Obedience to the Creative Spirit

Today we said a final farewell to Sr. Paula Howard, who died on October 24 just a week shy of her 99th birthday. Sr Paula was one of those rare persons who was equally comfortable with both words and numbers — she earned an M.A. in speech and drama from the Catholic University of America and M.S. in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame. She put both skill sets to good use through her various careers as a teacher at the elementary, secondary and college levels; a high school principal; an English instructor and then registrar at Bethlehem University in the West Bank; and academic dean and assistant to the president at Donnelly College in Kansas City, Ks. (a job she undertook at age 65 and from which she retired at age 77).

By all accounts, Sr. Paula was a gifted teacher and administrator. However, one of her most enduring legacies may well be her obedience to the call of creativity in her elder years. She learned how to write icons at age 77 and created more than 250 of these holy images within a 20-year period. In her “retirement” she also became a first-time author when her book Monastic Springs was published in 2013, detailing a 50-year period of the community of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison.

Sr. Paula revealed that it’s never too late to share in the creative work of God, who said, “Behold! I make all things new!” (Revelation 21:5). Our hesitation to obey the call of creativity and do something new generally stems from concerns of our ego: What if I’m no good at it and end up looking foolish? Sr. Paula was able to set aside those concerns, and her talents as an artist and author blossomed. May we honor her memory by setting aside our excuses and delving into our own well of creativity, no matter how old we may be.