My Vocation Story – Sister Sara Marie Gomez

Sister Sara Marie Gomez went to heaven on July 24, 2022.

Thankfully for the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, the U.S. Navy lost a recruit in 1961.

A woman offering some skin treatment to Evelyn Gomez that year told her that she had returned from a tour in the Navy and received much valuable training. Evelyn thought joining the Navy sounded like a wise career choice for her as well.

“My uncle told my parents I would do better going to college,” said the woman now known as Ursuline Sister Sara Marie Gomez. “When they didn’t let me go to the Navy, I went back to thinking about becoming a sister. There were so many sisters I liked. My grandparents talked about the sisters and the good they were doing.”

Evelyn was born in Pagosa Springs, Colo., but she considers herself a native of New Mexico. She was born in 1943, nearly a generation after the first Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph came to minister in New Mexico.

“My eight aunts and dad and uncle went to school with the Ursulines,” at Sacred Heart Academy in Waterflow, she said. “Whenever we had fiestas at the ranch, the sisters would come. The priest said, ‘What the Mount doesn’t know won’t hurt them.’”

“We had Vacation Bible School in Pagosa Springs, there were always Sisters of Mercy, Ursuline Sisters or Sisters of Saint Joseph for a week or two,” she said.

The hospitality her family showed to the sisters and priests had an impact on young Evelyn, whether she realized it or not.

“We lived 35 miles from the church,” she said. “Once a month the priest would come have dinner with us, spend the night and hear confessions for those nearby. I thought my vocation came from the sisters, but I was told by a priest that we were probably influenced most by our parents and family.”

Sister Sara Marie knew she wanted to be a teacher from the time she was 5 or 6, she said. Knowing the sisters personally helped her to see them as human beings and role models.

As a high school student at Sacred Heart Academy, the principal, Ursuline Sister Ambrose Martin, offered her a partial scholarship to attend Brescia College in Owensboro, Ky. Her best friend and classmate, Michele Morek, also received a scholarship to Brescia, but she turned it down because she planned to join the Ursulines.

“Michele told me if I was coming with her, I needed to let Mother Ambrose know,” Sister Sara Marie said. The two entered the postulancy on Sept. 7, 1961, along with their classmate, Sister Sheila Anne Smith.

“I probably would have gone home the first week if I hadn’t been afraid to travel alone,” Sister Sara Marie said. “It was so different here. The three of us are still here, I guess it was meant to be.”

Sister Sara Marie chose her grandmother’s name for her name in community. She got her opportunity to become a teacher, much of that time teaching students with special needs. She was a teacher for 30 years in Kentucky and New Mexico, with seven years as a pastoral minister in Aztec, N.M., nestled in from 1990-97.

From 2002-2019, she served as director of religious education for both St. Joseph Parish in Aztec and Holy Trinity Parish in nearby Flora Vista, N.M.   She served continuously in New Mexico from 1990-2019, something she never dreamed she would get to do. Ursuline Sisters began serving in New Mexico in 1919, but Sister Sara Marie was the last sister 100 years later.

“Many of the priests today in the San Juan Deanery talk about the deep faith the people have because of the Ursuline Sisters,” Sister Sara Marie said. “It makes me proud to be an Ursuline.”

She’s happy she made the choice to become a sister.

“The best part has been learning more about my own culture,” she said. “God knows the best place to put you.”

Sister Sara Marie retired and returned to Maple Mount in 2019.

“I feel like my faith has really deepened a lot in ministry to the people,” she said. “It’s been very rewarding, the people accepting who you are and what you do. They support you in any way they can.”

Comments

  1. Penny Burns

    my classmate….a wonderful woman!! Proud to say she is my friend…..and….I had the opportunity many years ago to spend 2 weeks with her and her family….they too are very special people!

  2. Ann Jenkins Caspar

    Sister Sara Marie is my classmate as well. I don’t think we ever parted without a good laugh. I remember the sopaPillas she helped us make AND eat at recreation time on Friday nights.
    Hope to visit her in. NM.

  3. Mandy Gomez Hano

    Very proud to call her my Aunt. She’s influenced me in many ways growing up and I know she has impacted many, many more people’s lives than we’ll ever know.

  4. Patricia Baca

    Sister Sara Marie and I go back to our high school days. Good memories are a combination of the friendships we share.

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