“Just take every day as it comes,” was the sage advice from Sr Patricia Kingsley PBVM, as she prepared to celebrate her 100th birthday on September 2. Source: Hobart Archdiocese.
“And if it [life] goes for a hundred years or for 50, or however many it is, each day can be different, or it can be much the same as many other days. But I just enjoy every day.”
After a lifetime of service as a Presentation Sister, Sr Pat said one of the most important lessons she’d learnt was to trust that God is always present.
“When things are hard, to still realise that I don’t have to do it on my own. God’s there. He might be working through someone else. But each day, each night when I think, ‘Well, where’s God? Where’s Jesus been today in my life?’ And sometimes, it’s been in some little almost unforeseen happening, and that’s where he’s been.”
The young Patricia Kingsley was educated by the Presentation Sisters at Sacred Heart College in Launceston. She remembers first thinking about becoming a Sister when she was seven or eight years old. She recalls the headmistress speaking on the topic of teaching children about God.
“And I thought, ‘Well, that’s what I’d like to do.’ So I said, ‘I think I’ll do that.’ But that was just the first thought, that I’d like to teach people about God.”
After completing her secondary schooling, Sr Pat worked as a shop assistant for about six months before entering the Presentation Sisters’ Launceston convent at age 18 in 1943.
Sr Pat professed her First Vows in 1946, and her Final Vows in 1949.
Over four decades she taught in Catholic schools in Tasmania. She estimates that she must have taught “thousands” of students in that time.
Sr Pat’s teaching career came to an end about 40 years ago when she moved to the Presentation Sister’s property, Maryknoll, at Blackman’s Bay and began organising retreats there.
Sr Pat said that looking back over the 100 years of her life, she could see the working of God’s grace.
“He puts people in my life, which can be really helpful … See, we need to be conscious of God’s love all the time.”
FULL STORY
Sr Patricia Kingsley: 100 years young (By Catherine Sheehan, Hobart Archdiocese)
