Sister Ancilla Maloney, IHM: A Day in the Life

In 2012 after teaching at Aquinas High School in the Bronx in New York City, I left a ministry I loved after 51 years: it was time. I had just returned from a short visit with our sisters ministering in Peru and God was very direct in my prayer. Having finished my discernment, I answered the phone one day; it was Sister Terry O`Rourke, the president of our Congregation. When she asked how my visit went, I told her I would like to volunteer to serve in our mission in Sicuani with Sister Eileen Egan, IHM who is the Pastoral Administrator in the parish of San Felipe on the edge of the city. Over the years since the mission was started in 1991, there have been three to five sisters in the mission, but at present we are three IHM Sisters, two of us from the US and one native Sister from Sicuani itself. I did not study Spanish when I was in high school so before I came to Peru, I studied for four and a half months in the Maryknoll Language School for Missioners in Bolivia. I had taken some Spanish courses over the years, but not nearly enough!

Our mission is in the South Andes, two and a half hours south of the ancient Inca city of Cusco. Sicuani is 11,500 feet above sea level surrounded by the Andes Mountains. The majority of the people in the region are poor farmers and many have moved down from the mountains to give their children an opportunity to go to school here in the city. In 1998, the sisters opened the IHM House of Studies so that girls who lived in the mountains could come to the city to continue their high school education, since there are no high schools in the mountains. When Sister Eileen and I are home in the US in the summers, we do mission presentations in parishes in New Jersey and in the diocese of Greensburg, Pa. which is the sister diocese for our diocese of Sicuani.  So now I`d like to share a typical day for me here in the south of Peru.

5:30 am

The alarm goes off to begin my day. This time is precious for me. I breathe in the clean mountain air, fill my eyes with the beauty of the mountains I can see all around and thank God again and again for the gift of my being here in what is for me “Holy Ground.” We have a tiny chapel which is my favorite space for prayer. Sometimes I have to run when I hear a banging of metal on metal. That`s the garbage ladies. Poor women who need food for their children must collect the garbage in big carts propelled by a tricycle.

6:45 am

Sister Eileen and Sister Norma join me for morning prayer before Norma leaves for her half hour bus trip to the high school where she teaches in the community of Marangani. Prayer together is a priority for us as basic to our life together. We always pray for the needs of our families, friends, all those who have been good to us, for the needs of the church and for people who are suffering crucifixion in their lives every day, like refugees all over the world and women who are being abused or children who are hungry or homeless. We pray the Memorare to Our Lady for Vocations, and a Prayer for Peace written by our Sister Chris Koellhoffer. We pray for peace in the Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Haiti. 

9:00 am

After breakfast each morning, the activity begins; it is different from day to day. The door bell often starts ringing even before or while we are at prayer together! It may be family members who have lost a loved one and have come asking for a Mass for the person. It may be a young girl whose mother died of cancer years ago and her father has no work. She comes to plug in her cell phone and do her homework, often without having had breakfast. And of course we feed her!

One morning a few weeks ago, Ruth came to the door and asked us to come to the home of an old man who had died alone. She and her neighbors wanted a prayer for him before he was to be buried by our Pampa Phalla community since he has no family. Sister Norma and I traveled to a muddy dirt road up to his home, a small adobe hut with no furniture except a bench along the wall. Ruth told us he slept on the ground there on blankets. That morning a casket had been placed in the hut and a few women and children gathered for Norma`s prayer. An awesome meditation for me!

Many mornings I work on grant applications for different projects in the diocese. Shortly after I arrived in Sicuani, people began coming and asking me to write grants for their needs since Sister Eileen and I are two of the four English speaking people in the diocese. One of the first grants on which I worked began when two Sisters, Daughters of Mary and Co-Redeemer, a Peruvian Congregation, came to the door. They have a residence for girls who have suffered or who are in danger of suffering from violence in their homes. The roof of their residence had collapsed six years ago. I was successful in getting grants for them to build a dormitory so they could receive more young girls and care for the ones they had. Since then I have gotten grants for two vans for disabled children in two provinces of the diocese, another grant to feed the children in two schools for disabled children. I wrote for specialized equipment and room furnishings for them, as well as an X-ray machine for the diocesan clinic among others.

Right now, I have been working since 2019 with a community of Franciscan Sisters. These Sisters visit homes in the mountains around the San Pedro community where they minister and encounter many elderly people who are poor, without medical care or access to it, hungry, sick, abandoned or in 30% of the cases, abused. They came to me for help to build a residence for them as there is no such home for more than 100 miles. I have raised over $150,000.00.  Sister Gloribel has also been successful in writing grants for the project which consists of a huge wall, two dormitories, a kitchen complex, chapel and residence for their sister staff. I`d say we are just half finished since the municipality which had promised to build the two dormitories reneged on the promise when one dorm was half built!!! And the kitchen complex is also half built. The diocese is very poor so outside funds are vital. One year the Office of Social Justice was in danger of closing and I was able to raise the money to keep the program going.

