SALISBURY, Md. — In 1974, Sister Mary Elizabeth Gintling founded a small but mighty religious order that has, in creative and myriad ways, loved and served thousands of the poor in a three-state area.
Fifty years later, the Little Sisters of Jesus and Mary celebrated their golden anniversary on Saturday, July 6, at the Joseph House Workshop in Salisbury, Md.
“This is just the beginning,” Sister Virginia Peckham said.
Dozens of well-wishers — volunteers, staff, benefactors, current and former clients and members of the community — joined the sisters for a “Sundae Saturday” reception to honor the memory of Sister Mary Elizabeth and to celebrate a ministry that continues their founder’s charism to be “active-contemplatives” in a spirit of joy and simplicity.
“The Sisters are wonderful, and we are so grateful to have them in the diocese,” said Sister Ann David Strohminger, OSF, delegate for religious for the Diocese of Wilmington. “They give of themselves untiringly.”
Bishop William Koenig sent a congratulatory letter June 25, wishing them “many blessings and graces … and support.”
“Your charism to follow the spirituality of Charles de Foucauld has inspired many through your example of prayer and service to the people of God,” he wrote, citing de Foucauld words, “It is not necessary to teach others, to cure them or improve them; it is only necessary to live among them, sharing the human condition and being present to them in love.”
The order, which at one time included 12 sisters, is made up of six sisters, led by Community Superior Sister Marilyn Bouchard. Their convent is located on Poplar Hill Street.
Sister Marilyn, along with the rest of the sisters, greeted visitors with a radiant smile and heartfelt hugs. The Sisters’ joy is palpable. “Like Jesus, our joy is being loved by our heavenly Father,” their website states. “Our life is characterized by simplicity, love for the poor, universal charity, faithfulness to the Gospel, and a desire to ‘Cry the Gospel’ with our lives.”
“Our volunteers — resident, weekly, monthly, occasional — help us extend our services and truly make our mission possible,” Sister Marilyn said.
Even their habits of blue denim cinched with leather belts, and matching veils, bespeak their desire to work among and alongside the poor in a way that’s practical (the habits launder easily) and nonthreatening.
Interestingly, the habits are based on a Vogue evening gown pattern, according to Sister Connie Ladd, whose hometown is Wilmington. On the order’s website, thejosephhouse.org, she said she was attracted to the Sisters’ simplicity, mission to the poor, spirit of hospitality and “complete dependence on Divine Providence.” Sister Connie was installed as superior and the first successor of Sister Mary Elizabeth.
Sister Mary Elizabeth’s life was marked by her devout Catholic faith and trust in God to provide what the sisters needed to serve the poor.
Born Dec. 31, 1914, in Philadelphia, her family moved to Baltimore the following year. Following a career as a nurse, she entered the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1943, providing nursing care to the aged for 21 years.
In 1964, at the age of 50, she felt called to a new way of service to the poor. She left the Little Sisters and started Joseph House the following year in Baltimore, providing financial assistance to low-income residents and many other services.
Eager to continue to live a vowed religious life, however, Sr. Mary Elizabeth, along with Patricia Guidera, started the Little Sisters of Jesus and Mary in 1974. Four years later they relocated their ministry to Salisbury.
She opened the Joseph House Crisis Center in 1984. The Center houses a food pantry, soup kitchen, day shelter for the homeless, a payee service and financial assistance for emergency needs. In 1991, Sister Mary Elizabeth founded Joseph House Village (now known as Village of Hope) on Lake Street, a two-year transitional living facility for women and children.
Dave Heininger, 81, who said he began volunteering in 1997 in response to God’s call, remembers when Sister Mary Elizabeth invited him to join the ministry of the Joseph House Crisis Center as its director 2002. The task of transforming the buildings at the end of Boundary Street, donated by a poultry processing company, was “monumental,” he said.
“I can’t believe the time has gone so fast,” Heininger said. “So many things have happened. I just wish I had written a book of all the experiences.”
He remembers a time when one of the first workshops — teaching the men to repair bicycles — was held “in the dead of winter” in the unheated building with a dirt floor that eventually housed the Crisis Center. Attending each meeting was Sister Mary Elizabeth wearing a shawl for warmth. “That really impressed me,” Heininger said. “I was very uncomfortable; I don’t like cold weather.”
“I’ve loved this place, I’ve loved the sisters and I’ve loved the volunteers,” Heininger said. “I don’t plan on leaving.”
Sister Mary Elizabeth died in October 2004, but lived to see her final project blessed. Joseph House Workshop, a comprehensive, long-term residential program for homeless men, opened the following year.
An 2009 alumnus of Joseph House Workshop is Maurice Gale, who attended the anniversary reception. He works in the food pantry part time, but he is employed full time at Tidal Health, a job the sisters helped him find. He calls the sisters his “mothers.”
“I would do anything, say anything, and recruit anybody looking for help,” Gale said. “This is the first place I would tell (men) to come. You come out of here spiritually, physically and financially fit.”
According to a 2016 biography of Sr. Mary Elizabeth by her fellow sisters, she was “sharp and observant” and her “compassion for others was matched by her wit. She brought energy, zeal and vision to everything she did.”
“Sister loved to laugh; she loved to tell stories and she loved people,” the biography stated. “Most of all, she loved God and preached the Gospel by the way she lived her life.”
In a July letter to benefactors, the sisters remembered the night the American Legion presented a check to them – money raised from their “gambling enterprise.”
“As the Commander came to give Sister (Mary Elizabeth) a check, he laughingly remarked that it might be hard for her to receive ‘tainted money.’” the letter stated. “Spontaneously, Sister replied, ‘Only problem with this money is ‘taint enough!’ It brought some hearty laughter.”
For the anniversary, the sisters wrote that Sister Mary Elizabeth “found Christ’s own yoke of caring for the poor easy and light. She promised Him she would do the work, if he would do the worrying and provide the means. She did and he has.”
“Your ministry to the marginalized, neglected and addicted have given those that you serve the hope and love of God made visible by your presence and compassionate care,” Bishop Koenig wrote. “I am most grateful for your fidelity to serve the gospel, the desire to serve God through the evangelical counsels and communal liturgical prayer.”
For more information about the Little Sisters of Jesus and Mary, visit thejosephhouse.org Vocation inquiries are welcome. “Our earnest prayer is that more women will be called to join us,” the sisters’ July newsletter stated.
To view videos, including the 50th anniversary video, visit “The Joseph House” at YouTube.com.
