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Cecilia Prest
The “Pressies” had given me a good grounding in my Faith but I had a deep hunger for something more. At fourteen I began to read the lives of the saints and go to daily Mass. I wrote to various missionary Orders, and was fascinated by their stories from “the missions”! After year twelve I began nursing at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne and loved it. I was sure this would satisfy my “hunger” and searching, and for a while it did. I was carrying out bedpans praying “all for Jesus” under my breath and feeling very heroic! I had a lively social life with the other trainees as we let off steam when off-duty. I was hoping to meet the love o f my life and wanted my own children and family, but quite often I’d come home after an enjoyable night out and feel an emptiness - and deep down I knew that God was waiting for my response to His call to leave everything and follow Him. When I finally met the Missionary Franciscan Sisters, I knew that they had what I was searching for – a joyful love of God and all people, simplicity of life, good humour and a warm family spirit. Ordinary women doing ordinary things with extraordinary love! I moved to Brisbane to do midwifery at the Mother Mothers’ Hospital so I could visit the sisters in Kedron. When I did, I could hear peals of laughter down the hall where the sisters met for morning tea and I felt I was coming home.
We have about 400 members world-wide in our Institute, with sisters in Papua New Guinea, Bolivia, Peru, United States of America, Canada, Egypt, England, the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland, Thailand, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Sudan all responding to whatever the human need is with a focus on the poor and marginalised. We have a wonderful group of men and women Associate members in Australia and the United States of America who share our charism of following Christ in simplicity and joy, being a contemplative presence wherever we are, promoting peace and reconciliation and love and respect for all creation, urged on by the Rule of St Francis who exhorts his followers: “In all of their works the love of God and of all people should shine forth”. (Rule Third Order Regular No.15)
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© Missionary Franciscan Sisters, Australian Governance Circle |
When I was five years old I emigrated to Australia with my parents from Bavaria, Germany, exchanging my beloved forest-clad mountains for a migrant camp in Bonegilla, country Victoria, until we were “processed”. I spent my first three years at school with the Presentation Sisters and completed the rest of my education in State schools. I was blessed with a close-knit loving family with my parents and two younger brothers. I was always a bit of a “Tomboy” and grew up playing football – AFL of course!
The hardest part was leaving home. My parents were against my decision to enter but I found no peace until I did. Years later my mother said, “You were always looking for something, and now I know you’ve found it.” I’ve never regretted my choice. I found deep peace and joy and the companionship of my sisters. My life has been full of adventure. I spent twenty-eight wonderful years nursing in rural areas of the West Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea where the mission doctor would visit two or three times a year and contact in between visits was by VHF radio. I realised a childhood dream when I was given a sabbatical year to connect with my roots in Bavaria, and to study tropical medicine in London. Now I minister as a pastoral assistant in the Indigenous township of Woorabinda and love being here.