Sister Mary Joyce Meyers, who died on June 11, 2019, embodied
one of my favorite interpretations of the Benedictine value of good zeal: zest
for life. She was 95 when she died, and it’s hard to imagine her being able to cram
anything else into her years of enthusiastic pursuit of the good life.
Sr. Mary Joyce embraced
conversatio—openness to change—as she seamlessly transitioned from being
a high school math, science, and English teacher to a high school principal to
a PhD candidate to a marriage and family counselor at Catholic Charities to having
her own psychology practice to volunteering at Keeler Women’s Center to working
in the Mount business office. Along the way, she found time for water skiing,
downhill skiing, hunting, and fishing—all while being faithful to the monastic
way of life.
The last time I saw Sr. Mary Joyce, two days before she
died, she was enjoying a dish of ice cream, with the book Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World in her lap. Sr. Mary
Joyce herself certainly changed the world of her students, clients, colleagues,
friends, and monastic family through her optimism, determination, service, and
good zeal. When I interviewed her last year after she was named an exceptional
elder by the advocacy organization LeadingAge, she said, “I’ve had a great
life; I got to do everything I wanted to do, and I had a great time doing it.” I
think God would be absolutely delighted if we could all say the same thing at
the end of our life.
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