Meet Our Sisters

  My Life at BSA  - by  Sr. Donna Bonordon IWBS

For a long time, I thought an important symbol for life has been a journey, a pilgrimage.  I  often reflect on this question, "On this pilgrimage of life, am I a tourist or a pilgrim?'  Am I just waiting for my desination, or am I enjoying the scenery along the way? Do I focus on all the comforts I think I need, or am I content with what life has handed to me as I move along?

Early on in my life's adult phase, in fact, right after I graduated from college, my journey took me to Blessed Sacrament Academy where I taught junior high in St Joseph's Hall, which is now the Por Vida Academy Charter High School.  At that time, BSA was an all-girls' school, grades 7-12.  I taught there for two and a half years.  I was later transferred to Sacred Heart in Halletsville and then to Our Lady of Victory in Victoria Tx.   I taught elementary school for 30 years.  I was asked to work with the initial formation of our Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament Congregation.  So off to Chicago I journeyed for a year and then came back to Victoria to live at Incarnate Word Convent for three years with our new members.  Since we have no new members in initial formation I sought to continue my life's journey.   Wonderfully, it has led me full circle back to BSA.  I live in the same 82 year-old convent ( or 'castle" as one of the children in the Discovery Program referred to it). and yet life is hugely different.  Presently, my official title is Faith Development Director.  Every day my journey takes me to the classrooms of the Child Development Center here at BSA where I endeavor to teach the little ones something about our good and gracious God.  Every day is an adventure and I am never sure where the journey will lead me.  Teaching these precious little ones is very different from the teaching I did in my previous life  I am constantly discovering that the most important teaching tool with these children is not the words one uses, but action, songs & props.  One of the constants in my "classes" is blessing each one with holy water.  If I forget to pull out my bottle of holy water, one of the children will remind me, sometimes by pointing to their forehead!  When the teachers are having a bad day, they will ask me to bless them and their children.  The older children (4 and 5 yr. olds) like to bless their friends.  What a marvelous lesson - we all have the power to bless!  As I continue on this pilgrmage of life, I pray that I can continue to be open to the wonders around me and that I may continue to be aware of the privilege of bringing this good news to those I journey with on the way.

Proud of My Vocation - by Sr. Scholastica Friesenhahn IWBS

 I am Sister Scholastica Friesenhahn.  I am so proud to be a Friesenhahn because I am the twelfth Friesenhahn girl to become a religious Sister.  My female relatives were in the Sisters of Divine Providence,  School Sisters of Notre Dame, The Order of St. Ursula,  and the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament.  I want to pay tribute to my father for his firm conviction that the teachers (leaders) in the Catholic school were the Sisters.  We had the Sisters of the Divine Providence teach in St. Joseph School in New Braunfels, my hometown, for many years.  When they told us they would no longer be with us, my father went to San Antonio and visited convents where ever the Lord led him.  The Lord led him to the Benedictines who sent us three Sisters.  It was these Sisters and their Order that I was attracted and was ready to enter.  A week before the date I was to enter, I received a letter from the General Superior not to come but to wait until I heard from them.  I waited a year and heard nothing from them.  My father decided to visit the convent and find out what was happening.  When we arrived there, I was told to find another convent to enter.  In the meantime the Benedictine Sisters announced that they would not return to St. Joseph's.   Once again my father went searching.  This time the Lord led him to BSA and the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament. 

My parents came to see the school but  they had no Sisters to send us.  My mother met the Sisters and they suggested I try to enter their convent.   My father took me to San Antonio to apply at Blessed Sacrament Convent.  They told me to come on June 6 because they had other girls coming on that day.  So On June 6, 1938, I bade farewell to my beloved family and left home to join the IWBS Sisters of Blessed Sacrament Academy.  My first assignment had a special meaning for me.  I was missioned to Academy of the Sacred Heart in Hallettsville where Father Beck was pastor.  He had heard my first confession and gave me my first Holy Communion.   When we gathered in Victoria Tx. he was pastor of St. Mary's and the chaplain for the Sisters.  He officiated at all our religious ceremonies and jubilees.  When I made my Perpetual Profession, he was the officiant.  To us,  he was always Father Beck, but to my aunt,  Sr. Assumpta, who taught him in Rockne, she remembered him as the boy who waltzed into the classroom on the first day of school, put his hands on his hips and declared, "I am Frederick Oscar Beck."  When My parents could no longer find Sisters for St. Joseph's school, it closed.  The chapel is still there - we celebrated its 100th anniversary.  We are grateful to the parish of St. Peter and Paul of New Braunfels for naming one of their newer buildings the St. Joseph Center.  I am especially proud of the many vocations that came from the St. Joseph community.