Sister Alicia Coomes, OSU: "Mount Saint Joseph was a place of welcome for me!"

     When Sister Alicia Gayle Coomes took her final vows and became an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph she thought for sure she would be spending her religious life as a teacher. “I had a desire to eventually look into special education, but I knew my future called for me to be in the classroom working with children,” she recalls.
     Being a nurse, youth minister, or a vocation director were the furthest things from her mind as she began her religious life, but God had other plans for this young woman from a large family in Henderson, Ky.

     She is the second youngest of 10 children (five girls and five boys) born to Dorval and Jeanelle Coomes, both factory workers who worked hard to raise their large family. Sister Alicia was a frail little girl, hospitalized with pneumonia eight times before she started school at Henderson Holy Cross, taught by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. She transferred to the Henderson public schools for grades two, three and four, before returning to Holy Cross for her final four years of grade school. She was taught by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in the fifth and sixth grades and by lay teachers in the seventh and eighth grades, with the exception of a priest teaching religion in the eighth grade.
       High school consisted of three years at the old Henderson City High and one year at the new, consolidated Henderson County Senior High.
       After graduating from high school in May 1977, she entered the Mount Saint Joseph community in August. Sister Alicia had been talking about becoming a nun as far back as anyone could remember, so her entering religious life came as no surprise to family members or those who knew her. 
       She says when she was just a little girl she played being a sister a lot with her siblings – “I was always the nun!” – and then got more serious around the fifth grade when she started asking questions of her parish priest and the two sisters teaching her grade. “And by the time I was in the eighth grade I was really serious,” Sister Alicia says.

      How did she decide on the Ursulines? “Sister Suzanne Sims was doing a vocation talk at our school during my junior year,” she explains, “and after the talk our associate pastor – Father John Vaughan – introduced me to her. We immediately struck up what has proved to be a lifelong friendship.”
         Sister Alicia came to the Mount for an open house and she says her first thoughts were “Wow! These nuns can sing!” She also says she found them “so alive and I wanted to be a part of that.” She was sold on the Mount, sold on the Ursuline Sisters. “Mount Saint Joseph was a place of welcome for me. And I felt at home,” she says,
         How did her parents react? “They knew that I was very interested and they were supportive,” says Sister Alicia. “I can remember my mother saying, ‘You know we don’t have much, but you know you’ll always have our love and support.’”
        There were five members of that class of 1977, including Sister Dianna Ortiz and Sister Carol Shively. The other three, including Sister Alicia, departed along the way. Torn between family and what she really wanted to do, Sister Alicia left the Mount in April the following year. “It was a very difficult decision,” she says. “I returned home, helped my mother care for some younger family members, and went to work as a nursing assistant at a nursing home for nine months. I was still very torn about what I knew God was calling me to do and finally figured out my parents could do quite well without me. One of my older brothers said to me, ‘Why don’t you go back to convent where you belong?’ And I did!”

        In January 1978 Sister Alicia re-entered the community along with three new classmates – Sister Larraine Lauter, Sister Mary McDermott, and Sister Rebecca White. That foursome celebrated its 25th jubilee in 2004.
         After studying at Brescia for two years and making her temporary vows, Sister Alicia asked to go to nursing school. After earning her LPN at Owensboro Technical College, she went to work at the Mount Saint Joseph infirmary, then in Lourdes Hall.
         After five years in that position, she took a break from nursing and went to Saints Joseph and Paul parish in Bowling Green as youth minister for one year before returning to the infirmary for four years.
         Sister Alicia’s next move was to Saint Mary of the Fields in LaCenter where she served as pastoral associate for three years. “Those three years were among the most enjoyable of all my ministries,” she says. “While I was there I helped start a food pantry that is still very active today.”

     After LaCenter it was back to the infirmary for three years before returning to school at Henderson Community College to get her RN degree.
         After earning her RN, Sister Alicia returned to the infirmary, was named to the building committee for the new Saint Joseph Villa, helped with plans for the new facility, and became director of nursing for the infirmary. When Saint Joseph Villa opened its doors in 2002, Sister Alicia was named its director of nursing.
         One year later Sister Alicia moved to Blessed Mother parish as parish nurse and high school youth minister. “That was one of my most fulfilling ministries,” she says. “Because it combined my two loves – nursing and youth.”
         She remained at Blessed Mother until 2006 when she was asked by leadership to return to school, attending the Institute of Religious Formation (IRF) to prepare to become the community’s novice director. “The year spent in Chicago was a real challenge,” says Sister Alicia. “It was a challenge not just study-wise, but spiritually, physically and mentally.” She met the challenge, graduated with an IRF certificate, and returned home only to find there were no novices to direct. “While at school it appeared there would be no novices and I offered to take the position of vocation director,” says Sister Alicia. “Leadership accepted that offer.”

    In the short time she has served as vocation director, Sister Alicia has found it to be quite a challenge, but she says she’s still looking forward to it.
         “I think I have the energy and the excitement about being a woman religious.”
         Sister Michel Morek, congregational leader of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, believes that Sister Alicia’s experience working with youths and elderly is a good combination for a vocation director.
         “Sister Alicia has many skills that suit her for her present ministry of vocation director. As long as I have known her, she has loved working with young people—she seems to be energized by being with them—and they love her upbeat spirit and the twinkle in her eyes,” says Sister Michele.
          “Yet she works very well with the elderly, too,” she continues. “Her experience in nursing at the retirement home and health care facility at our motherhouse and her work as a parish nurse surely have made that clear. As strange as it might sound, I think that her ministry with our elderly sisters may have been an excellent preparation for vocation ministry.”

         Sister Michele adds, “Where better to learn the true beauty of a religious vocation than by coming to know sisters nearing the end of their journeys?  Sister Alicia’s work has helped to shape her into a compassionate, kind woman who will be a wonderful companion for those discerning calls to religious life.” 
          What is the biggest challenge Sister Alicia faces in her new ministry?
          “I think it’s the fact young people have so many choices,” Sister Alicia says. “Because of this, they just really have to have that personal invitation. And it’s just knowing whom to invite, and you’re not going to know that unless you’re out there with them – you have to meet them where they are.”
           Sister Alicia says she is optimistic heading into her new ministry.
          “I truly believe God is calling and folks are just not responding – but they will, if they are encouraged, and they are invited.”