What happened then?
A few month after high school, on August
15, 1952, on the feast of the Assumption
of Mary, I “set out and travelled” to follow
Mary in the Gospel of Luke from the east
side to the north end of Detroit, to 356 Ar-
den Park, where I became a HVM postu-
lant, then novice, then professed sister.
“Under the influence” of Sister Mary
and Sister May Agnes and each other, we
continued to grow in wisdom and prayer
and works of mercy. But Jesus is the origi-
nal “home visitor.”
What are some memorable experiences doing
ministry in the inner city?
Every day and every person in our Holy
City is a memorable experience.
One of our North End ministries during
the late ’60s and early ’70s was the Catho-
lic Center, in an abandoned Jewish grocery
store. Each young man who came to the
center was my life-teacher.
One young man, Glen, came up missing
and was found dead. I went to “visit” Glen at
the funeral home. That night when I stood
before Glen’s casket with Pat and Tyrone,
with Ollie called “Chicken” and Eddie called
“Preacher,” I saw the Body of Christ under
the appearance of the murdered Glen.
That night I prayed and I knew: In the
daily Liturgy, Jesus is lifting up our broken
city of Detroit and claiming, “This city is my
Body.” During all of these years, I am looking
at the city and I see the Body of Christ. De-
troit is the city of my birth and vocation, and
it is daily grace and Eucharist for me.
You have a BA in sociology and two masters
degrees, in theology from Marquette and re-
ligious anthropology from Duquesne. Was it
typical for HVM sisters to be sent for higher
education back in the 1960s?
After novitiate, every Home Visitor went
immediately to Marygrove College not to
teach but to “learn and be changed.”
What are the circumstances of you being
hired at Sacred Heart in the late 1960s, right
after earning your degree from Duquesne?
I was invited by Fr. Ed Farrell, who was on
the faculty at Sacred Heart and was the con-
fessor of the Home Visitors. He asked me
to lead his Charles de Foucauld fraternity
meeting with the undergraduate seminar-
ians. I eventually began to teach his spiri-
tuality course and gave class retreats and
co-taught with Father various parish and
diocesan events on prayer.
Fr. Ted Ozog was the rector. He gave me
a room, an office, and courses to teach. He
asked Bishop Schoenherr if I could oversee
the seminarians’ apostolic ministry place-
ment “just for one year” until they found a
replacement. The rest is history!
You are in your fifth decade of pastoral for-
mation of seminarians. Has your formational
approach changed through the years?
Yes, every day. I am more changed by them.
We are growing into a new freedom where
we are able to talk about racism more
openly. The inclusion of so many Chal-
dean seminarians has changed us. It has
changed our understanding of the Middle
East; we are being changed by Chaldean
prayer, liturgy, and family table, especially
by enjoying meals in Chaldean homes.
I can’t forget my eighth grade conversa-
tion with God, that “I am not a teacher or
a nurse.” During all of these years of being a
teacher, Jesus takes me back to happily visit
these early discernments. Every Home Visi-
tor is a teacher and continues to receive the
gift of teaching back from each student.
What are some important advisements you
have given seminarians through the years?
“Live under the influence” of Jesus. “Keep
yo ur eyes fixed on Jesus.” Often we live
under the influence of fear. But we have a
call to live under Jesus. But that does not
exclude fear. Jesus was afraid.
It is the gift of the Holy Spirit, to look
at another person, to receive the gift of
“looking” and “receiving.”
An example. Last week in a suburb after
a funeral, I went into a Rite Aid store. I
came out and a man was getting out of his
car next to me, he was a black man in a
white suburb. I purposely made the deci-
sion to “look” at him as I was going from
the store to the car. It ended up we knew
each other from the North End—and we
prayed with each other! “Oh, Jesus, you
have got to come on this lady!” he prayed.
Right in front of the Rite Aid. The park-
ing lot became a “sanctuary.”
Take our Halloween outreach. It is not
about how much candy we give out or
how many children come that determines
“success.” It depends on whether or not
something deep down within me has been
changed about how I see a neighbor.
You have done so much ministry work be-
yond your duties at the seminary. Is there
one you would like to cite as noteworthy to
your vocational calling?
Did you intend to remain at Sacred Heart
this long? Were there any times when you
almost left? Befriending strangers. By “looking” at the
stranger, like the man at the Rite Aid.
I continue to “receive my vocation” and
appointment from our Home Visitor com-
munity and the seminary. I have never “not
wanted” to be here.
For all of these years, I have thoroughly
enjoyed my ministry at the seminary. I will
stay here as long as the seminarians and
lay students can be the “home visitors.”
[Sister Finn trains seminarians to go into
the homes of neighbors and in nursing
homes as ministers of Holy Communion.] Is this the essence of your spirituality?
The essence of my spirituality is the other
person. Jesus and the other person.
Any thoughts about retirement?
I will be eighty-three this year. I am having
too much fun! I regularly look at the ho-
rizon looking for retirement—and I don’t
see it yet. I keep looking. I don’t see it any-
where!
H OW WO U L D YO U L I K E TO B E R E M E M B E R E D ?
I would like on my tombstone: “May she rest in peace—
after one more stop.”
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