The Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Halifax served in the northern missions of Canada in cities, towns and villages. Our presence stretched from 1970 to 2002. A total of thirteen sisters served in three dioceses over those thirty two years – in the Diocese of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, the Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador and the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.

In response to God’s call sisters served as teachers, principal, nurse, parish ministers, catechists, pastoral associates, counselors, social worker and pastoral administrator. Additional sisters volunteered for a month or two in the summers to share life and the Good News in various small northern communities.

The privilege of my serving in pastoral ministry while living  among and learning from  our First Nations sisters and brothers, easily offers some vivid snapshots: the urgent chores of cutting and stacking enough wood to last the whole winter for both the mission house and church; sharing tea with an elder while learning how to pray in her language; pausing Mass so we could rush outside to welcome back the swans and cranes loudly announcing their spring arrival; sitting in a natural hot springs after the weather ‘warmed up’ to minus 25; honoring culture by creating a pulpit with moose antlers and rabbit skins; traveling in a two seat float plane to give a retreat and receiving a flying lesson enroute; the painful preparation of funerals and going across the river to the burial of a young man via the small boat that also carried his casket; the reassuring smell of woodsmoke surrounding the village when arriving home after driving on the Alaska Highway all day; playing a softball doubleheader up to midnight on the summer solstice; northern lights so captivating that I just had to stop and get out of the vehicle to stand under the dancing sky; learning how to set a snare, ice fish, butcher a moose and to make sure the elders had what they needed; holding on to a chair during an earthquake after decorating the swaying Christmas tree; awed in the winter by the view from our front door of the columns of ice fog rising like incense through cracks in the river ice – and again in the summer with the midnight sun reflected on the fast flowing water of the same river; visiting with families in their joys and unimaginable sorrows; the powerful heat of a chimney fire; pulling the rope in the back of the church that reached up through the steeple to ring the bell before Sunday Mass – and laughing with a child wanting to take a turn!

In response to God’s call, I was shaped by God’s grace and the people I walked with and the landscapes I navigated. There is so much light in the North: the wonderful people, the silent snow, the brilliant constellations, the northern lights and the midnight sun. I gratefully and wholeheartedly continue to be nourished by all that light to this day – and hope that the years of my presence and ministry have made the North just a little bit brighter!