Visitors to the office of congregational leader (superior) Sister Michele Morek are greeted by Sister Ann Patrice Cecil, a polite, soft-spoken woman with a pleasant voice and a very professional demeanor. Sister Ann Patrice serves as secretary to Sister Michele and the Council, the leadership team of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. It’s quite apparent Sister Ann Patrice knows her job. She knows about the Ursuline Sisters, about the leadership team, and about her “boss,” Sister Michele. She’s a no-nonsense type person who does her job in a quiet but productive manner. It appears she wouldn’t shout if she could talk, wouldn’t run if she could walk, and certainly wouldn’t be an individual you’d find riding a raft through whitewater rapids. But…

For the last 13 years, Sister Ann Patrice (r.), Sister Michele Morek (l.) and Sister Sharon Sullivan have gone tent camping. "It sort of renews me for the whole year," says Sister Ann Patrice."

     “In the summer for the last 13 years, Sister Michele, Sister Sharon Sullivan (associate professor of education and special education at Brescia University) and I have been going tent camping,” says Sister Ann Patrice with a sparkle in her eye and a lilt in her voice. “My favorite place to go is Michigan because of the Great Lakes…and it’s cooler up there at nights. We’ve been canoeing, tubing and whitewater rafting. I really look forward to it, it sort of renews me for the whole year. I have so many wonderful memories. You know, I can close my eyes and I can see lush green woods, gushing waterfalls, lovely wildflowers, towering mountains and ocean vistas.”
     She continued, “Sister Sharon is a former Girl Scout leader, so she gets to pick out the spot where we pitch our tent. After we settle in our sleeping bags for the night, Michele and I eagerly await Sharon’s bedtime story read by flashlight.

Longtime friend and tent camping partner Sister Sharon Sullivan says, "Three thoughts come to mind when I think of Sister Ann Patrice and the camping trips we share - peace-filled, complete and filled with awe."

    “While tent camping you leave the comforts of the civilized world behind and get back to basics, sleeping on the cold, hard ground and cooking over a fire. State parks are a great place to experience God’s grandeur in nature with well-maintained hiking trails. We traipse off into the deep woods in pursuit of wildflowers, plants, trees, and wildlife native to the area. Along the way we experience nature up close while encountering incredible waterfalls, streams and rock formations. At the close of the day we pray evening prayer together while watching the sun set on the water. As a child I loved the sunsets at the close of the day. We had all this wide-open space on the farm where you could see the sunsets and camping reminds me of this. It’s just like being a child again!”
     Sister Sharon says three thoughts come to mind when she thinks of Sister Ann Patrice and the camping trips they have shared — peace-filled, complete and filled with awe. She says, “As a peace-filled person, Sister Ann Patrice brings that peaceful stance to every situation; in her presence you feel your own peace.
     “She is completely who she is — a child of God. She does not need validation from any other source; so, when I’m with her, I too am free to be both ‘only’ and ‘completely’ who I am. We don’t need any extras.”
     “And Sister Ann Patrice is filled with awe. Perhaps that’s true of each of the three of us. We are as likely to be completely absorbed by a quarter-inch bud on a starry Solomon’s Seal as a double sunset suffusing the entire horizon. With whom else can you stand shivering in the middle of the night on your way back from the latrine just to let the Milky Way wash over you?”

Sister Michele calls Sister Ann Patrice "a community treasure." Sister Ann Patrice calls Sister Michele "a woman of courage and vision."