11:30 am

I go for a walk out to the fields a few blocks from our home with our two dogs, Lazaro and Chata (little one in Quechua, the first language of many of the people here.) I don`t really like to exercise, but they both watch my every move, waiting for the magic moment when I put on my hat, the signal that it`s time to go. I`ve also started to do Shibashi which is good exercise too.

1:00 pm

The main meal in the southern hemisphere begins at 1:00. We`re lucky to make it through the meal without the doorbell ringing as folks come for a variety of reasons when they can. The office for the parish is in our home but the secretary leaves at noon.  Sometimes they come to register their children or themselves for the Sacraments, or to ask for food or just some counselling.

2:00 pm

This time finds me heading for our parish library which is my major responsibility. There are no libraries in the city, and few in the schools in the region. The children in the neighborhood live in homes made of adobe (mud mixed with straw and then baked in the sun) often in just two rooms, sometimes with a dirt floor and no place to study. So, the library is an oasis in the neighborhood. We have copies of all the textbooks the children use from first to 11th grade (Students in Peru go to “Primaria” up until 6th grade, then start the equivalent of high school “Colegio” for five more years, finishing at 16 years of age. Some go on to University.  We also received a grant for four computers. These are used mostly by the girls in our House of Studies.  The registration for use of the library is one sole for the year. The children do their homework and then they must read for at least twenty minutes. We have many books for the children of all ages to enjoy. After reading, they color and they love to do it. I have dozens of coloring books and I copy all kinds of pictures for them to color. Each August when I return from the US, I bring many puzzles, coloring books, games, and Lego which the children love. Each Friday, I either show a movie or we have Arts and Crafts. I am not an artist but I enjoy creating art projects for the children. One day I brought over many pieces, big and small, of Styrofoam and the boys went crazy making boats, trucks and even an apartment building. There`s a small stream nearby and I know they headed there the next day to float them!  The girls worked on a ballerina project. For the past two years I have been assisted by Irene Espirilla one of our aspiring Associates who also directs our House of Studies.

4:30 pm

I head for home which is only two blocks away for time for spiritual reading. Since I entered the convent in 1958, I`ve set time aside for reading, special time when I can listen to God in the words of spiritual masters of all ages from Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila to Lawrence Freeman`s Jesus, the Teacher Within and Josè Pagola’s Jesus, An Historical Perspective. This latter sounds stuffy, but Pagola is a wonderful Scripture scholar and deeply spiritual and his work makes Jesus really come alive. It`s the middle of Lent now as I am preparing this narrative and each year for the past forty years or so I have been reading Father Alban Goodier, SJ, The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ and this year also Cistercian Elias Marechal`s “Tears of an Innocent God: Conversations on Silence, Kindness and Prayer. God is my spiritual director through good spiritual reading books along with Sister Maureen Kelly, RSM.

6:00 pm

We come together to go to Mass, to celebrate the Eucharist and be in communion with God`s people throughout the world. We then have a simple supper which we take turns preparing, followed by some time to watch CNN news. It`s the only English-speaking channel that we receive, but we keep up with the news in the US and around the world.

7:30 pm

We leave for the House of Studies which is less than five minutes away to pray with the girls each evening. The residence was set up in 1998 when the sisters realized that girls in the mountains were often kept home to care for the children, animals or cook and clean or work in the fields.  Each year we have a different number of girls and this year we have seven girls registered. Sister Eileen choses a Gospel for the day and the girls read it silently and then she asks one of the girls to read it out loud. After the reading, Eileen asks the girls if they have a particular passage they liked best. They share, then Sister comments on each of the passages. We then pray for special intentions, especially for all the people who have been good to us, for those folks who are suffering in our world and for our families. Everyone shares with these intentions which are followed by the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be. And of course, we sing before the Scripture and afterwards! “As the girls leave for the night for their dorms, “Duerme con los angeles.” (Sleep with the angels) we say as we hug each girl good night and then we head for home.  On Thursday evenings I often do craft projects with the girls.

8:30 pm

I have a nice hot shower depending on which night, as we turn on the electricity for hot water every other night, and enjoy some more reading before I begin to nod. Electricity is very expensive, and also no one here in the Andes has heat and we don`t either. We do have a small gas space heater in our community room which we do turn on sometimes when it`s bitter cold in May, June and July. But we wear several layers of clothes all the time and in the daytime the sun is nice and warm so we shed!

9:30 pm

My day usually comes to an end and after many years of not getting enough sleep, I enjoy a good eight hours of God given rest. ¡Gracias a Dios! for a blessed day filled with many revelations of the presence of God in my world and, as St. Francis of Assisi used to say, many opportunities to preach the Gospel, using words if necessary!

I would like to close by quoting part of the final vow reflection of our Sister Lisa Perkowski: “I hope to continue to live out my commitment in a spirit of creativity and joy, to transform and awaken others to the presence of God in and among them.”

I sometimes say about my pre-retirement in mission here in Sicuani that God saved the best wine until last!