Sister Helen Werner, MM

Born: January 6, 1920
Entered: June 7, 1938
Died: January 10, 2025

With the precious spirit and memory of our Sister Helen in our midst, we come together today to honor her 105 years of loving, including her 87 years as a Maryknoll Sister, which is the longest any sister has been in Maryknoll! We express our profound and humble gratitude for the priceless gift of living-love we have touched and have known in and through our sister and friend, Helen.

We welcome with deep love and gratitude all who are with us at Sr. Helen’s Mass of Resurrection, including those on livestream. We express our condolences to Sr. Helen’s loving family and friends, and also mindful of those who are unable to be with us, knowing they are here in love and spirit.

Helen Marie Werner was born on January 6, 1920 in Fowler, Michigan, the 8th and last child of Joseph Werner and Lena Motz Werner. Helen’s parents and seven siblings all predeceased Helen. One became a Diocesan Priest, her sister Dorothy became our Maryknoll Sister Celine Marie, and her five other siblings married. Helen was eight years old when Dorothy entered Maryknoll in 1928, and it was at that early age Helen experienced a missionary Call to Maryknoll!

She entered the Maryknoll Sisters on June 7, 1938, and from 1940 to 1944, she attended Maryknoll Teachers Training College at Maryknoll, NY, where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. In 1944, Sr. Helen was assigned to Balboa, Panama, where she taught children of Jamaican immigrants for ten years. She became very aware of the poverty and dehumanizing conditions of the inner city, a consciousness that never left Helen. In 1954, she made her Renewal at Maryknoll, NY, and during that time her request to enter the Maryknoll Cloister was honored, and Helen entered on August 15, 1954. From 1963 to 1969; 1981 to 1985, Sr. Helen served as Coordinator at the Cloister.

In 1984, the Maryknoll Sisters in Guatemala requested the Contemplative Community to begin a Prayer Presence in the El Quiche area of Guatemala, an area most affected by violence during the years of the Civil War. In early 1985, Sr. Helen was one of the two chosen to do the research of the area, visiting all our Maryknoll Houses, including in the Peten. Their report was very positive and Srs. Helen, Mary Ruth Riconda and Consuela Torrecer were in the first group assigned to Guatemala in January 1986. After Language School in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Helen and her companions officially began the Prayer Presence in Lemoa, El Quiche, Guatemala on August 15, 1986, when all the Maryknoll Sisters in the Region came to join the people and Bishop Julio Cabrera to celebrate the beginning of their Prayer Presence among the people.

Helen spent 35 beautiful years in Lemoa, outreaching and being touched by innumerable contacts. In a reflection Helen wrote in May 2021, after she made her decision to return to Maryknoll, NY, she shared that the big “YES” in her life was to the invitation from the Maryknoll Sisters to come to Guatemala and to be open to all that would unfold in her 35 years there. There were many other “YES” moments, including to the Monte Maria Graduates to have their missionary experience in Lemoa, and the beautiful friendship with Rosa Beatrix and the Guatemala Maryknoll Affiliates; and a “YES” to collaborate with Mark Ely, who was assisting the Methodist Orphanage in Lemoa, providing scholarships for the children. Twenty-five years of collaboration and friendship followed with Mark and Laura Richards from Pure Vida Ministries in Colorado. Helen’s last “YES” was to the CALL back to the Sisters Center to join her Contemplative Community and to hold in her heart and prayer the people of Guatemala. It was not easy to leave Lemoa, where she experienced the fullness of her mission-contemplative vocation, living it out in the midst of the poor and knowing the love of the Sisters of the Guatemala Region. Helen said that she was not being sent but she was being CALLED to return to the Sisters Center and she was deeply at peace and her heart was filled with gratitude!

Sr. Helen arrived at the Sisters Center on July 9, 2021, and during her almost four years in the Nursing Residence “Eden Community,” she participated in the prayer and activities there, keeping in touch with family and friends on her I-Pad and Face-time. During this past Christmas Season, among Helen’s many visitors were her dear friends.

Sr. Helen went home to God at 6:12 p.m., on Friday, January 10. As is our custom, our Maryknoll Sisters were in the room with her as we prayed together as Helen’s beautiful spirit gently took wing, entering into Eternal LOVE, as we hold forever her sacred presence in our hearts! Helen gave her body for medical science, and the person from the New York Medical School arrived just an hour after Helen died. We accompanied her body to the van, and singing, as the van left: “This is the Day our God has made, let us rejoice and be glad!” Helen’s cremains will return in a year or two and the photograph of Helen in front of the Altar will be put in our Second-floor Chapel till her cremains are returned and buried in our Sisters Cemetery.

We give prayerful thanks to our Nursing Residence Staff who so lovingly cared for Sr. Helen. 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. And we warmly welcome our Maryknoll Father Russ Feldmeier, our Celebrant today for Sr. Helen’s Mass of Resurrection, and Sr. Helen’s grandniece’s husband, Deacon Dave Ludwikoski from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, who will be giving the Homily.