     Sister Michele sees a relationship between Sister Ann Patrice’s office work and her camping skills. She says, “Sister Ann Patrice uses her organizational skills to research places for our camping trips, and is always game for anything — including whitewater rafting!”
     Sister Ann Patrice was born Jane Cecil to Clem and Ann Cecil on a farm just outside Sorgho in western Daviess County, the oldest of 11 children, six girls and five boys.
     “Growing up on a farm impacted my whole life,” says Sister Ann Patrice. “Farming was a way of life for the whole family. We lived off the land.  While gardening, I learned to care for the earth and nurture the soil at an early age. She continued, “I admired my father. He was a good farmer. He could make things grow because he nurtured the soil. He depended on God for blessings on the crops.”
     Rural schools back then worked around the farm schedules. School didn’t start until after Labor Day (after the tobacco was in) and let out the first part of May (to set tobacco). Sister Ann Patrice attended one of those rural schools, Saint Mary Magdalene at Sorgho. “Attending grade school there was actually a culture shock,” she recalls. “The school consisted of two white frame buildings. We had several grades in a room — there were six students in my grade. We had pot-bellied stoves, an outhouse and a well in the front yard!” These rather rustic conditions existed for six years before a new school was built for Sister Ann Patrice’s final two years of grade school at Saint Mary Magdalene.

Sister Marie Carol Cecil assists Sister Ann Patrice in her ministry. "She's a good typist and is very well organized," she says.

     After graduating from grade school in 1953, she continued her education at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, initially as a day student, riding a public school bus every day from the family farm to the Mount and then back home. The bus trips didn’t last long, however, as the Cecil family moved to another farm in the middle of her freshman year and she enrolled as a resident student, going home to the farm one weekend a month and between school years.
     Sister Lennora Carrico was Jane Cecil’s freshman Latin teacher. “She was one of the best students in the class,” Sister Lennora recalls. “Coming from a big family, she was a leader and a great help to those in class finding it hard to be away from home.” She added, “And when it came time for national testing she was among the students who made the highest grades.”
     Sister Ann Patrice also has fond memories of her Latin teacher. “Sister Lennora was an excellent Latin teacher,” she remembers. “So many of the English words are derived from Latin, and what I learned in her class has helped me throughout my life.”
     During her senior year at the Academy, Jane Cecil was assigned to clean the principal’s office. That duty helped lead to the answering of her call to religious life. “I was working for Sister Joseph Therese Thompson,” Sister Ann Patrice recalls. “And she was the one who encouraged me to answer God’s call to religious life. The seed for my vocation had been planted early in my life by my parents’ faith. We knelt as a family each evening and prayed the rosary and night prayers together.”
     Sister Ann Patrice entered the Ursuline community as a postulant in 1957. After attending Brescia College she began her teaching career at Saint Denis School in Louisville, teaching second grades for two years, first grade for five years. Her 22-year teaching career continued as she taught first graders at Lourdes Elementary in Nebraska City, Nebraska, for seven years, at Saints Joseph and Paul in Owensboro for four years, and then at Cathedral School in Owensboro for four years.

Sister Lennora Carrico was Sister Ann Patrice's Latin teacher when she attended high school at Mount Saint Joseph Academy.

    Sister Ann Patrice has never forgotten her love for the classroom, or her love for teaching children. She says, “First graders were so enthusiastic and eager to learn. As I taught them their prayers, I tried to instill in them a loving relationship with God.”
     “I loved teaching them the skills to read.  I personally love to read and I wanted the children to love reading also. I enjoyed introducing them to books. I would read to the children every day during storytime.”
      With such a love for teaching first graders, why did Sister Ann Patrice leave the classroom to take on the secretarial ministry with leadership?
      She answers, “I love my community, so when I was asked to serve as assistant secretary I said ‘yes.’ Also, coming home to work and live at the Mount was an opportunity for me to get to know our older sisters. They’re like grandmothers to me, like extended family. I love their stories.”
      She left the classroom in 1982 to become secretary to superior Sister Mary Irene Cecil and the council for six years and then to Sister Mary Matthias Ward and the council for one year.
      For the next three years, Sister Ann Patrice served as secretary and bookkeeper for the Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center before spending a year in family ministry with her sister Margaret, (who had multiple sclerosis) and also worked at Lourdes Home Care in Paducah.
      The next five years she spent in the Brescia University library — as serials librarian, and later as receptionist for Brescia.

