 7, 1939, Lilla entered Maryknoll, and when she became a Novice in 1940, she received the name Sister Miriam Angela. On June 30, 1942, Sr. Lilla made her First Profession of Vows, and her Final Vows in 1945. Sr. Lilla went to the Maryknoll Sisters Teachers’ College, studying Catechetics. Besides assisting with Catechetical work in the area, Sr. Lilla was also the Guest Mistress. On October 15, 1946, she entered the Contemplative Community.
After Vatican II, she reverted to her baptismal name, Lilla Marie Hull. She was a prolific reader and also studied the Spirituality of Bernard Lonergan, Carl Jung, and Teresa of Avila at Catholic University, as well as short courses in Theology, Spirituality, and Scripture.
Around this time, Sr. Lilla, together with leaders in other Contemplative Communities, including Sr. Connie Fitzgerald, OCD, from the Baltimore Carmel, helped to begin the Association of Contemplative Sisters throughout the USA. Also, in the Archdiocese of New York, Sr. Lilla was influential in helping to begin with other Contemplative Communities in the Archdiocese, the Metropolitan Association of Contemplative Communities, and she was the first President of this Association.
In the late 1960s, Brother David Steidl-Rast, OSB, invited Sr. Lilla to assist in helping to begin Houses of Prayer on the East Coast, together with Sr. Rosemary Huber, MM and other sisters. Around this time, Mother Margaret Brennan, IHM, was experimenting with having a House of Prayer for her community in Monroe, Michigan, during the summer in preparation for having a permanent one. Sr. Margaret Brennan contacted Sr. Lilla and three others, including Brother David, to assist in this ministry.
In 1971, Sr. Lilla and Sr. Theresa Baldini, MM did the research on the invitation the Contemplative Community received from Bishop Jerome Hastrich of Gallup, New Mexico, to begin a Prayer Presence among the Navajo People. In September 1971, five of us were assigned, and Sr. Lilla was chosen as our Coordinator. After several years in Gallup, Sr. Lilla was elected Coordinator of our Center Contemplative Community at Maryknoll, NY.
Sr. Lilla was also a Delegate from the Contemplative Community to the Maryknoll Sisters’ 1968 Chapter of Affairs, the General Assemblies in 1970, 1974, 1978, and 1984. In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, Sr. Lilla became part of our Contemplative Community in Guatemala. She was a person of deep prayer, vision, and she had an ability to relate kindly with everyone! She had writing skills and wrote like a poet, as well as a mystic. Sr. Lilla was also invited to give retreats to our Sisters in Guatemala and Latin America.
Sr. Lilla stood strong in the Vatican II call to renew religious life. The work and spirit Sr. Lilla left behind lives on in all of us who knew her at Maryknoll and beyond. Her life meant much to many. What she did, gently moved mountains few of us actually realized at the moment, but which, before the process was over, we all felt and were blessed by her deep faith, humility, and perseverance.
We share an excerpt from a message Sr. Lilla received from Sr. Connie Fitzgerald, OCD for her 100th Birthday: I send across the miles Birthday Wishes and Prayer with many memories of the years long gone when we worked together in the Association of Contemplative Sisters. I treasure in my memory your insightfulness, your intelligence, your deep spirituality. Lilla, I treasure with deep appreciation the gift of your life!
Sr. Janice McLaughlin, MM also wrote to Sr. Lilla for her 100th Birthday, and this is an excerpt from Janice’s message: One of my fondest memories of YOU, Lilla, was when you facilitated the MACAWS World Section Meeting in Guatemala in 2010. The focus was on women and your insights and presence gave a spiritual depth to the deliberations. Janice was our President at that time.
Some of us can see Sr. Lilla standing like an oak tree in the middle of a winter storm, unshaken by the wind as she was silently aware and prayerfully attuned to the reality that LOVE absorbs every wind! Most of all, we will remember being affected more by what she was than by all the things she was doing, amazing as they were. Her commitment to mission and contemplative prayer motivated her entire life.
In August 2017, as Sr. Lilla’s health was declining, she became a member of our Eden Community, continuing to keep ties with the Contemplative Community. In 2019, Sr. Lilla celebrated her 80 years in Maryknoll with all the Maryknoll Sisters Jubilarians in our Main Chapel! She led the Procession at the beginning of the Jubilee Mass, and literally danced up the aisle! Her 85th anniversary last year was also celebrated, but this time she was no longer able to walk because of a fall she had in 2023. We want to thank the Nurses and Aides who so lovingly cared for our Sr. Lilla these past eight years, especially her faithful Aide, Josephine. Sr. Lilla’s spirit always remained upbeat, and her most frequent words were: Thank You! God Bless You! I love You!! The Contemplative Community is so blessed by the greater Maryknoll Sisters Community, especially for all the services that are provided for us here at our Sisters Center.
Sr. Lilla was a beautiful mentor to so many people through the years, and her life continues now in the glorious way of LOVE, living beyond the bounds of space-time and sealed on God’s Heart! Sr. Lilla has donated her body to medical science, and her cremains will be returned by the New York Medical School usually within a 2-year period, and then they will be buried in our Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery here at Maryknoll, NY.
Together with all present here in our Chapel and Sr. Lilla’s relatives and friends on livestream, we thank our Presider and Friend, Father Dave La Buda, for being with us at this Celebration of Lilla’s Mass of Resurrection!