Sister Brigid O'Connell was recently in the Cedar Rapids area to visit family, friends and sisters during her winter break from her ministry. Brigid travels a distance for a visit as one of four sisters from the West Midwest Community who serve in a ministry overseas.
A Montessori teacher and teacher educator, Brigid lives in Lima, Peru and ministers at the McAuley Montessori Center. She has served in Peru for over 20 years, helping to establish the McAuley Montessori Center in response to an educational need for children in orphanages and poor families. The hands-on teaching approach at the Center encourages children to develop their observation and concentration skills, responsibility, order, independence, coordination and self-confidence.
In addition to teaching children, Brigid also trains adults to become Montessori teachers in a teacher education course through a Jesuit University in Lima. Brigid has faith; nevertheless, she worries about providing appropriate salaries for teachers. She's grateful that so far they have always been able to manage with the help of wonderful donors
After college, Rose Davis, then a young laywoman, chose to work as an office clerk in the insurance billing department at Mercy Hospital San Diego. She spent so many lunch hours in the chapel that Sister Mary Alma, head of the department, asked her if something was wrong. “I like to pray,” said Rose, then a recent convert.