Sister Ann Patrice picks up the mail from Sister Francis Joseph in the Maple Mount post office.

      Sister Ann Patrice returned to Mount Saint Joseph to serve as secretary to superior/congregational leader Sister Rose Marita O’Bryan and the council for eight years and – for the last two years – secretary to Sister Michele Morek and the council.
      As leadership secretary her first responsibility is to Sister Michele, “doing whatever she asks me to do.” This may include the mailing each month of a letter to the sisters, communications to the sisters from the leadership team, death notices, job openings, etc.
      Most of the communication with the sisters is done by email. An estimated 85 percent of the sisters are using email. Those not using email receive information by mail. “Sister Marie Carol Cecil assists me in my ministry, says Sister Ann Patrice. “She’s a good typist and is very well organized.”
      Sister Ann Patrice is also responsible for keeping the official records on the individual sisters. 
      When asked about the leadership secretary, Sister Michele answered with pride, “Sister Ann Patrice is a community treasure (and you can quote me on that!)  Careful, patient, resourceful, and completely confidential — she is all one could wish for in a secretary. As a bonus, she is unfailingly kind to all; she really works hard to fulfill special needs and requests. I have never seen her impatient or out of sorts.” She adds with a smile, “I wish I could clone her a couple of hundred times.”

Sister Ann Patrice enjoys fishing in the Maple Mount park lake with Glenmary novices Crispin Adongo (l.) and Craig Digmann. Crispin says, "She's a good fishing lady."

      Sister Ann Patrice echoes Sister Michele’s kind words when she talks about her. “Sister Michele is a woman of courage and vision,” she says. She has a genuine love for community. She is also a very caring person. She respects the individual uniqueness of each sister. Of the 173 sisters, 84 are living away from Mount Saint Joseph. Sister Michele especially enjoys visiting the sisters and learning more about their ministries. Our older retired sisters have a special place in her heart.”
      Sister Ann Patrice can be seen almost every day walking the beautiful grounds at the Mount. She says, “I take some time each day for exercise. I walk outside in the great outdoors whenever I can. I love the grounds and fields at the Mount. The care and nurture that I had for the soil when I was growing up…I see that here.”
      She also has had a lifelong love for fishing. “I followed my dad and grandfather around and went fishing with them on Sundays,” she says. “This summer I went fishing with Crispin and Craig.”
      She was referring to Glenmary novices Crispin Adongo and Craig Digmann, who are presently residing and studying at the Mount. Both were impressed with Sister Ann Patrice’s fishing skills.
      Craig says she revived fishing skills he had originally been taught by his grandfather many years ago. “It had been almost 40 years since I’d fished with my grandfather,” he explained, “but Sister taught me how to put the worm on the hook, how to scout the lake for the fish and, most important, how to catch them.”
      Crispin, who hails from Kenya, Africa, says, “My tribe back home is known for its fishing skills, but I was still impressed by Sister’s fishing skills, how she baited the hooks and cast the lines. She’s a good fishing lady.”
      Working in the leadership office has given Sister Ann Patrice a more direct vision of the mission of the sisters working in leadership.
      “Our congregational leadership team consists of the congregational leader, the assistant congregational leader and three councilors who are elected for six years,” she explains. “They collaborate together as a team to govern the community.  They stand in prophetic witness to gospel values by responding to the signs of the times and the needs of the church. They guide our community in mission. 
      “Our Constitution states that religious governance is a service of love.  The exercise of authority reveals a loving God who is among us as one who serves. This service provides a basic unity and stability necessary for growth, preserves and fosters the spirit of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, and ensures the coordination of the various gifts and talents of the sisters.
      “I have developed a deep respect for leadership and leadership teams and the responsibilities that they have. I have a great admiration for our leadership. They have been really wonderful to work with.”

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