The Vocation Story of Mary Beth Niehaus, OSB
Pastoral Associate

“You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful.”
Psalm 139: 13-14

What kind of person has God revealed He created me to be? I believe it is constantly being revealed to me daily throughout my life. I have lived nearly 50 years as a Benedictine Sister and the revelation of God to me began early on in my home where 2 days after birth, I was baptized in the parish font at St. Peter and Paul, in Seneca, Kansas. My faith was nurtured in my family; family prayer around the table and the rosary were a part of our evening prayer ritual. The parish church provided for me a love for the Eucharist, love for the parish and it’s members. Family bonds were strengthened through fun and work and the sharing of life on the farm. Looking back on these formative years, God was revealed to me through my parents and my siblings, and by the prayer and example of my parish community.

When I entered first grade in the parish school, I was introduced to a group of women who were indeed dedicated teachers: women of Benedictine prayer. They were instrumental in my educational growth; but more importantly they were women of prayer. They were models for me that led me to my eventual quest to be a teacher and a Benedictine sister. As I look back and reminisce about my call to Mount St. Scholastica, I’m reminded of all the events and activities of being a teenager and how they were stepping stones that helped develop me into who I was to be: a seeker of the ways of Benedict. I was encouraged to continue to pray and to work and to nourish my love for God. As high school graduation time drew closer, I was more and more certain that entering community was the way for me to experience this God who was revealing himself to me. Along with the desire to enter community, I also kept alive the thought of being a teacher. How could I be a teacher and a woman of prayer? The answer was to join the Benedictine Sisters of Atchison.

Nearly 50 years have passed since my entrance into community and they have been years of prayer, challenge, discovery, pain, and study. For each day, God is being revealed in our lives in community, in our Benedictine prayer and in our ministry in the church and in society. My ministry of teaching youth from first grade to high school to adult education was in the context of our daily monastic prayer and community living.

As is true in other vocations, in marriage or in single life, there comes a time to step back and re-evaluate your ministry and your life. In marriage, children leave and form families; in single life, people look at and evaluate their ministry. So it was with me that I began to look at, to focus on, and to pray about a possible ministry change after more than 35 years in classroom education. At this stage in my life, how was God revealing himself to me? After discernment and prayer, I was granted a sabbatical year. I was given the time to expand and to grow in challenges of parish ministry with an emphasis on ministry in a rural community of parishes.

Thus began for me, the ministry that I’m presently doing: pastoral associate. I have returned to the font of my baptismal waters in Nemaha County, and I daily continue to live a Benedictine life of prayer, community, and ministry. The 21st century is bringing with it new challenges in parish ministry.

I focus daily on helping people see and develop their gifts and talents for ministry in the church. I help them to deepen their life of prayer, encourage them to focus on sharing their love for the church with their children, and be faithful members of their parishes. In our parishes today, there is enough room for all of us and our gifts and talents.

As you read this brief story about my life as a Benedictine Sister, I invite all of you to open your eyes, see what’s possible, and begin the journey of the revelation of who God is calling you to be. Where choices are plentiful in the church and in society, where differences are respected, and possibilities for you are within arm’s reach, keep an open mind to God’s possible call to Benedictine life. There God will be revealed to you and you will be challenged to grow into a deeper and loving relationship with God.

Email Sister Mary Beth at mbniehaus@yahoo.com

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