Sister Mary Agnes Patterson

My current ministry is Director of Development for Mount St. Scholastica and our ministries.

This ministry is a blessing to me because I am able to meet and visit on the phone with our family members, donors and benefactors.  In my relationship with them, I am able to extend our ministry of prayer for them, their families and their concerns.  I am able to help them put their faith in action through their practice of almsgiving. God has blessed all of us abundantly and called us to share generously with others and to care for the least among us.

My work as Director of Development is not a job but a ministry of caring for our community and for all those we reach in our services.  Our Catholic and Christian faith calls us to love of neighbor and to do unto others as we would have them do to us. I was asked to come home and be the Director of Development in 2005. It was hard for me to leave my ministry of education and to adjust to not being out there serving the people directly.  Now my service is to raise the funds needed to help our community reach out in direct service to as many people as we can serve.

I am not able to go out and serve people directly right now, but I can raise money so the community can reach out with direct assistance and services at our ministries at Keeler Women’s Center in Kansas City, Kansas. I am also not in a position now to help others grow closer to God, but I can raise money to continue our retreat and spirituality ministries at Sophia Spirituality Center.  I am not able to care of our elderly and infirmed sisters and family members, but I can raise money for the equipment they need to provide the healing services and loving care our staff and sisters gives them in Dooley Center.

My life as a Benedictine is a life of prayer and service. I feel I am so blessed, and I want to share these blessings with others.   I pray daily for all our relatives, friends and benefactors.  I hope my prayer and my life are lived in a spirit of service to others and to God.

In the photo, the Mount St. Scholastica Development staff – Sisters Bernelda Nanneman, Mary Margaret Kean, Barbara Smith and Mary Agnes Patterson – admire a handmade farm set made by Sister Eleanor Suther for the Night of Dreams auction.