It is unbelievable to me that I have reached a 50-year mark – I still feel like I am such a beginner! Jubilee is an opportunity to “get back to basics.” Life can get so busy, so fragmented, that it is easy to lose focus. Marking this 50th anniversary helps me to reflect on the core of who I am and what it means to be a Benedictine. Jubilees bring the community together to affirm our life together. It is also an opportunity to gather my family. My jubilee will be memorable for me because these two essential parts of my life will be one in celebration.

Back in my high school days at St. Benedict Academy when I was pondering my future, I was struck by Sister Mary Philip and how happy she was. I remember thinking, “I want to be like that.” During the summer before I entered the community, my father would often remark that he didn’t see how I would be able to last since “each day will be just like the one before it. You’ll be bored!” Many years later I assured him that I was definitely not bored!

The many challenges that life as an Erie Benedictine has placed before me have pulled and stretched me in ways I could never have foreseen. The years of renewal in the ‘60s and ‘70s stripped away the superficial and brought me face to face with the core values of prayer, community and ministry. The call to social justice, so evident in the lives of the sisters and embraced with courage by the community, freed my spirit and opened my heart so that I, too, could reach out to others. The freedom to explore my interests and develop my talents as well as the faith that the community placed in me propelled me to embrace meaningful yet often uncertain roles within the community and in ministry. Most of all, living in this community has taught me that the joy and happiness I was seeking is really an expression of the love and support we offer to one another. Everyone must travel their own life’s journey; in community, we blaze the trail for one another.

Sister Annette Marshall taught a number of years in elementary school and then served as an elementary school principal for 10 years. Leaving elementary education, she became administrator at St. Benedict Academy. Sister Annette has held a number of other administrative positions including Director of Physical Resources at Mount St. Benedict and administrator of Glinodo Center. Presently, Sister Annette is the Executive Director of the Inner-city Neighborhood Art House. She is also a member of the Monastic Council.